Executive Meddling: Sorta. Since Nora Tschirner, the female half of the Weimar duo, is a good rider and singer, the Western parody "Der höllische Heinz" was written for her. The result is riotously funny (arguably). Moral: From Executive Meddling, some good may come. But you knew already.
Follow the Leader: Tatort helped launch a German crime-fiction craze with - both in literature and TV - a particular emphasis on setting the stories in very definite real locations including local color (a major example would emerge in A Case for Two in 1981). There is also the tendency (both within Tatort itself and other crime fiction series) to go for the oddball humor of the Münster Tatort as it is a ratings darling.
He Also Did: The theme song was composed by Klaus Doldinger (better known for composing the scores of Das Boot and The Neverending Story and the theme of fellow German crime & punishment show A Case for Two) and played by his jazz band Passport. Passport's drummer back then and therefore also the drummer on this piece of music was one Udo Lindenberg, just a few years before he would invent "panic rock".
No Export for You: French television used to broadcast a dub version up until the mid-1990s. It hasn't bothered keeping this up since then.
One-Episode Wonder: The format resulted in a number of one-episode wonders as a new investigative team set in a different city was tried out but for one reason or another (often other commitments by the lead actor) was cancelled after just one episode. One such case was Diether Krebs (Michael in Ein Herz und eine Seele) who played the deadly serious Kriminalhauptkommissar Nagel from Hanover in 1979, while Klaus Schubert ("Ekel Alfred" himself) played retired Kriminalhauptkommissar Felber in Frankfurt in 1995. Klaus Löwitsch played two such roles in 1982 and 1985, in the first episode he did his character was killed in the line of duty. "Gisbert Engelhardt" was a single-episode wonder on the Munich Tatort (he died in the episode he was introduced) so the actor, Fabian Hinrichs got the role on the first Franken Tatort.
Referenced by...: In Four Against the Bank, there's the Actor Allusion of Jan Josef Liefers (professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne in Tatort). His character in this film is an actor who played in a similar (fictional) police series, Bullet und Podolski. "Podolski" is a parody of Borowski.
Both of the most famous leads of rival series A Case for Two, Claus Theo Gärtner and Günter Strack, had several roles in Tatort before starring in the former series (respectively, two and six roles).
Hans-Jochen Wagner played in nine various Tatort episodes and then became a regular as Kommissar Friedemann Berg in Freiburg and surroundings.
Florence Kasumba had already had seven roles in various places before becoming a regular in her own right as Anaïs Schmitz who's investigating in Göttingen.
Sibel Kekilli had a guest role before becoming regular character Sarah Brandt.
Johanna Wokalek played Anouk in Falscher Hase (2019) and Sara Manzer in Saras Geständnis (2022).
Ulrich Mühe had two guest roles, one in 1997 and another in 1999.
Götz George had three guest roles before becoming regular series character Horst Schimanski.
Before she played Kriminaloberkommissarin Charlotte Sänger (Frankfurt Tatort, 2002-2010), Andrea Sawatzki had already appeared as Kommissarin Gabi Bauer in Polizeiruf 110 (1995-2004), and before that as a secretary in Der Fall Schimanski (1991), the last Schimanski Tatort.
Simone Thomalla had played small parts in two Tatort episodes before being cast as Leipzig-based Hauptkommissarin Eva Saalfeld.
Mehmet Kurtuluş had a one-shot role as an assistant in the controversial episode Wem Ehre gebührt ("To Whom Honour Is Due", 2007) before being cast as Kriminalhauptkommissar Cenk Batu.
Fabian Hinrichs had a one-shot part as annoying assitant Gisbert Engelhardt in the Munich episode Der tiefe Schlaf ("The Deep Sleep") in 2012 before being cast as Hauptkommissar Felix Voss in the Franken-Tatort.
Then there are the actors and actresses who have a number of Tatort episodes in their filmographies, each time in different roles, without ever becoming regulars.
Four roles: Ramona Kunze-Libnow, Ulrike Arnold, Monika Baumgartner
Five roles: Johanna Bittenbinder, Tanja Schleiff, Ernst Stötzner, Till Wonka, Anja Schneider, Katharina Heyer, Fred Stillkrauth
Six roles: Michael Tregor, Katja Bürkle
Seven roles: Edita Malovčić
Eight roles: Martin Feifel, Michael Stange, Stephan Schad
Nine roles: Sascha Alexander Geršak, Thomas Sarbacher, Hans Löw, Victoria Trauttmansdorff
Ten roles: Dirk Borchardt, Bernd Gnann
Eleven Roles: Johanna Gastdorf, Marie Anne Fliegel
Twelve roles: André Hennicke
Seventeen roles: Arndt Klawitter
Miscellaneous Trivia:
The German Tatort episodes are produced by the regional stations that make up the ARD — BR, HR, MDR, NDR, RB, RBB (formerly SFB and ORB), SR, SWR, and WDR — which means that all major regions of Germany are represented in the series. How they are represented depends to a large extent on regional peculiarities; Bremen and the Saarland, the two smallest German states (by population) are seen fairly often because they have broadcasting networks of their own (Radio Bremen and Saarländischer Rundfunk), while some larger and more populous regions and cities are neglected because they don't. Thus until recently Bavarian Tatort investigators were always based in Munich, the state capital, and people in Franconia (the northern part of the state) would have to wait until 2015 for a Franken-Tatort (set in Nuremberg). To add insult to injury being mistaken for Bavarians is a Berserk Button for many people from Franconia. Similarly, most Hessian Tatort investigators have been based in Frankfurt.
