Smuggler's Blues

Season 1, Episode 15

Original Air Date: 2/1/1985

Songs Featured: Red Rider "Lunatic Fringe", Baja "Mascara", Glenn Frey "Smuggler's Blues".

Notable Guest Stars: Richard Jenkins, Glenn Frey, Richard Edson 

Essential Viewing: Yes

Some notable guest stars make "Smuggler's Blues" an essential episode.

Golden Triangle Part II

Season 1, Episode 14

Original Air Date: 1/18/1985

Songs Featured: The Blues Project "Catch the Wind", The Coasters "Poison Ivy", The Bobbettes "Mr. Lee".

Notable Guest Stars: Keye Luke, Joan Chen, Charlie Barnett

Essential Viewing: Yes

"Golden Triangle Part II" maintains a heavy focus on Lieutenant Castillo on its way to wrapping up the events of part I.

Golden Triangle

Season 1, Episode 13

Original Air Date: 1/11/1985

Songs Featured: Dolly Parton "Great Balls of Fire".

Notable Guest Stars: None

Essential Viewing: Yes

"Golden Triangle" begins as a seemingly simple episode, but before it is over the world of Miami Vice gets much, much larger.

Milk Run

Season 1, Episode 12

Original Air Date: 1/4/1985

Songs Featured: ZZ Top "Legs", Pat Benatar "Hit Me With Your Best Shot".

Notable Guest Stars: Eric Bogosian, Evan Handler, John Kapelos

Essential Viewing: No

Non-essential but still a worthwhile episode.

Little Prince

Season 1, Episode 11

Original Air Date: 12/14/1984

Songs Featured: Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Relax", Todd Rundgren "Tiny Demons", Autograph "Turn Up the Radio".

Notable Guest Stars: Giancarlo Esposito, Maryann Plunkett

Essential Viewing: No

A rather ho-hum episode.

Give a Little, Take a Little

Season 1, Episode 10

Original Air Date: 12/07/1984

Songs Featured: Tina Turner "Better Be Good to Me.", Etta James "You Want More", Brian Ray "Today's a Beginning".

Notable Guest Stars: Burt Young, Michael Madsen, Terry O'Quinn

Essential Viewing: Yes

An essential episode based solely on the character work.

Glades

Season 1, Episode 9

Original Air Date: 11/30/1984

Songs Featured: The Animals "We Got to Get Out of This Place", INXS "I Send a Message", Tommy Shaw "Girls with Guns".

Notable Guest Stars: John Pankow, Margaret Whitton

Essential Viewing: No

Another pedestrian episode with nothing to make it essential.

The Great McCarthy

Season 1, Episode 8

Original Air Date: 11/16/1984

Songs Featured: Lindsey Buckingham "Go Insane", Steppenwolf "Born to be Wild".

Notable Guest Stars: None

Essential Viewing: Yes

A below average episode that becomes essential with the introduction of another recurring character.

No Exit

Season 1, Episode 7

Original Air Date: 11/09/1984

Songs Featured: Teddy Pendergrass "Stay With Me", Phil Collins "I Don't Care Anymore".

Notable Guest Stars: Bruce Willis

Essential Viewing: No

Originally broadcast as Three-Eyed Turtle, No Exit is the first non-essential episode of "Miami Vice". Casual viewers might be inclined to watch it for an early Bruce Willis appearance but there are no continuity reasons that make it a necessary watch.

One Eyed Jack

Season 1, Episode 6

Original Air Date: 11/02/1984

Songs Featured: Honeymoon Suite "New Girl Now", Eric Clapton "Wonderful Tonight", The Pointer Sisters "Jump (For My Love)".

Notable Guest Stars: Dennis Farina, Dan Hedaya, Joe Dallesandro

Essential Viewing: Yes

With the death of Lieutenant Rodriguez in Calderone's Return Part I the Vice Division was in need of a new leader. After a brief authority figure appeared in Part 2 Edward James Olmos finally made his debut as Lieutenant Martin Castillo in episode 6 "One Eyed Jack".

Calderone's Return Part II

Season 1, Episode 5

Original Air Date: 10/26/1984

Songs Featured: Russ Ballard "Voices", Tina Turner "What's Love Got To Do With It".

Notable Guest Stars: Sam McMurray

Essential Viewing: Yes

Originally broadcast as "Calderone's Demise", "Calderone's Return Part II" picks up shortly after the end of the previous episode. Crockett and Tubbs grill the decoy assassin as to the actual whereabouts of Calderone in the Bahamas. After initial resistance he gives up the location.

Calderone's Return Part I

Season 1, Episode 4

Original Air Date: 10/19/1984

Songs Featured: The Pointer Sisters "I'm So Excited", ZZ Top "Tush", Russ Ballard "In the Night".

Notable Guest Stars: None

Essential Viewing: Yes

Originally broadcast as "The Hit List", "Calderone's Return Part 1" begins at a simple stake out but ends with the death of a major charcter.

Early Recognition

Miami Vice is considered to be a groundbreaking television show. Its use of popular music and "movie-like" filming techniques changed the landscape of prime time TV. It's easy to see that now almost 30 years removed from its debut, but I was happy to find that even early in its run the show was receiving attention for some of the fresh ideas that it brought to the table.

In a 2 page article from the Palm Beach Post dated November 10th, 1984 writer Bob Michals covers the shows immediate influence. It includes comments from executive producer Michael Mann, series creator Anthony Yerkovich, an NBC spokesperson, a Miami Police Department public relations spokesman, and star Don Johnson.

Cool Runnin'

Season 1, Episode 3

Original Air Date: 10/05/1984

Songs Featured: None

Notable Guest Stars: None

Essential Viewing: Yes

The third episode of season 1 finds Crockett and Tubbs tracking a drug operation run by a gang of trigger happy Jamaicans. It starts with an exciting (yet awkwardly shot) sequence that finds Crockett and Tubbs in pursuit of a van that just fled the scene of a drug deal turned homicide. The van opens fire on them before it eventually escapes.

An Early Review

In between episode posts I thought it might be fun to keep things active here with additional posts that are somehow related to the show.

For this first installment I found a review of the show from the Deseret News' September 22nd, 1984 edition. In the review titled "'Miami Vice' Doesn't do much for Florida's image" writer Lori Mirrer comes out of the gate with her disdain for the show. It's a fair enough critical read of the series, and as much as I'd love to counter her points one by one there is really no need to. After all the review is almost 30 years old and the show long ago established its place in television history.

The most interesting aspect of the review for me was seeing someone write about the show before it became a runaway success. The closing line can't help but make me smile though: "But we don't have to worry about the inaccurate portrayal of South Florida in "Miami Vice." Unless the series makes a big improvement in scripting and acting, it won't last long enough to do any harm to our image." I wonder if the writer felt the show improved enough to warrant its 5 season run

You can find the full review HERE.

Heart of Darkness

Season 1, Episode 2

Original Air Date: 9/28/1984

Songs Featured: The Tubes "She's a Beauty", John Waite "Missing You", Devo "Going Under", George Benson "This Masquerade".

Notable Guest Stars: Ed O'Neill

Essential Viewing: Yes

"Heart of Darkness" is a fitting title for the second episode of the series.  In addition to exploring the darker aspects of society it also showcases the negative impact that undercover work can bring. The main plot sees Crockett and Tubbs working to bring down a pornography ring that deals in underage girls. They hit a slight bump in the road though when they discover that the second in command is actually an undercover fed (Ed O'Neill) who has possibly gone to the other side.

Brother's Keeper

Season 1, Episode 1

Original Air Date: 9/16/1984

Songs Featured: The Rolling Stones "Miss You", Rockwell "Somebody's Watching Me", Cindy Lauper "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight".

Notable Guest Stars: Jimmy Smits, Mykelti Williamson

Essential Viewing: Yes

Referred to on the DVD release as simply "Pilot", "Brother's Keeper" is a double length introduction to Miami Vice. Without commercials it runs 97 minutes and plays well as a stand alone movie.

The Format

So before we get into the series episode by episode I'll give a quick rundown of how each post will be written. Each post's title will be the title of the episode that I'll be covering. At the start of the post I'll include episode number, season and original air date, popular songs that are featured in it and any notable actors. I will also indicate if the episode is essential viewing. After that I will give a quick rundown of the plot and include any other thoughts that I have about the episode.

So with the rules out of the way come back tomorrow when we talk episode #1 "Brother's Keeper"! And until then enjoy these two promo clips that hyped the show's debut.

An Introduction

When Miami Vice first hit the airwaves in September 1984 I was an instant fan. I was a pre-teen but not too young to appreciate what a fresh and exciting show it was. I've written about Miami Vice before on my blog Always the Last in Line and I think this entry from when the show debuted on DVD is a fitting first post for this blog.

Miami Vice made its debut in September of 1984 with an explosive 2 hour episode. The show was exciting, fresh and unlike any program network television audiences had ever seen. And before the end of its 5 season run its influence would be seen in cinema, fashion and even music.

Too cool cops Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) backed by a high energy, synth-driven Jan Hammer score as well as music by some of the day’s most popular artists worked the streets of a pastel tinged Miami with style, swagger and attitude. Less concerned with proper police procedure and politics (something no cop show concentrated on at the time), Vice seemed to exist solely to make TV screens a bit more hip on Friday nights.

And with its frequent roster of guest stars that included Phil Collins, Glen Frey and Frank Zappa (to name a few) and montages that played like mini-music videos it did just that. At its peak Miami Vice played like MTV’s much cooler older brother.

Ahead of its time and still as exciting to watch today as it was over 20 years ago, the first season is now available on DVD* for the first time. With a handful of extras and a 5.1 sound mix that contains all of the show’s original music this is one show that would round out any DVD collection (or at least add some much needed color).

* Since posting all 5 season have been released on DVD and are also available on Netflix instant.