Derrick (TV Series) - Derrick and Klein - "Harry, Hol Schon Mal Den Wagen"

"Harry, Hol Schon Mal Den Wagen"

The famous phrase "Harry, hol schon mal den Wagen" ("Harry, bring the car 'round"; implying "we're done here") was attributed to Derrick and became part of popular culture in Germany and China as catch phrases. Actually, this phrase was never spoken in any of the 281 episodes, however, in the second episode of the series, "Johanna" which premiered on November 3, 1974, Derrick orders Klein "Harry! Wir brauchen den Wagen sofort!" The exact phrase was used by Erik Ode in the earlier TV Series Der Kommissar, where Fritz Wepper already played the character named Harry Klein, then the assistant to a different police inspector (played by Ode). It is unknown how this phrase became attributed to Derrick, but one theory is that since Der Kommissar and Derrick were both created and written by screenwriter Herbert Reinecker, a TV critic may have attributed this phrase to the wrong one of Reinecker's series, after which it entered popular culture as a catch phrase for Derrick. Horst Tappert did however speak this phrase in character as Stephan Derrick was as voice actor of his animated self in the 2004 animated feature film Derrick — die Pflicht ruft (Derrick — Duty calls). (See "Beam me up, Scotty" for a catch phrase with a similar background.) This animated film shed some satirical light on the ever-serious and sombre world of the original series, making fun of numerous clichés attributed to the series, including Harry's rumoured envy for Derrick always standing in the spotlight, while he, assistant for 25 years always had to stand back behind his boss.