Butler Parker
Butler Parker is a fictitious British character who was, despite his ostentatious Britishness, created by a German pulp fiction author and became eventually the protagonist of a German TV series.
| Butler Parker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Created by | Günter Dönges |
| Starring | Dirk Dautzenberg Eckart Dux Carl Schell Edgar Hoppe Stella Mooney Gaby Dohm |
| Theme music composer | Dieter Reith |
| Opening theme | Dieter Reith |
| Composer | Dieter Reith |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Original language | German |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Ulrich Burtin Siegfried Blohm Helmut Stoll Adalbert Plica |
| Production company | Südwestfunk (SWF) |
| Release | |
| Original network | ARD |
| Original release | 4 July 1972 – 16 January 1973 |
Author
Butler Parker was the brainchild of the very successful and productive author Günther Dönges (1923–August 2001) who often used Anglo-Saxon aliases due to the in Germany widespread opinion that only Anglo-Saxons could write entertaining good crime stories.
Protagonist
Butler Joshua Parker worked for different employers who would leave him a lot of freedom. However, Butler Parker would always be the main character who cracked the cases and sometimes protected or even rescued his employers. He had a steel-strengthened bowler hat and his umbrella could be used to shoot arrows. Moreover, he drove a classic London taxi which was equipped with a variety of stunning gadgets.
Novels
Like Jerry Cotton Joshua Parker had an obviously English name and drove an English car. (Although Parker had a traditional London taxi, jam-packed with amazing gadgets instead of a Jaguar E-Type) Both heroes had their first appearances in publications of the publishing house Bastei. But eventually Günter Dönges changed the publisher and took "Butler Parker" with him. Between 1953 and 1992 more than 600 novels were released by Bastei, Pabel and later on by Zauberkreis. In the beginning Butler Parker was in the service of an old lady but later on he had an American boss called Mike Rander. The TV shows him working for Mike Rander (Eckart Dux).
TV show
Since the novels about Butler Parker were very successful and another fictitious British pulp fiction hero (Percy Stuart) had already been adapted for the TV screen with huge success, the idea of a TV series about Butler Parker seemed to suggest itself. But it lasted only for 26 shows. Still the short life of his TV presence didn't diminish the ongoing success of the novels.
| № | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Hallo Taxi" (Taxi!) | 4 July 1972 |
| Guest stars: Arthur Brauss, Klaus Abramowsky | ||
| 2 | "Besuch in Schottland" (Visiting Scotland) | 11 July 1972 |
| Guest stars: Frederick Jäger, Gerard Heinz, Klaus Dahlen | ||
| 3 | "Geschäft mit der Angst" (Fear is their business) | 18 July 1972 |
| Guest stars: Victor Beaumont, Benno Hoffmann | ||
| 4 | "Zwischenfall in Brighton" (Incident in Brighton) | 25 July 1972 |
| Guest stars: Til Erwig, Josef Fröhlich | ||
| 5 | "Der Kredithai" (The loan shark) | 1 August 1972 |
| Guest stars: Hans Schellbach, Hubert Mittendorf | ||
| 6 | "Patientin gesucht" (Wanted: Patient, female) | 8 August 1972 |
| Guest stars: Verena Buss, Else Brückner | ||
| 7 | "Besuch im Starclub" (Visiting the Starclub) | 15 August 1972 |
| Guest stars: Betty Dorsey, Rainer Basedow | ||
| 8 | "Die Überfahrt" (The voyage) | 22 August 1972 |
| Guest stars: Monica Peitsch, Inge Schmidt | ||
| 9 | "Ein klarer Fall" (An easy case) | 12 September 1972 |
| Guest stars: Hans-Werner Bussinger, Michael Gempart | ||
| 10 | "Katz und Maus" (Cat and mouse) | 19 September 1972 |
| Guest star: Robert Nägele | ||
| 11 | "Galgenfrist" (Last respite) | 26 September 1972 |
| Guest stars: Hans-Michael Rehberg, Heinz-Leo Fischer | ||
| 12 | "Madonnen lassen bitten" (Madonnas ask you in) | 3 October 1972 |
| Guest stars: Klaus Eberth, Valentin Jäger | ||
| 13 | "Made in Italy" | 10 October 1972 |
| Guest stars: Karl Walter Diess, Ingrid Resch | ||
| 14 | "Der Doppelgänger" (The look-alike) | 17 October 1972 |
| Guest stars: Peter Fricke, Horst Naumann | ||
| 15 | "Treffpunkt Via Mala" (Meetining place Via Mala) | 24 October 1972 |
| Guest star: Rotraud Rieger | ||
| 16 | "Diamantenraub" (Diamonds are robbed) | 31 October 1972 |
| Guest stars: Gundy Grand, Kurt Klopsch | ||
| 17 | "Blondinen für Rio" (Blondes for Rio) | 7 November 1972 |
| Guest stars: Lia Pahl, Horst Sommer | ||
| 18 | "Achtung Kurve" (Beware of the bend) | 14 November 1972 |
| Guest stars: Horst-Werner Loos, Peter Herzog, Werner Zerlett | ||
| 19 | "Der Spezialist" | 21 November 1972 |
| Guest star: Alexander Allerson | ||
| 20 | "Das Partygirl" | 28 November 1972 |
| Guest star: Barbara Valentin | ||
| 21 | "Die Kidnapper" | 5 December 1972 |
| Guest stars: Otto Bolesch, Ulrike Blome | ||
| 22 | "Container gesucht" (Wanted: A container) | 12 December 1972 |
| Guest stars: Ilse Neubauer, Johannes Grossmann, Traugott Buhre | ||
| 23 | "Der Heckenschütze" (The sniper) | 19 December 1972 |
| Guest stars: Harry Kalenberg, Nora Minor, Michael Hinz | ||
| 24 | "Das Sanatorium" (The hospital) | 2 January 1973 |
| Guest stars: Margot Trooger, Harald Dietl | ||
| 25 | "Schottischer Whisky" (Scotch) | 9 January 1973 |
| Guest stars: Dieter Kirchlechner, Richard Bohne | ||
| 26 | "Die Hellseherin" (The clairvoyant) | 16 January 1973 |
| Guest star: Hilde Ziegler | ||
Revival
After the TV series had finally been digitally re-mastered and released on DVD in 2010, some of Butler Parker's adventures have been released as audiobooks.
External links
- Butler Parker at IMDb
- Website dedicated to Butler Parker (German only)
- Website on audio books featuring Butler Parker (German only)