In October 2002, the “Odd Couple” of the Sunday detective began its service. The premiere is immediately worthy of an award. 20 years later, the gags no longer fire so reliably. Boerne and Thiel are still popular, but something has to happen. Then a song, two, three, four…
“A friend is always a friend, even if the whole world collapses. So never be sad when your sweetheart doesn’t love you anymore. A friend, a good friend, that’s the greatest treasure there is. A friend, a good friend , that’s the best thing in the world.”
This is how Willy (Willy Fritsch), Kurt (Oskar Karlweis) and Hans (Heinz Rühmann) sing it in 1930 in Wilhelm Thiele’s film “The Three from the Gas Station”. Even more popular is the version by the legendary Comedian Harmonists, which Werner Richard Heymann composed especially for the so-called sound film operetta. The text was written by Robert Gilbert, whose portfolio also features classics such as “Im Weißen Rößl”, “On Sunday my sweetheart wants to go sailing with me” and rarities such as “Kathrin, you have the loveliest legs in Berlin”.
The Ode to Friends has been through a lot since it was created. “A friend, a good friend” was once sold on sound postcards, later the Böhse Onkelz even turned the piece through the wolf, in Berlin it was an indispensable part of a new musical version in the mid-nineties. Not to be forgotten: Rühmanns Scherben, an illustrious cover combo around Willi Herren, who died in 2021, and Big Brother survivor Jürgen Milski, who also had this piece in their repertoire and used it to fill the Ballermann, Après-Ski-Sausen and other alcohol-boosting peaks.
The question remains why Boerne and Thiel, or Jan Josef Liefers and Axel Prahl, of all people, don’t loudly invoke this massive hum of a classic, when the latest case, their 42nd overall, is already called that? They’ve got it. Prahl founded his first band in the mid-1980s, sang with Knorkator and released a number of albums with the Insel Orchestra. Ditto Liefers: He has been playing the guitar since 1975 and is active with his band Radio Doria, with whom he even competed in the Bundesvision Song Contest in 2015 and came in a respectable 4th place.
Just reading the title of the “Tatort” episode on Sunday evening, you can already hear the two singing in your mind’s ear. Instead, the nice party with friends – with a view to the premiere of the two on October 20, 2002 at least something like the birthday episode – fizzled out between tough gags, a stress-free case and a highly experienced exchange of blows between the once so inspired beef operators.
In the anniversary year, of all things, this is not an isolated case. In March, “Propheteus” was voted the “worst ‘crime scene’ of all time” by fans via Twitter and Facebook, exaggerated, unrealistic, over the top and really, keyword lizard people. The Münster “crime scene” had “perished from its own success,” according to one of the user comments.
And indeed, a feeling that creeps up on you even after 90 minutes of “A friend, a good friend”. No matter how hard the two try, Boerne/liefers turn up even the smallest scene for the event, Thiel/Prahl turn even the most friendly encounter into a grumpy mood – the long-time most popular investigator couple is literally on the last hole. And then the two from the Zankstelle don’t even sing. If it’s going to be another 20 years, then a major reboot is needed, something like an innovative storyline or a real threat, a new protagonist, a grueling romance – or even a song. And now everyone: A friend, a good friend…
