Elements Of Vice
But as with most TV shows, there was little on Vice that was actually new--it simply combined elements that hadn't yet before been seen in a TV show before.
Don Johnson's Sonny Crocket wasn't the first man to wear a T-shirt with his suit; rock stars had been doing that since at least the mid-1970s. But the show's ubiquity during the second season definitely made it his trademark, and millions of guys copied the look.
With varying results, of course. Brandon Tartikoff, the late former president of NBC once publicly apologized to America in a magazine interview for the number of pot-bellied men who sadly adopted the suit and T-shirt look of Sonny Crockett. As another fictional cop once said, "A good man's got to know his limitations."
While the show was still airing, I read a quote from a TV critic--I forget who--but I thought he had the very best take on why Vice clicked with the public. In an era of conspicuous consumption (at least much more so than the denim and polyester 1970s were), Sonny Crockett lived like a drug dealer: gleaming black Ferrari convertible, thousand dollar white linen suits, Italian loafers, a speedboat and yacht--all while remaining on the side of law enforcement. Just as James Bond blurred the line between movie good guy and bad guy with his boozing, whoring, and license to dispassionately kill, Crockett blurred the line between cop and criminal.
Or maybe it was the music. "Bushido" was Edward James Olmos' episode. He directed it, and it was the annual spotlight on his Lt. Castillo character. It's deliberately paced and surprisingly lugubrious for a show famously envisioned by Tartikoff as "MTV Cops"--but on the other hand, what other TV series in 1986 book-ended an episode with music from Bryan Ferry and Kate Bush? ("Boys And Girls" and "Hello Earth" respectively.) For many viewers (umm, like me), this was their first exposure to such artists.
In some cases, Vice's videos were better than those that actually ran on MTV: checkout the dramatic sequence edited around Godley & Crème's "Cry" in the episode "Definitely Miami".
Article comments
1 - Barry Stoller
When this show finally gets its big screen "remake," someone's gonna make a boatload of money.
2 - Brent McKee
It's strange but true that the one real breakout star of this series was Edward James Olmos. He'd done quite a bit of work before this but it was "Miami Vice" where he became a truly rcognisable figure.
3 - J. Pitts
Best description of Miami Vice ever written.
4 - strangewings
I agree that there were "often vacuous plots" but Bushido was not one of them (and not that you said it was). That episode seemed the peculiarity of season two and featured a stellar performance from Olmos. I just caught it on Sleuth TV. The Cold War, "pinkos," Hagakure, and a samurai sword.
"Surf's up, pal!" Now I have a new catch-phrase for the office. Thanks, Crockett.