Miami Vice (Series, The) (DVD)

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Ah, the 80´s. Yuppies, Reaganomics, goofy clothes, and a long string of one-hit wonders that still string the discount bins of your local car wash. Say what you want of that begone decade, but damned if there wasn´t some good television back then. Who cares about plane crash survivors living on a deserted island? Or a bunch of horny, suburban housewives? What happened to shows about cat-eating aliens or talking cars? Speaking of which, both "ALF" and "Knight Rider" were shows spearheaded under the watchful eye of the late Brandon Tartikoff. When Tartikoff took over as programming director for NBC in 1981, the Peacock Network was in the dumps after losing millions of dollars in ad revenue due to the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics and costly flops like "Supertrain." Tartikoff turned NBC around and seminal series like "The Cosby Show", "The A-Team", "In the Heat of the Night", "The Golden Girls", and "Punky Brewster" came about under his guiding hand. Another smash-hit was "Miami Vice", a show that came about through Tartikoff´s two-word pitch, "MTV Cops."


Tartikoff turned the idea over to Anthony Yerkovich, producer/writer on "Hill Street Blues", who expanded the concept and wrote the pilot, originally titled, "Gold Coast." Along for the ride were executive producer Michael Mann and head story editor Joel Surnow, who would go on to create "24." The pilot starred Don Johnson as Detective James "Sonny" Crockett, an undercover officer working out of the vice department for the Metro-Dade Police Department in Miami. He could usually be found on his houseboat with his pet alligator, Elvis. Crockett attempts to hunt down a notorious drug lord named Calderone who has murdered Crockett´s partner (played by Jimmy Smits). At the same time, Philip Michael Thomas played Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, a detective in New York City whose brother has also been murdered by the same crime boss. The two come together in the 305 and come become partners and best friends after an initially rocky relationship. The vice department was filled out with Det. Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago), who has an on-again off-again romance with Crockett, and her partner Det. Trudy Joplin, as well as the more comedic pairing of Detectives Stan Switek (Michael Talbott) and Larry Zito (John Diehl). As great as they all were, the cast really didn´t come together until the addition of the superglue known as Edward James Olmos as their new commanding officer, Lt. Martin Castillo. Olmos brought a quiet intensity to the show and could say more with only his eyes than any other actor armed with pages and pages of dialogue.


You´d be hard pressed to come up with another television show that had such a tremendous impact on pop culture across the board. The look of the show was certainly integral in its success. The show wasn´t shot like just another television show, it was shot just like a big-budget Hollywood film. "Vice" was done far more stylishly and cinematically than the rest of the competition. The series made liberal use of its gorgeous Miami locations such as the art deco architecture, the beautiful white sands of South Beach, and a score of bikini-clad beauties. The show´s direction worked hand-in-hand with the soundtrack which used all the latest in pop hits to create climactic scenes that were right out of a music video. Two of the most popular songs from the show were "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins and "Smuggler´s Blues" by Glenn Frey of the Eagles. Of course, who could ever forget the memorable theme song by Czech composer Jan Hammer. The "Miami Vice" theme earned Hammer two Grammy awards and became the first television theme song to land the number one spot on the Billboard charts since the theme from "Peter Gunn." Then, there´s the trend-setting fashion. Everybody tried to copy the "Miami Vice" look. Sure, it´s out-of-date now, but how many guys dress like Crockett and Tubbs for Halloween? The pastel-colored sports jacket with matching slacks, t-shirt, designer loafers with no socks, and dark Ray Ban sunglasses. Crockett was dressed to the nines and looked even better cruising the streets in his Ferrari.


"Vice" wasn´t just a haven for fashion plates, the series was practically a who´s who for guest-stars. Some were already well known like Pam Grier, Don King, Rita Moreno, Dean Stockwell, Richard Belzer, and G. Gordon Liddy. Plenty more came from the world of music. Collins, Frey, and Hammer didn´t just contribute a few tunes to the series, they also made guest-appearances along with others such as Ted Nugent, Isaac Hayes, John Taylor (from Duran Duran), and Gene Simmons. Perhaps the best guest spots came from Frank Zappa as a drug lord in "Payback" and Willie Nelson as an aging Texas Ranger looking for revenge in "El Viejo." And I could go on and on about all the actors who appeared long before they became big stars. There´s Steve Buscemi, Dylan Baker, John Leguizamo, David Strathairn, Jeff Fahey, Kyra Sedgwick, Dennis Farina, Luis Guzman, Ving Rhames, Joan Chen, Nathan Lane, Ian McShane, Tony Sirico, Chris Elliot, Mykelti Williamson, Bruce Willis, Wesley Snipes, John Turturro, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, and two-time Mrs. Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith. I´m sure there´s plenty more I´ve forgotten. Directors like Abel Ferrera, Jim Johnston, and Rob Cohen lent a helping hand to the behind-the-camera duties. Even fellow TV cops Starsky & Hutch, Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, came in to direct a handful of episodes each.


This new box set contains all five seasons of "Miami Vice" in their previous digipak foldout cases. All five seasons are housed in a really nice white box with alligator print and the show logo stamped on top. The case has a hinged top that opens up revealing the DVD sets and a smooth, pastel green suede lining. Most shows are still trying to find their footing in their first seasons, but "Miami Vice" truly hit the ground running. While the show kept an often comedic, light-hearted approach here and there, the tone of the series was undeniably dark using stories that were ripped from headlines. There was an almost fatalistic cynicism to the majority of episodes. The neverending battle against mobsters, drug dealers, and murderers took a "whack-a-mole" approach as the cops would take one out, only to do battle with another and another. Most victories were hollow or bittersweet at best. Many episodes didn´t bother with an epilogue or final resolution, choosing instead to end abruptly right at a pivotal moment of violence or heartbreak. The haunting spectre of Vietnam was ever-present. A Vietnam veteran, Crockett is still troubled by his time there and the deaths of his comrades.