Miami Vice - the Best TV Show of the 80s!

Miami Vice was undoubtedly the best TV show of the 80s. Miami Vice combined strong stories and well-formed characters with stylish directing, fashion, music, and exotic tropical locales. Every element of the Miami Vice masterpiece was perfectly balanced and made for eminently watchable television.

Long, long, ago in a decade not too far away, my family moved from a sunny beach town in Florida to snowy New England where we spent a year living in a wicked cold and drafty summer house on an isolated island. The only way we could return to Florida was through episodes of Miami Vice. As long as we could see sunshine, sand, palm trees, and waves, we loved the show.

Of course, Miami Vice was revolutionizing television by incorporating elements of music video into a dramatic TV series for the first time. Producer Michael Mann's style of directing brought a completely new look to the small screen. Miami Vice ran on NBC from 1984 through 1989 and remains popular in syndication and on the Internet. In an era when drug smuggling and cocaine-related crime stories dominated the headlines, Miami Vice often incorporated elements of real drug smuggling crime stories. While many shows of the 70s and 80s had cool theme songs, Miami Vice had a cool theme, a cool opening, cool south Florida locations, and often incorporated cool pop songs in their entirety in a way that was integral to the plot of the show.

It's tempting to denigrate Miami Vice as the triumph of style over substance. But, that would be a grave injustice to a television classic. Series creator and main writer, Anthony Yerkovitch, drew a rich cast of characters. While Miami Vice revolved around the Metro-Dade vice detectives, Sonny Crockett (played by Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (played by Philip Michael Thomas), the ensemble cast brought a lot to the series. From the comic relief of Switek and Zito to the mysterious past of Lt. Castillo, every character was vital to the success of Miami Vice. My favorite Miami Vice characters were actually informants: fast talking Cuban con-man, Isidore "Izzy" Moreno, and his side-kick Nugart Neville "Noogie" Lamont.

A typical Miami Vice episode had an intriguing opening scene prior to the opening credits, a crime investigation that ended with a twist, and heroes racing to a potential crime scene to meaningful popular music and often arriving too late to avert tragedy, but sometimes lethally dispensing justice. One best remembered scene features, Crockett and Tubbs racing across town in their Ferrari Daytona convertible to Phil Collin's classic song, "In the Air Tonight." There was simply something about the streetlights being reflected off of the highly polished hood.

Miami Vice had an amazing impact on the popular culture of the late mid-80s. Crockett's white Armani jacket and T-shirt ensemble was emulated so often that it rapidly became a cliche. As a college student at the University of Florida, I remember a teaching assistant in a FORTRAN class wearing a t-shirt with a slogan that read - "Drug Smuggling: It's not just a job, it's an adventure." Even as possibly the "squarest boy in old Florida," I had a Miami Vice T-Shirt. While the fashion fads have passed, the show was instrumental in revitalizing Miami's Historic South Beach neighborhood. Even today, like Sonny Crockett, I don't like to wear socks and I don't shave on weekends.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Vice