George probably had his greatest popular success in the eighties on TV: in Tatort episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991, he portrayed proletarian police officer Horst Schimanski, who eventually became a cult figure in Germany. In 1984 and 1987 he again won the Bambi Award as the most popular actor. The series of "Schulz & Schulz" movies, starting in 1989 and dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the industry consultant in the series of the same name, which is rather far removed from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.