The Tatort franchise recently produced its 1000^th episode, starring one of its most popular detectives, Klaus Borowski (Axel Milberg). His popularity comes as no surprise to MHz Choice viewers, who got a good, long look at his odd self in the first season of Tatort: Borowski. Season 2 brings more of Klaus’ unique brilliance, paired with a physical and social awkwardness that seem to work against his getting together with in-house psychologist, Frieda Jung.

Besides their very human and interesting detectives, the Tatort series also bring sass into their portrayal of various German regions and neighboring countries. In the upcoming episode Tango for Borowski, beautiful Finland is presented as a primitive, scary, backwoods, ends-of-the-earth kind of place. Of course, Borowski gets stuck there on a mission, and we get to watch him writhe in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Which for him, is the Land of No Shut-Eye.

Another classic aspect of the Tatort series is its retro theme song, unchanged from the early ‘70s. It was composed and performed by the amazing German saxophonist Klaus Doldinger, who also scored hit films such as Das Boot and The Neverending Story. We all know the Tatort theme from the opening and closing credits, but that’s just the first 45 seconds. Here’s the piece in its entirety. Klaus Doldinger plays a Hohner Klavinet using a heavy wah-wah effect, Udo Lindenburg (who went on to become Germany’s first German singing rockstar) on drums and Lothar Maid on bass (who later played in seminal krautrock band Amon Düül II). Check out the groove around 1:10 in –

There’s been heated debate in Germany about changing the theme song, but sanity seems to have prevailed and it will remain unchanged. You can also catch Klaus Doldinger (age 81) as he tours internationally with his band, Passport. He’s still rockin’ what he wrote almost 50 years ago.