Inspector Rex

Synopsis

The original series is set in Vienna and focuses on the three-man staff of an office of the Kriminalpolizei – the Austrian Criminal Police – specifically a Mordkommission (homicide unit). In addition to the three policemen, the office is staffed by a German Shepherd called Rex, the main star of the show, who functions variously as a cadaver dog, a sniffer dog (for both contraband and narcotics) and as another pair of eyes and ears for his team.

The original team at the office consisted of Richard Moser, Ernst Stockinger and Peter Höllerer. This team was also assisted by forensic expert Dr Leo Graf and retired policeman Max Koch. The show had many changes in characters, including Christian Böck replacing Stockinger, Alexander Brandtner replacing Moser and former statistics officer Fritz Kunz replacing Höllerer. The final Austrian incarnation of the series featured a male-female duo of the clumsy Marc Hoffmann and a female officer Nikki Herzog working alongside Kunz. Dr. Graf is the only character to remain for the entire Austrian production of the series.

In season eleven, the action moves to Rome, with Inspector Lorenzo Fabbri taking charge of the dog. Episodes were produced in both Italian and German. At the end of the season, Rex is apparently mortally wounded when he jumps on Fabbri's head to protect him from a bullet, but is shown in close-up still slightly breathing just before credits roll. The beginning of season 12 shows that Rex survived the bullet, when Fabbri takes Rex to the animal hospital.

Production

For the first ten seasons the show was scripted entirely in German, where most characters spoke with Austrian dialects. It was shot on location in Vienna and its surroundings, though the usage of areas in production was often geographically incorrect. While subtitles were used for most international markets, the series was dubbed in some countries, including France, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Spain.

Following declining ratings during the eighth and ninth seasons, the series was cancelled mid-production in 2004, leaving the tenth and then final season with only four episodes and no finale that concluded the story. As the series was still highly popular abroad, particularly in Italy and Austria, the show remained in syndication for many years.

In 2007, following negotiations, Italian broadcaster RAI secured the rights to revive the series, with production moving to Rome. For the first season of the new series, numbered as season eleven, it was produced in both Austria and Italy, with production moving to Italy full-time for the twelfth season. A total of eighteen seasons were produced, the last airing in 2015, barring repeats. While occasional episodes were set in Austria, the series was scripted and filmed primarily in Italian from 2008 to the concluding 2015 season.

Australian season numbering

For Australian markets, season numbering was altered for airing on SBS, and this numbering was also used on the DVD sets, leaving some viewers confused as to how the European episode lists correspond with the Australian ones. For the DVD sets, seasons 1 to 8 have been re-arranged to seven longer seasons (the chronological episode order remaining unchanged), with the ninth and tenth season being labeled as "season eight". They have since followed the official lists, with season eleven labeled as season nine, season twelve as season ten and so on.

Characters

Rex

A trained police dog, Rex (revealed in the Pilot to be registered as "Reginald von Ravenhorst") is the star of the show. Establishing shots frequently show him demonstrating a new trick — unlatching doors, pushing trolleys, pointing to drugs or corpses — which then turn out to be useful in the course of the episode. He is often used to stalk suspects, often with a GPS-type object attached to him so that the officers can keep track.

Rex was stolen by criminals as a pup but managed to escape and befriend a boy, where he helped to solve his first case with the boy.

During his career, Rex has been shot, stabbed, poisoned, drugged and kidnapped. But he always recovers quickly.

Initially, Rex and Moser share an apartment at Marokkanergasse 18, Wien-Landstraße; however the pair go house-hunting at the start of season 2. They quickly find a house (Waldstraße 8, Purkersdorf) owned by a man who does not want dogs there. However, Rex is able to alert him to a gas leak, and in gratitude, he allows Moser and Rex to stay.

Rex is frequently called upon to resolve difficult situations, including helping a young girl in shock, preventing a woman from committing suicide and helping to get Moser's mobile phone when a crime has been committed. One famous episode features Moser using Rex to resolve a hostage situation by telling him to creep up behind the criminal and "frighten him" (following Rex's earlier success at frightening Stockinger by jumping on him from behind).

There is also a considerable element of humour in Rex's activities. Rex has an uncanny penchant for ham rolls or "Wurstsemmln" in the local dialect. He is introduced to them by Moser, who tells him, "I practically live on these." Rex constantly annoys Stockinger by pulling on his coat and stealing his ham rolls. Later, Höllerer keeps a running score of Böck's success against Rex – not a flattering result for the officer. While not chasing criminals, he often plays pranks on the officers or fails to obey orders to help with the housework. Rex is very fond of horses and once fastened a rope to Alex's car so he could take the horse home. Another time, Rex attacked a man who was beating a horse and, later in the same episode, he ran into a burning barn to rescue a horse.

Rex's partners

Richard Moser (Tobias Moretti, 1994–1998)

Source:

The first "team leader", Richard "Richie" Moser is a hard-bitten cop who, as the first season begins, is going through a bitter divorce from his wife Gina, who takes all their furniture. Moser is also attempting to quit smoking to improve his blood circulation. An ex-truck driver, Moser credits Max Koch with keeping him from a life of crime, at one point telling Koch that "I'd be on the wrong side of the law too, just like him", referring to a young pickpocket he has just chased through central Vienna.

Moser befriended Rex, whose former police trainer, Michael, was shot and killed by an escaping suspect. To save the dog from being put down, Moser "adopted" him without ever completing any of the official paperwork. He famously declares at one point, "My taxes pay for this dog, so why can't I give him a better home?" Moser, in contrast to his successors, is shown to be quite athletic, often performing acrobatic stunts while chasing suspects. Moretti's looks were also exploited by the producers of the show. He made several nude appearances, including an episode where Moser and a female colleague frolic naked in the woods to attract a serial killer targeting young couples.

As Moser's personal life improves, his sense of humour returns. This is noticeable in the general lightening in the tone of the show from the initial episodes ("Diagnosis Murder" being a prime example) to ones with more lighthearted banter among the officers. Being a bachelor, Moser flirts with many of the attractive women featured in the storylines. Moser begins a relationship with Sonja, his local vet, which Rex thoroughly disapproves of and constantly tries to sabotage. In time, Rex accepts Sonja and even pretends to have an injured paw when he wants her to stay with him. Sonja eventually leaves Moser and Rex when she is offered a job in America.

In the final scenes of the season 4 episode "Moser's Death", Moser is killed in the line of duty by an escaped 'borderline psychopath', played by famous German actor Ulrich Tukur (Das Leben der Anderen) while Moser is rescuing his lover, Patricia Neuhold (a psychologist who has been helping with the case). The escapee commits suicide just after he kills Moser, and there is a heartbreaking scene at the hospital after the doctor tells Moser's friends that he died. Rex takes a squeaky toy that Moser bought at the beginning of the episode to Moser's body and squeaks it until he accepts his master is gone, then he lays his head on Moser's chest and the scene fades to white.

Other detectives

Ernst Stockinger (Karl Markovics, 1994–1996)

The "straight man" to Rex — and, increasingly, Moser — Ernst Stockinger ("Stocki" for short) is a character who becomes much more likeable as his part in the series develops. Stockinger is thin and always has a very serious demeanour. In later episodes, this is revealed as a cover for his schemes to outsmart Rex, who loves to tease him. Although Stockinger pretends not to like dogs, he risks his career to help Moser save Rex when the dog is kidnapped to prevent Moser from testifying against an assassin. For all Stockinger's constant irritation with Rex, he genuinely has come to care for this particular dog. This is very obvious in the last two episodes Stocki appears in, when he is upset that Rex jumps from one roof to another to capture a killer. Stocki is also openly affectionate to Rex once his transfer is approved, and he realizes how much he is going to miss the team. He tells Richard and Höllerer they are his only friends and includes Rex as his friend as well.

Stockinger is married, and his wife, it seems, is not greatly pleased with her husband's choice of career at times, and Moser often reminds him of this. Stocki's knowledge of women does not save him and Rex from being thrown out by Stocki's wife when he watches Rex and the dog howls for Moser.

Another of Stockinger's idiosyncrasies is his constant references to surgery, which has been performed on him - most likely for stomach ulcers. He seems to delight in telling stories about this surgery at the most inappropriate moments, such as when the others are about to eat.

Eventually, Stockinger is transferred to Salzburg and leaves the series. In this final episode, Rex saves Stockinger by leaping across a classroom just as a disgruntled divorced man was about to stab Stockinger in the throat during an attempted kidnapping attempt on his child. Moser, in a farewell speech, jokingly tells Stocki, "You have been a bad cop, a bad man, and not at all a good friend." Stockinger later features in a spin-off two season television series, Stockinger, featuring him at his new police department. He is replaced by Christian Böck.

Peter Höllerer (Wolf Bachofner, 1994–1999)

Other characters

Dr Leo Graf (Gerhard Zemann)

Dr Leo Graf is the forensic pathologist consulted by the detectives. On occasion, he is found at the crime scene itself. However, he is normally to be found in his pathology laboratory and occasionally comes into the police office. Gerhard Zemann is the only actor to appear as the same character throughout the long-running series.

Dr Graf is a sometimes prickly personality, but underneath this exterior, he has a very dry wit - frequently regaling the detectives against their will with the gruesome details of a murder.

Naturally, he is quite comfortable in his lab, surrounded by dead bodies, even if others are not. Many of the earlier episodes highlight the contrasting reactions of the policemen (especially Moser and Stockinger) and Graf to the death all around them.

At times, however, Dr Graf clearly resents the pressure put on him by the policemen. One memorable telephone exchange involves Moser agreeing to pay Dr Graf a number of Cuban cigars for working on the weekend. Another time, Graf's car is towed while he is investigating a murder scene. The resulting invective he uses towards the authorities responsible is caustic.

Where Graf is very amiable towards Moser's team, this relationship progressively changes as Brandtner arrives. Early episodes featuring Brandtner show Alex and Leo using formal language - generally involving the German "Sie" form of address (the polite form). Eventually, this exterior is broken down, and the new team is invited to call him Leo - a sign of considerable familiarity in German or Austrian society. Accordingly, Brandtner's greeting to Graf alters from the formal "Guten Morgen" to the more familiar "Servus."

With Hoffmann and Herzog, however, the relationship with Graf is more of a teacher-student one. It emerges early that Hoffmann had been taught forensic techniques by Graf, and it is clear that some of the awe felt by the considerably younger policeman for his mentor is still present. Graf also assumes a much more advisory role with this team, appearing only once during each investigation instead of being constantly on call.

Legacy

Notable fans

German priest and choirmaster Georg Ratzinger, when asked if he ever watched television at the Vatican with his brother Pope Benedict XVI, stated that the brothers would watch Inspector Rex together, and were friends with the owner of the titular German Shepherd. "We always used to watch [Inspector Rex], because we like dogs, too. We are well acquainted with Herr Helmut Brossmann, the owner of the German Shepherd Dog (GSD) Rex, who plays the title role. He lives in the vicinity of Regensburg."

Broadcasters

Kommissar Rex has been shown in the following countries:

Home releases

In Italy, the first 6 seasons were released on DVD, with only the Italian dub. The first two seasons were also released in Germany, again only with German audio.

In Australia, Region 4 English-subtitled DVDs of Inspector Rex are currently available for the first sixteen seasons (labeled as fourteen in Australia; see Australian numbering). The Italian seasons of the show were released under the special title "Rex in Rome".

On 10 October 2007, a special DVD, "Rex By Request" was released featuring the five favourite Kommissar Rex episodes as voted by fans. Also included is an interview with producer/writer Peter Hajek and an hour-long dog-training segment featuring Rex and his trainer Teresa Ann Miller.

Australian Releases:

Inspector Rex - Series 1 (4 Disc Box Set) - 20 June 2005

Inspector Rex - Series 2 (4 Disc Box Set) - 22 September 2005

Inspector Rex - Series 3 (4 Disc Box Set) - 24 January 2006

Inspector Rex - Series 4 (5 Disc Box Set) - 31 March 2006

Inspector Rex - Series 5 (4 Disc Box Set) - 16 August 2006

Inspector Rex - Series 6 (4 Disc Box Set) - 10 November 2006

Inspector Rex - Series 7 (4 Disc Box Set) - 7 February 2007

Inspector Rex - Series 8 (4 Disc Box Set) - 7 June 2007

Inspector Rex - Series 9 (2 Disc Set) - 17 November 2008