Tubbs, have you ever considered a career in southern law enforcement?

September 16, 2024 4:25 AM

Forty years ago today, Miami Vice premiered on NBC. Born out of writer-producer Anthony Yerkovich growing awareness of the practice of asset forfeiture (and not a memo by Brandon Tartikoff that said "MTV cops"), and originally imagined as a movie, the five-season, 114-episode show would revolutionize television, with People magazine saying it was the "first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented."

The show focuses on undercover Miami Dade Police Department detective James "Sonny" Crockett (played by Don Johnson) and his partner Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas). Edward James Olmos plays Marty Castillo, Saundra Santiago as Gina Calabrese, Olivia Brown as Trudy Joplin, Michael Talbot as Stan Switek, and John Diehl as Larry Zito. Elvis played Elvis (and so did Presley).

Crockett and Tubbs lived life undercover, pretending to be wealthy drug runners, and looked the part. Tee-shirts under expensive European suits. Pastel colors. Shoes without socks. A calculator watch (just once). Ferrari Testarossa and Daytona. Living on one boat, and racing a bunch more. The look-and-feel was set by costume designers including Jodie Tillen, who shopped extensively in Europe to find the approximately 75 sets of clothing needed for each episode.

In addition to the main cast, the show provided an opportunity for musicians and performers to try out their acting skills, and gave numerous future stars their first or one of their early acting credits, including Jimmy Smits in his (um, short-lived) acting debut. Ben Stiller ("I know what you're thinking: Why do I need a glow-in-the-dark cross. I got a cross, right? Nighttime, pal. God can't see in the dark."). Bruce Willis four months before the premier of Moonlighting. Steve Buscemi. Julia Roberts in her second acting role and five months before she became famous in Mystic Pizza. Chris Cooper. Dennis Farina who had recently quit the Chicago Police Department after serving 18 years to try out acting. Twenty-year old Kyra Sedgwick alongside Phil Collins. Another 20-year-old, Benicio Del Torro. Annette Bening, in one of her first non-stage roles. Liam Neeson, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Richards, Stanley Tucci, and Helena Bonham Carter. Founding member of The Eagles Glenn Frey, who also provided music to the series. Lawrence Larry Fishburne, John Turturro, The Fat Boys, and Ed O'Neill three years before he became Al Bundy. Bill Paxton, Wesley Snipes, Oliver Platt, Michael Madsen, magicians Penn and Teller (though not together), John Leguizamo, Ving Rhames, Frank Zappa, John Michael Higgins, James Brown and Chris Rock (together, in perhaps the worst episode of the series, Missing Hours), and countless others.

In an age of stale made-for-TV music, Miami Vice's production team broke from the norm and spent considerably to buy music rights from contemporary artists. Across the series, 369 songs were played, including:

Andy Taylor - When the Rain Comes Down
Autograph - Turn Up the Radio
Chaka Khan - Own the Night
Don Henley - Dirty Laundry
Don Johnson - Heartbeat
Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is
George Thorogood and The Destroyers - Bad to the Bone
Gladys Knight & the Pips - Send It to Me
Glenn Frey - You Belong to the City
Glenn Frey - Smuggler's Blues
Grandmaster Melle Mel - Vice
Jackson Browne - Lives in the Balance
James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Devil with a Blue Dress On / Good Golly Miss Molly
Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Patti LaBelle and Bill Champlin - The Last Unbroken Heart
Phil Collins - I Don't Care Anymore
Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
Phil Collins - Take Me Home
Roxy Music - Lover
Sheena Easton - Follow my Rainbow
Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life
Steve Jones - Mercy
Stray Cats - Looking for Someone to Love
The Damned - In Dulce Decorum
The Hooters - Satellite
The Pointer Sisters - I'm So Excited
Tina Turner - Better Be Good to Me
Yello - Call It Love
Yello - Moon on Ice

Miami Vice premiered "at a time when Miami and Miami Beach looked more like Scarface" than a vibrant city. When the show launched in 1984, the city was the murder capital of the United States, Time Magazine had recently called the area "Paradise Lost", and the average age of someone living in South Beach was so high the area was known as "God's waiting room." The concept of painting Miami's historical art deco buildings in pastel colors had emerged in the late 1970s, the idea of Leonard Horowitz and Barbara Capitman, founders of the Miami Design Preservation League. When Miami Vice's producers made the fateful decision to film all around the city, they put the show's production budget - a then virtually unheard of $2M per episode - to work supporting the city's transformation, repainting and refurbishing buildings so as to be able to use them as backgrounds and sets. As the New York Times wrote in 1989, "That the show was shot in rock-video style, offering a rapid-fire series of vivid images, made the settings not just backdrops for the scenes, but key to them. It was as if the city itself were a character in the show." City preservationists seized on the popularity of the show to help pass laws protecting the historic art deco buildings featured throughout the series from future demolition. According to Miami historian Paul George, "it took a show like that to ... really appreciate the uniqueness and the unusual glamor of this place." Miami's then-mayor Alex Daoud agreed, saying at the time that those pastel buildings had become "one of the greatest assets we have."

Miami Vice would ultimately garner 20 Emmy nominations (and four wins), seven Golden Globe Award nominations (and 2 wins), two Grammy awards, two People's Choice Awards, and further nominations for the Directors Guild of America Awards and Edgar Awards. The show wrapped up its five-year run in June 1989, but Jan Hammer's theme song - which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 - lives on.

posted by NotMyselfRightNow (51 comments total)

Also, Miles Davis
posted by chillmost at 4:53 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

After ~10 years of a no-TV-in-the-house policy, my parents finally broke down and got a 25" color TV from Montgomery Ward in early '85. Hello MTV & Miami Vice!
posted by torokunai at 5:02 AM on September 16

Public Image Ltd. - Order of Death (Little Miss Dangerous)
posted by aeshnid at 5:04 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

Another (bizarre) guest star was Watergate conspirator and burglar G. Gordon Liddy in two episodes, "Back in the World" and "Stone's War".
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 5:06 AM on September 16 [8 favorites]

The "Jan Hammer's Theme Song" link above links to an alternate track of the composer's theme. It isn't the one that they used on the show.

Here is a link to the show intro, which features electric guitar and drums throughout.

I spent a lot of time listening to the soundtrack on tape as a kid:

Jan Hammer– The Original Miami Vice Theme (Instrumental)
Glenn Frey– Smuggler's Blues
Chaka Khan– Own The Night
Glenn Frey– You Belong To The City
Phil Collins– In The Air Tonight
Jan Hammer– Miami Vice (Instrumental)
Grandmaster Melle Mel– Vice
Tina Turner– Better Be Good To Me
Jan Hammer– Flashback (Instrumental)
Jan Hammer– Chase (Instrumental)
Jan Hammer– Evan (Instrumental)
posted by Fleebnork at 5:25 AM on September 16 [6 favorites]

"Miami Vice The Complete Collection" is a 2-CD set of some of the original music composed for the show by Jan Hammer, the composer and musician who wrote and performed the show's theme music and most (all?) of its original score. He used to have his own website where he sold a downloadable version of the music with liner notes but his website appears to have been abandoned at some point in the recent past. But the album is still available in other places - Amazon, iTunes, etc. - and it's worth it if you're looking for pure 80s synth cheese.

The "official" video that Jan has on his YouTube site of the show's theme song that is in the original post is wonderful - so many keyboards, Jan jamming out on a keytar, Jan inserting himself into the show! A similar extended version of the theme song is included on the album - there is a 2:46 version on the second CD in addition to the original, 59-second version on the first CD.
posted by ElKevbo at 5:26 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

This is an outstanding post
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:41 AM on September 16 [14 favorites]

This is a great post!

The first season is absolutely fantastic. Peak 80s television. There's a definite drop off in quality after season 2, but still fun.
posted by HumanComplex at 5:57 AM on September 16 [4 favorites]

I spent a lot of time listening to the soundtrack on tape as a kid

Same. I can hear that theme song running through my head right now just thinking about it, even though I probably haven't heard it in years and I'm currently listening to some ambient stuff.
posted by Foosnark at 5:57 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]

I always look at the sprawl of guests as the show went on -- Stanley Tucci and Annette Bening and The Fat Boys?! -- and the range of music, and wish I could ask which of these were legitimate choices and which were just the flavor-of-the-month.

In the first couple of seasons, it's a time of discovering diamonds in the rough, but then once a series gets hot, actual Artists want to get a piece of it. And after that, the casting director must have been in hiding to escape all the agents who wanted to get their clients a seat on the bandwagon.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:58 AM on September 16

Wow, what a post!
posted by doctornemo at 6:14 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

Ah, Miami Vice. A show that really entranced my dad (the bio one) because he was in law enforcement along coastal Florida; he and his cop buddies practically made it their religion. (But alas, they were not down to copy the sartorial lewks.)

Those two Glenn Frey songs slap tho.
posted by Kitteh at 6:16 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

More on the UFO episode.
posted by doctornemo at 6:16 AM on September 16

Also Leonard Cohen
posted by Tenuki at 6:19 AM on September 16 [5 favorites]

I asked my dad to buy me a small tv so I could watch Miami Vice in my room when they were watching something else and be able to talk about it with my classmates.
posted by signal at 6:21 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]

At the time I lived in Homestead and worked in Coconut Grove, and South Beach was still another fucking planet.

Didn't stop me from blasting No Jacket Required while driving my Prelude Si way too fast down the Florida Turnpike at night with the windows down and moon roof open, though.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:30 AM on September 16 [7 favorites]

i have vivid middle school memories of the "voodoo episode" with a villain named after a vodun being and tubbs getting nearly zombified and a surreal drug sequence. that and glenn fry hamming it up and edward james olmos barely speaking above a whisper and by far the coolest guy on earth as far as i was concerned are pretty much all else i can rememeber but it's hard to think of a more 80s show
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:36 AM on September 16 [5 favorites]

Outstanding post!

I did a MV marathon a couple years back, and what a trip that was. Wave after wave of nostalgia, and seeing all these now-stars when they were impossibly young -- so much fun. But yeah, as said above, the first season was amazing, and then there was a dropoff, particularly when Sonny and Rico would go down south. (I guess they weren't too inconspicuous in Miami anymore, and word probably got around about the guys in the white Testarosa.)
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:43 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

Life is a Rat Race!
posted by stevil at 7:11 AM on September 16

Oh, wow. I absolutely loved that show. I remember being fascinated by Edward James Olmos and I've seen a good bit of his work since the show. He has never disappointed. Interestingly, I found his character, Admiral Adama quoted on a site about leadership
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 7:38 AM on September 16

I loved this show, and I guess I would have like ten when it started? Wow. I remember thinking it had to be "more realistic" (!) than other cop shows, because it just felt different. I struggled to explain this to my dad, who loved it, and he laughed and said it was basically science fiction, and that real life wasn't remotely like this.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:49 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

This is an outstanding post.

I am not sure I've ever seen an episode of Miami Vice, and I had no idea how groundbreaking it was, in how many ways.

I am really not especially into cop or cop-adjacent shows, but now I kind of want to watch the whole thing just for the architecture.

Thank you so much for putting together this terrific, excellently crafted post, NotMyselfRightNow! It's lovely to start the day with so many fascinating facets to dig into.
posted by kristi at 8:11 AM on September 16 [8 favorites]

Wow, only five years? It felt like so much longer.

I was never a fan, have seen only a handful of episodes, but its impact on 80s culture was pervasive and insufferable... all the Miami Vice-wannabees wandering around Atlanta (where I lived at the time) in their open pastel shirts and sockless loafers thought they were glorifying their coked-up lifestyle, but really they were primarily laughable buffoons.

Great post though.
posted by Pedantzilla at 8:16 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

"Don't give the cat any more blow."
posted by praemunire at 8:21 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]

I clicked for the Steve Buscemi, but stayed for the Willie Nelson
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:23 AM on September 16 [5 favorites]

I was so into MV when it came out and watched the first three seasons. My favorite, and one that has an ending living in my mind to this day, is "Where the Buses Don't Run" (wiki) with a guest starring Bruce McGill.

At the time, I thought it was fun TV watching and a modern spin on the presentation for a cop show. It ran at the same time as Hill Street Blues (MV: 1984 - 1990; HSB: 1981 - 1987) and they were different in so many ways beyond the grittiness of one compared to the slickness of the other. Both were "in the streets" but Miami's were so much prettier.

The inclusion of contemporary music in MV made a world of difference to me. We take it for granted today, but moving to music that was just being played on the radio brought an immediacy to what I was watching. The presentation and the music are the same things that aged the show for reruns, though.
posted by bacalao_y_betun at 8:27 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

Also Leonard Cohen

If there is ever a biopic of Cohen, I hope they cast Ciarán Hinds.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:34 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

At first I was like.... John Michael Higgins? What role could he possibly--

*watches video*

Oh, carry on then.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:35 AM on September 16

It's hard to describe how stylish and vibe influential Miami Vice was unless you saw it back then. Pink, Teal, and Speedboats!
posted by Liquidwolf at 8:40 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

Two thoughts:

1. I saw a first season Miami Vice rerun in HD maybe a decade ago, and the set design looked incredibly (telenovela-level) cheap. Things were better in my memory, but I only caught later seasons on the original run.
2. Rebel Ridge, a new movie on the corruption of civil asset forfeiture, just came out on Netflix, and stars Don Johnson.

posted by cardboard at 8:42 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

all the Miami Vice-wannabees wandering around Atlanta (where I lived at the time) in their open pastel shirts and sockless loafers thought they were glorifying their coked-up lifestyle, but really they were primarily laughable buffoons.

I was two thousand plus miles further away from Miami (Vancouver) but the situation was similar (at least in summer months for the sockless loafers). I can imagine that if you were sixteen or under at the time, Miami Vice would've been a helluva show, a whole new definition of cool for the 80s. But I was in my mid-twenties and thus bemused at best. I didn't need some hyped up ode to fascism (cops as superheroes always a problem in that regard) to tell me how to dress etc.

I remember one article in the local paper, a sorta style expert instructing men on how to achieve Crockett's permanent five o'clock shadow facial hair look -- the irony being how much discipline was required to achieve this scruffy feel.

Anyway, I cannot tell a lie. I did watch the first few episodes and didn't even hate them. But something was obviously not clicking for me because I was starting to notice more and more cracks as the season wore on, stopped worrying about being in front of the TV every Sunday night. The final point of no return came with one of the last shows of that first season, some big interpersonal drama going down between Crockett and one of his ex-partners (gone bad, I think). Anyway, the guy ends up dying a somewhat heroic death ... and what's the big deal profound music choice as Crockett fights back the tears and the camera pulls back ...

Peter Gabriel's Biko, the one that

was at the forefront of a stream of anti-apartheid music in the 1980s,[25] and sparked a worldwide interest in music exploring the politics and society of South Africa.[7]

But this Vice episode had nothing to do with any of that, they just used the song because it said, The man is dead, the man is dead

"Well that was fucking stupid," said my friend Dave as the credits rolled.

But all that said, great post. Significant show. For better or worse, it shook the zeitgeist. It changed the world.
posted by philip-random at 8:46 AM on September 16 [5 favorites]

I've been enjoying the Mannhunting episodes from Waypoint Radio: They did one on the movie and one on the show.
posted by PussKillian at 8:48 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]

The In the Air Tonight clip was peak Miami Vice. The slow burn of the song just fits.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:50 AM on September 16 [4 favorites]

I never watched the show much — my parents were pretty strict about violent shows, and I was a kid who got scared pretty easily by that kind of thing — but man did I wear out my cassette tape of the soundtrack. I don’t think the 80s got much better than that.
posted by bjrubble at 9:30 AM on September 16

Amazing post, and amazing (at the time) show. I watched the premiere, and was absolutely hooked.

If you've never seen the show, the opening of "Where The Busses Don't Run" the episode bacalao_y_betun mentions above, captures the essence of the show perfectly, the use of music, the colors, the clothes, the way they used guest actors. It lives in my mind, rent free, some 40 years later.
posted by Gorgik at 10:31 AM on September 16 [3 favorites]

To sorta paraphrase Roger Ebert - Miami Vice wasn't about cops and vice and drugs - it was about HOW it was about those things. It created an atmosphere, a vibe. I was never a huge fan of the vice part of it, but did (and do) occasionally watch just for the design, the colors, and the music.

Big props to Glenn Frey, too - I always associate him with the show, no matter the episode or song.

And the ep featuring James Brown. JAMES BROWN. Truly bizarre, but utterly watchable. Because JAMES BROWN.
posted by davidmsc at 10:35 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

I read that Don Johnson originally wanted to wear jeans and leather, like a cowboy. That would have been a very different show.
posted by credulous at 10:57 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]

I didn't watch the show, but I'm a huge Michael Mann fan. I saw the movie with my spouse and a friend, also both big fans, and we all hated the movie. Heat was great at showing the group dynamics of cops and robbers, and Collateral was a great examination of two opposing characters. The Miami Vice movie felt weak on both counts.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:09 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

huh. I don't think I have ever watched this show, although I am the exact right age, being 16 when it came out. I mean, I knew it existed but just never checked it out. my idea of it is basically "cheese n sleaze" which, hey, that's fun, right? maybe I'll check out an ep or two, I have nothing better to do while being underemployed and broke. woooooooo!
posted by supermedusa at 11:25 AM on September 16 [1 favorite]

I saw a first season Miami Vice rerun in HD maybe a decade ago, and the set design looked incredibly (telenovela-level) cheap.

But it wasn't made to be seen in HD. Can't watch most old shows without adjusting your filter!
posted by praemunire at 12:25 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]

I'm 48 so I was too young to have watched this when released but teal and the speedboats and everything permeated the culture even in Wheeling, WV.

25 years ago when I moved to Cincinnati after college the was a bar/club we liked to go to after work. Inevitably there was the proverbial "old guy in the club" there every week and he always dressed like he was doing Crockett cosplay: white or off-white suite with a pastel scoop neck t-shirt on underneath.
posted by mmascolino at 12:27 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]

If you've never seen the show, the opening of "Where The Busses Don't Run" the episode bacalao_y_betun mentions above, captures the essence of the show perfectly, the use of music, the colors, the clothes, the way they used guest actors.

...not to mention the queer-coding!
posted by praemunire at 12:30 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]

And the ep featuring James Brown. JAMES BROWN

The posted clip from Georgik includes Little Richard as a preacher, which he actually did for a while after he dropped out of pop music. Later went back to music.

I really don't remember the show - I was pretty young, but as an avid tv watcher, I don't recall any show since using popular songs and artists in the same symbiotic way since. I guess the modern version would use video game characters or property or something, but that's not been done either.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:13 PM on September 16

I was a little bit too young to get into Miami Vice, but it was such a hit i was definitely aware of it. I do remember the Mad Magazine parody, in which most panels had labels for Crockett and Tubbs' clothes, like "pastel pink" and "Versace pants." I thought this was hilarious.
posted by zardoz at 1:13 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]

It wasn't just the cool cars, music, and sockless loafers. Knight Rider, Airwolf, and similar shows looked cheap because they were shot cheaply, usually with a stationary one or two-camera setup. Everyone stuck to their mark and the scene energy is flat. All the big money went into jumping cars and blowing up RC helicopters

Miami Vice was cinematic. That scene with In The Air Tonight exemplifies why Miami Vice was such a breakthrough show. And so many night shoots just made the city feel menacing in opposition to day shoots, which made the city feel like an unending carnival. Look at this scene with the keyboardist center blocked between two people playing ball on the beach. It's a brilliant way to keep visual interest in the scene. Nobody bothered with that stuff in 84
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:32 PM on September 16 [4 favorites]

This is Tubbs.
posted by mike3k at 1:55 PM on September 16

I was young and my mom wouldn't have appreciated me watching M.V. but please tell me the CAF part of it isn't glorified? Or is that why they're all driving in sports cars and fancy (not just to be undercover, but "stolen goods" from the crooks)?

Speaking of Jan Hammer, if you wanna see the dude bang out some awesome grooving, here he as part of Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1972 in Syracuse, NY playing Meeting of the Spirits (cued up to the good parts baby, cuz players don't have time to fast forward - but I jest, it's all good parts if you like jazz-fusion). Billy Cobham? John McLaughlin (the cool one, not the grouchy asshole from TV)? Check check check.

I watched some GI Joe discussion and they talked about how Don Johnson voiced Lt Falcon in the GI Joe movie.
posted by symbioid at 2:38 PM on September 16

>>I saw a first season Miami Vice rerun in HD maybe a decade ago, and the set design looked incredibly (telenovela-level) cheap. Things were better in my memory, but I only caught later seasons on the original run.

Yeah, and telenovela-level acting too. A number of years ago, I captured this scene for reasons I completely forget :

Self-Control scene from Miami Vice

It encapsulates how deeply weird the 80s were, you could turn the "style" knob WAYYY up or just throw in a popular song (or a cover of a popular song) and get away with all sorts of bad line readings, flimsy plot and overacting. Most of the scenes feel like they were done in one take, because you know what? People weren't watching for the story or the performances.
posted by jeremias at 2:42 PM on September 16

Don't forget Jan Hammer's sneaky other song: Crockett's Theme. I should rewatch the series since it has been some time and I've visited Miami twice since.
posted by myopicman at 3:15 PM on September 16

Excellent post.

I've carried with me, for decades now, that scene from Miami Vice with Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" on the soundtrack. There's a long scene with Tubbs and Sonny driving through the night, the camera focused on the slow spinning tires of the convertible, the lights sliding across the hood, and the two men looking through the windshield and into the uncertain future.

Clicked on the link. Exactly as I remember.

Nice.

I can't think of a show, before that, which used music in such an integral way.
posted by math at 3:16 PM on September 16

This feels like the perfect place to drop the deeply, deeply weird lasagnacat Miami Vice parody. It takes a minute for it to become apparent where it's going.
Also contains an "amazing" cover of "In the Air Tonight."
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 3:57 PM on September 16