If you find yourself sitting in awkward silence with a German, try breaking the ice by asking him about ‘Tatort.’ The mere mention of the show makes 9 out of 10 Germans’ eyes light up as their tongues trip over their lips in a rush to push out the words to describe how they have been watching it since before they were born and they never do anything else on a Sunday night ever.
From discussions such as these I had gleaned that ‘Tatort’ is a detective series kind of like ‘Law and Order.’ It has been on since the dawn of time (1970). Each episode takes place in one of a handful of cities, each city having its own recurring cast of local detectives. Germans will be happy to tell you which cities produce the best episodes, and some even schedule their TV viewing in advance based on the location of the episode on any particular Sunday evening. This show is loved.
So when we received a note in our mailbox explaining that they would be filming an episode of ‘Tatort’ Munich on the street in front of our building, we immediately understood the importance of the occasion. I would have a ready biergarten conversation topic for the rest of the summer.
The view from my studio was perfect, and I got very little painting done that week with all the distracting interestingness going on outside the window. From the start it was pretty clear that two gray-haired men were the stars, with everyone and their mother posing for photos with them before filming got underway (with the help of Google I was able to figure out who they were). Some scenes were filmed inside a small cafe, which had been re-named for the show; others took place in the street and on the sidewalk. Scenes were redone dozens of times. An old woman swept the street in front of the cafe for the better part of a morning; the detectives got out of their car, had a conversation in the middle of the street, and entered the cafe over and over and over; a sneaky-looking guy tried to break into the cafe before slinking off repeatedly in a night scene that was probably my favorite of them all.
For the very last scene the cafe was transformed into a tacky mattress shop. But surely viewers would recognize that the same building was being used as both locations? Or was it part of an elaborate plot twist – the sneaky guy having somehow swindled the old couple out of their cute little cafe so he could turn it into part of his evil mattress empire? I can’t wait to see the whole episode to find out (alas, it’s not on the schedule yet).
As a footnote to this post, I should mention that I had never actually seen an episode of ‘Tatort’ before the filming on our street. Since then I have seen exactly one: a rerun of a Munich episode from last year that was on a couple weeks ago. In it, one of the two gray-haired detectives wakes up with amnesia (yes, really). At some point he steals the other gray-haired detective’s clothes at gunpoint and drives off in his car, stranding him naked on the side of the road. It was so bad it was good (is that an expression in German?). Also, I had a hard time remembering which gray-haired detective was which.
Do you have a favorite German TV show?
I really like watching the weather and conditions from various mountainside webcams and listening to Alpenmusik on the Austrian stations in the morning.
That’s really cool! And good for German smalltalk
On weekend mornings there usually are shows from the various German zoos. I’m a sucker for baby animals so always end up watching them if I turn on the TV. “Tierisch gut” is one, but there seem to be others. The Berlin zoo episodes usually are really good.
If you want to laugh and scratch your head at total random insanity, check out ZDF’s sunday morning “Fernsehgarten.” It’s the most bizarre, cheesy, live variety show. It’s not exactly good, but if we see it on, we get sucked in to watching it. and laughing. It’s so awful, we may have to go to one of the filmings next summer (they’re in Mainz)
A few years ago my husband turned me on to what the stations put on after all the programming is done for the day (not sure if they still do it). There was one that just had a camera flying through space (I think it was attached to a space shuttle type thing or a satellite), and one that was attached to the front of a train or tram. There was no spoken audio, just classical music playing. One of the more bizarre things I’ve seen on German TV.
There are also those bizarre after-hours game show things where people pay to call in and make a guess (word games or Family Feud type games). Technically you can win cash, but almost no one ever does. And the ads for the schalger CD collections.
Strangely a lot like US TV programming after-hours
@Cliff – The music totally makes those worthwhile.
@Anne – Those late-night game shows are so bizarre – especially the topless ones. I think I’ve seen Fernsehgarten – lots of Schlagermusik? I bet going to a taping would be all kinds of awesome.
@Nutan – I’ve seen those cameras-on-ubahns shows! I love the wacky ways TV stations fill time.
I think my favorite German show of all time was Wa(h)re Liebe. Alas, it went off the air in 2004.
oh that made me laugh, I only had a conversation about this topic with my husband who doesn’t understand the sheer joy of a DVD box set of said series arriving in the post.
I love the Munich tatort guys! (Although the rerun with the amnesia was not that great — too much yelling, oder?) How cool that you got to watch some filming — do let us know if you find out when it’ll be aired!
I just learned that one can go on a Tatort tour through Munich.
@Mel – Enjoy those DVDs!
@Mandy – Will do!
My wife likes best the Tatort shows that are shot in Münster, though I forget why… I love that ultra-retro intro that’s probably not been changed since Day 1. I suppose if they ever change it there’ll be street demos, riots, cars torched…