dudes: let's write stuff abt MIAMI VICE, the TV show

At some point about 5 years ago i got a copy of season 2 on dvd which is fucking classic and totally awesome. now i have season 5 which is not as mind blowing but still totally awesome. If you have never seen this show get it on netflix and let's write stuff in this thread about it.
C'mon!

All went downhill once Zito died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEednRorKmU

^^ this happened in episodes 56 and 7 entitled 'down for the count' in season 3 so i can't really speak about it. article about john deihl the dude who played detective zito

MIAMI VICE EPISODE GUIDE

hulu has the first four seasons (full episodes)

was going to bang up an existing thread too, as i'm just rewatching the first two seasons. Season two starts with a stunning double bill set in NYC, with some great shots of the city. and then there's "out in the field" which is one of the best episodes ever.

Season five was surprisingly a lot better than 3 and 4 seasons, but had a shitty finale.

hilariously bad eps to look out for - viking bikers from hell and the one with the 'cloning tiny cows', also that bizarre episode with James Brown in.

oh man i had forgetten about the james brown ep

actually fuck it, i love every single episode of this show!

sorry not 'out in the fields', the episode is called 'out where the buses dont run' (probly got mixed up because it starts with the Who song

"you're not gettin' TWISTED over this girl, are ya, tubbs?"

pilot of this is hella good

The first couple scenes of "Definitely Miami" are Miami Vice at its apex.

oh yeah this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-1oDAIP0lU

shit cuts off before the punchline!
"I'm immune"

Ted Nugent in that episode too

the nuge utilizing the big pile of sand, yes that's a pretty classic ep
also i think when he say 'definitely miami' that's his only line

^Those were actually the only words the Nuge spoke from 1982-987, after he took a vow of silence. He communicated with his family, friends, and associates using a series of simple hand gestures and occasionally a guitar lick. He made an exception for Miami Vice because he was a big fan of the show.

The vocals on his records were sung by a Scarlet Macaw named Shemp

best show

i live blogd the 1st 2 eps of season 2 on fb last nite \(o_O)/

just finished with season 2 and watching the finale realised something shocking. spoilers ahead btw.

tubbs realises he has a son, but at the end of this episode he is under the impression that the child dies in the car bomb. But the child was saved, and the amazing thing is Tubbs never finds out about this.

an oversight from the writers? or something quite spectacularly mind blowing?

home invaders from season one is one of my all time favourites.

There's a great moment when Castillo pulls some fancy jujitsu sleep pinch on a crook with the line "Better yet, GOOD NIGHT!"

great ep where crockett is walking all alone in new york city and phil collins is all "take me home" and then tubbs come running after him in the airport after just having slept with pam grier

I used to love how the USA Today 'Life' section on Fridays would have what songs were going to be on the show that night. Even a Smiths song made it on an episode!

i guess at the time that was a totally new and refreshing stunt?

worst episode: "made for each other"

omg pimp concierge miles davis with a baseball bat

After wasting time watching the first season of what was in essence an average cop show with wisecracking has-beens, I'm watching the second season of "Miami Vice" -- what a difference. Arty, "contemplative," and understated. Fantastic use of music; I finished an episode (directed by that great stone face Edward James Olmos) in which Bryan Ferry's "Boys and Girls" was weaved with real skill around the opening scenes. Still kitsch though. I can see how it made the shows around it ("Dallas"!) look dowdy.

Those of you old enough to know: your experiences? I wasn't allowed to watch the show, but its presence was omnipresent in 1985 and 1986. A sixth grade dance in spring '86 existed as a showcase for rented powder-blue suits, espadrilles, silk shirts, and gelled peach fuzz. Our Christmas party in '85 was all about the TV soundtrack, still the biggest selling in music history.

oh man i used to come home from the activity center and watch this usually while eating some ice cream and then channel surf while the news was on then johnny carson, dave letterman and FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS! good times

I catch bits of reruns on cable occasionally - this show cracks me up. the tortured posing! the fluorescent lights! the insane 80s set designs!

I watched it a bit as a kid when it originally aired, I think most of it went over my head

Ah, Michael Mann.

the Phil Collins episode is awful: what a smug asshole.

hey man, it's just another day in paradise

i thought phil collins was cast very appropriately

also i don't know which ep it is but there's one where crocket has an aligator for a pet and tosses him a steak as he's all hungover

^^^honestly the "crockett lives on a boat and owns an alligator" is like the sum total of my childhood memories of this show

and it's the reason i know what espadrilles are as well as pastel colors
for some reason i always think of miami vice when i hear the word pastel

Espadrilles make your bare feet stink something awful.

I know.

hey- we were watching TV in Berlin tonight and we see something listed as "Miami Vice" which totally looks the part- bad 80s clothes, everyone with weird poofy hair, jackets with sleeves folded up to their elbows, muscle Ts, cop show about drugs n stuff, y'know- but . . .

no Crockett and no Tubbs-

instead the show revolved around some cute and sorta plastic-y and porn-looking male actors who were really nondescript

but the credits said "A Michael Mann Production" and stuff and it listed Jan Hammer: Music etc.

so we are confused- were there ever episodes of "Miami Vice" that just straight up didn't have Don Johnson in them at all? Are we high or something? and yeah we've looked around online already but no dice. it's like we fell into an alternate TV universe (exciting and scary)

if it helps jog yr memory- in the episode we watched a guy is high on drugs and hallucinates and the hallucinations are rendered in a pastel-y video effect similar to that used in the a-Ha "Take on Me" video- and he is almost killed by a semi that nearly rolls over him but the boring good guys who aren't Crockett and Tubbs but who are wearing retarded white pants tucked into black buckle boots with bandanas on their heads save him from a psychedelic death on the freeway.

Anybody? Anybody? Help us!

No idea about that, but P.M. Thomas was and is my fashion hero.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1107/1352507044_0b622409de.jpg?v=0

not sure about that, crockett was always the more stylish one. especially in the later seasons when the costume people tried to experiment with new styles:

http://www.miamiviceonline.com/screenshots/miracle02.jpg

Yuck!

the miami vice "look" is still very fresh though imo -- ray-bans and carreras are still in, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see the same pastel henleys/linen slacks sold at american apparel or something

Yeah, somewhere I read that the per-show budget was cut drastically before the end. From Armani to, like, Generra.

http://www.starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/miami_vice_s5e3_amiga2000_1.jpg

PMT looks so unhappy in that leopard-pattern jacket.

Humiliated--that might be the right word.

The show peaked quickly: from '85 to 1986 really. At a sixth grade dance, every guy wore turquoise or salmon pink pseudo Armani jackets and sockless espadrilles (David Rieff's excellent book on Miami mentions how thoroughly the look had permeated the city, and how officials exploited it). But I don't remember anyone talking about the show or dressing like Crockett or Tubbs from '86 onwards.

man ed o'neil just went ham on some porno guys

What was the episode where an arms dealer demonstrated his wares on CROCKETT'S CAR? This sequence, and Crockett's reaction, are the only parts of MV I remember watching. Also, I suspect this is the highlight of the series--am I correct?

That was Jeff Fahey in When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (season three).

I watched the entire series on DVD over the course of two months last year. It is fantastic almost throughout.

the first season of this has some hints of how good it gets later but there's a lot of bad jokes and bad fake accents and it doesn't look nearly as good as it did later. just watched an episode where crockett and tubbs infiltrate a boat race to try and get at a drug shipment, with crockett getting into the race by hustling the drug dealer at a pool game. at least three minutes of the last half of the episode are devoted to a shirtless tubbs making out awkwardly in bed with the dealer's mistress. great show!

https://i.imgur.com/d9kO3Rd.jpg

“He seems nice enough but I can’t understand what he’s saying”

https://i.imgur.com/vEzWBRr.jpg

Tubbs tries to lighten the mood

haha i have that scene on a gif somewhere, which i created, Tubbs doing weird stretches in the office

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6-QZot81ic

This jam is hot af

Bought that 2CD Jan Hammer comp on a trip to Santa Barbara when it was a new release and on the display rack in the soundtrack section - sells for quite a lot now. Wasn’t aware of it and would have otherwise passed me by despite being a bit of a holy grail release for me.

The second disc is re-recordings but they are unbelievably faithful, presumably using the OG midi files / settings etc. My ear could juuust tell that they were not the original tracks before checking liner notes, I guess maybe it is the mix choices or higher bitrate recording that is an indicator?

“Bought that 2CD Jan Hammer comp on a trip to Santa Barbara”
#lifegoals

Bought a box set of this to watch for the very first time. I had been allowed to watch lots of action TV shows in the early 80s, but I guess my parents thought Miami Vice was super scandalous or something. I'll have to run through a few episodes of Fall Guy and Magnum P.I. for comparison purposes.

Anyway, I watched Glades last night. What a fun bunch of hillbillies! Particularly Clem - I was worried about him getting his gator gun to work, but he came through when it counted.

https://i.imgur.com/Y1WofpV.jpg

i used to watch MV with my dad on Fridays. 10pm iirc. I remember very little about it apart from the opening credits, with that theme, which were incredibly thrilling, and a scene where Crockett's looking for a contact in some disreputable waterfront warehouse and finally finds him, and the guy says "hey, que pasa!" and Crockett pulls his gun on him and growls "don't 'que pasa' me!!!"

I may have said this before so apologies if so, but I never understood how Crockett and Tubbs always used the same fake identities when going undercover to bust creeps. eventually, wouldn't Miami's criminal underworld cotton on to the pattern that literally everyone who does business with these guys named Burnett and Cooper end up in jail??

Yeah, even this early in my binge, I realized I would have to buy into a Miami where the underworld is so seething and vast that none of the drug lords have compared notes about the playboy speedboat operators that took them down.

"don't 'que pasa' me!!!"

There are definitely some ridiculous hardman lines in this show. I should be writing them down. From the Glades episode, the one that's been rolling over in my mind is "Maybe you won't even twitch."

Tracer, I make that observation nearly every time Crockett and Tubbs make a bust. Plus, Crockett driving around in that ersatz Ferrari would be hella memorable. Not only that, they sometimes appear in public in their police identities driving the same cars!

It is funny how 12 yo me never gave these things a second thought and it was one of the first things I noticed on my rewatch.

Porsche Spyder iirc?

oh I guess it was a Ferrari(-ish). should have known with that sharp nose. Weird how two high end performance car brands can both have a model named Spyder.

https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/miami-vice-ferrari-daytona-spyder-corvette-facts/

spyder is sort of a general word for a convertible sports car

https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/a1820786/convertible-spider-or-spyder-and-what-heck-spider-anyway/

ahhhh ty

I knew that re: spyder, but didn't know the origin of the term. Interesting link!

https://i.imgur.com/3WGbtzX.jpg

“BBT”

Miami Vice but Tubbs drives a golf cart and Crockett a 1978 Ford station wagon

Miami Retiree Vice

Would watch

https://ginaandtrudy.bandcamp.com/album/vicewave

Nice, I just watched the s3 episode in that still, where they were undercover as streetwalkers.

Have to admit, seeing the “Big Booty Trudy” sign always makes me lol.

Which still are you referring to?

The one where Gina is leaning on a car with her butt out and Trudy is standing beside her. It’s in black & white.

Scroll down from the album cover

That’s from season 2

Oh OK sorry. I’m watching all the episodes in order now and must’ve got that mixed up

“Listen pal, get your seasons straight!” lol

I’m hearing that in a Don Johnson voice

There are definitely some ridiculous hardman lines in this show. I should be writing them down. From the Glades episode, the one that's been rolling over in my mind is "Maybe you won't even twitch."

― peace, man, Monday, 18 September 2023 10:59 (five days ago) link

having just watched The Glades, i figured this was the line that Mann repurposed and expanded on for Gina in the Miami Vice film.

Crockett and Tubbs really gotta be more careful i.e. their casually mentioning how they're looking for that specific guy to be their "guide" and immediately a couple of unfriendly shitkickers volunteer to drive them out into the deep swamp and they accept.

exactly

I can’t believe they left the Ferrari with those dudes

The fake Ferrari or the real Ferrari?

The fake black one

who are these dudes you speak of

the sketchy redneck guys in "The Glades"

The last episode I watched Tubbs was on the phone and said "It's Tubbs - Tough, Unique, Bad, Bold, and Sassy"

love this show

https://i.imgur.com/gt66Dq7.jpg

“Sincerely, L. Cohen”

so the end of season 2...not sure if it's bad writing or I missed something. baffled by the 'I'll be back' note Tubbs receives at the funeral. Who could have written this? Calderon's son was killed in the shack explosion...right? The episode doesn't confirm this either way so I guess it must be him. And the baby - when Calderon is tying his sister down in the car, he says 'take the baby back to the main house' to one of his goons. So the baby is presumably still alive, and I guess it was an empty baby casket at the funeral? Anyway I love the focus on Tubbs in the last episode. Really felt like he took a back seat for most of season 2.

First ep of S3 … haircuts, darker clothes, and new car (without explanation)… Crockett losing control at the end in the back seat of the limo

Calderon's son was killed in the shack explosion...right?

dusting off memories on this one, and I'm pretty sure i had exactly the same reaction. You have to wait ...

S3 though, gawd.

Ep 5 is amazing tho

Nope, not that one. Ep11

and Ep22 is something else

xps Are you sure that's the first ep because the black Ferrari was destroyed by a Stinger missile in S3 ep1 and then in the next episode it's kind of covertly suggested that the new white Ferrari was repossessed from the principal in The Breakfast Club who had appeared in s3 ep1 (and repainted).

The shift in the color palette is quite striking, you suddenly see yellows and greens and lots of neon blue.

I was in love with that white Ferrari

Damn my eps are out of order. I watched ep5 ffs