Miami Vice

---

The popular one-hour police drama Miami Vice aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. Miami Vice combined elements from traditional "cop shows" with an emphasis on high fashion, exotic locations, and music-video sequences. The show depicted an interracial pair of detectives who battled the narcotics trade in southern Florida. The series starred Don Johnson (1949–) and Philip Michael Thomas (1949–) as undercover detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Miami's glamorous beaches and resorts were contrasted with the city's under-belly of corruption, violence, and tragedy that resulted from drug trafficking.

Miami Vice was the brainchild of NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff (1949–1997), who envisioned a show about "MTV cops." Michael Mann (1943–) executed Tartikoff's idea and crafted a series where style was more important than substance. The detectives' clothing, cars, and romances were more important than the standard "cops and robbers" plots. The series was filmed on location in Miami and made expert use of the city's unique architecture, geography, and Latin flavor. Johnson emerged as a sex symbol and sparked a casual-chic fashion trend. It became common to see men who, like Johnson on the show, wore expensive Italian sports jackets over T-shirts (see entry under 1910s—Fashion in volume 1) along with baggy linen slacks and slip-on shoes without socks. Johnson's perpetual five o'clock shadow became his trademark and was copied by many men during the mid-1980s. Miami Vice also helped Miami reclaim its title as a playground for the rich and famous.

By the third season, ratings fell as viewers grew tired of the Miami Vice fad. Producer Mann attempted to recapture the public's attention by abandoning the pastel color scheme for darker tones that reflected more intense plotlines. These surface changes were unsuccessful, and Crockett and Tubbs left the air in 1989. Miami Vice is now recalled as a cultural artifact showcasing what was most hip and trendy in 1980s America.

—Charles Coletta

For More Information

Benedek, Emily. "Inside Miami Vice." Rolling Stone (March 28, 1985): pp. 56–62, 125.

Buxton, David. From The Avengers to Miami Vice: Form and Ideology in the Television Series. New York: Manchester University Press, 1990.

Feuer, Jane. Seeing Through the Eighties: Television and Reaganism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995.

Miami Vice Chronicles.http://www.wildhorse.com/MiamiVice/ (accessed April 3, 2002).

Miami-Vice.org.http://www.miami-vice.org/ (accessed April 3, 2002).