Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

Legend has it that Miami Vice was originally pitched as being “MTV Cops.”  That may or may not be true but what is known is that it was a show that, for many people, continues to epitomize the 80s.  Its cynical and frequently surrealistic portrait of life in Miami continues to be influential to this day.  With Florida currently being at the center of so many discussions, it just seemed like a natural pick for Retro Television Reviews.

(Up until a few days ago, the mayor of Miami was running for President and two other Florida residents are currently the front runners for one party’s presidential nomination.  As I sit here writing this, national politics are often described as Florida vs California.  Even more than in the past, America revolves around Florida.)

Though Miami Vice is often describe as being a Michael Mann production, the show itself was actually created by Anthony Yerkovich, who felt that Miami in the 80s had become the American equivalent of Casablanca during World War II.  Mann served as executive producer and he played a big role in creating the show’s trademark visual style.  And, of course, the theme song was provided by Jan Hammer:

Episode 1.1 “Brother’s Keeper, Part One”

(Dir by Thomas Carter, originally aired on September 16th, 1984)

Though the show is considered, to this day, to be the epitome of the Southern Florida aesthetic, Miami Vice actually begins in New York City.

On a dark and wet New York Street, a detective named Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) sits in his car.  When a group of young men approach the car and demand that Tubbs give them some money, Tubb responds by coolly pointing a shotgun at them.  The men take the message and leave.

Tubbs is staking out a Colombian drug dealer named Calderone (Miguel Pinero).  Tubbs follows Calderone and his associates to a club, the type of place where even the neon lighting seem to be shadowy.  When Tubbs gets into a fight with some of Calderone’s bodyguards, Calderone flees into the dark night.

The action moves to Miami, which is as bright and sunny as New York was cold and dark.  Undercover vice cop Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson), wearing a white suit and a green t-shirt, gives advice to his partner, Eddie Rivera (a young and charismatic Jimmy Smits, making his television debut).  Eddie talks about how his wife is nervous about him being a cop.  Sonny tells Eddie to call her after they get finished dealing with a local drug dealer named Corky.

Corky knows Crockett as “Sonny Burnett” and he believes Eddie is a buyer from California.  When Corky arrives, they drive out to an underpass.  Corky and Eddie walk over to another car to check out Corky’s product.  Sonny spots the bomb that’s been taped under car’s hood but he’s too late to keep it from blowing up both Corky and Eddie.

When Lt. Rodriguez (Gregory Sierra) arrives on the scene, he’s not amused to discover two of his detectives — Stan Switek (Michael Talbott) and Larry Zito (John Diehl) — joking about how the police dogs are going to get hooked on all of the cocaine residue.  However, he’s even more annoyed with Sonny, who is quickly established as being the type of cop who does not “do it by the book!”  Rodriguez also says that Sonny hasn’t changed since his “football days.”  Sonny says that Eddie was killed by a mysterious dealer known as The Colombian.  Rodriguez replies that Sonny can’t even prove that the Colombian exists.  Rodriguez is particularly angered when Sonny says that there must be a mole working in the department.

While Sonny tells Eddie’s wife the bad news and then heads over to his son’s birthday party (it’s established that Sonny is divorced), Tubbs lands in Miami.  Hanging out at a strip club and doing an elaborate dance to Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me, Tubbs is approached by a man named Scott Wheeler (Bill Smitrovich).  Pretending to be a Jamaican named Teddy Prentiss, Tubbs arranges to meet a drug dealer that Wheeler claims to know.

What Tubbs doesn’t know is that Wheeler is an undercover DEA agent and that he’s also Sonny Crockett’s former partner.  Sonny is the “dealer.”  That night, Sonny and a real-life drug dealer, Leon (Mykelti Williamson) show up at the meeting with Wheeler and “Teddy.”  Unfortunately, Zito and Switek show up earlier than expected and they end up arresting everyone before Leon can lead Sonny to the Colombian.  Tubbs makes a run for it, jumps into the boat that Sonny drove to the meeting, and speeds away.  Sonny jumps into his own car and chases the boat while the Miami Vice theme song plays in the background.  (Trust me, it’s a supercool scene.)

Finally confronting Tubbs on a bridge, Sonny reveals that he’s a detective.  Tubbs produces his own badge and introduces himself as Raphael Tubbs of the NYPD.  He explains that he’s in Miami because he’s after a Colombian drug dealer named Calderone.  Sonny explains that he’s too busy searching for the Colombian to worry about Tubbs’s search.  Finally, Lt. Rodriguez shows up and helps them to understand that they’re both looking for the same guy.  Rodriguez suggests that they work together but Sonny refuses.

The next morning, Tubbs tracks Sonny down on the houseboat on which he lives.  It’s a tense meeting, with Sonny punching Tubbs for suggesting that he wasn’t a good enough cop to save Eddie’s life.  Sonny apologizes afterwards and Tubbs accepts the apology and then punches Sonny so that they’ll be even.  Sonny then introduces Tubbs to his pet alligator, Elvis.  It’s male-bonding, 80s style!

Sonny and Scott head over to the courthouse so that they can be “arraigned,” along with Leon.  I really liked the performance of Howard Bergman, who played the eccentric judge, Clarence Rupp.  At one point, the lights went out in the courtroom and when they came back, everyone from the judge to the bailiffs to the court reporter had drawn a gun.  After mentioning his appreciation of the second amendment, Judge Rupp announces that Leon is free to go without bail because he’s cooperating with the police.  A panicked Leon yells that he’s not cooperating.

Later, a fearful Leon calls Rodriguez and offers to cooperate in return for protective custody.  Leon is hiding out at the beach, where Tubbs is keeping an eye on him.  When Sonny arrives, he’s not amused to see Tubbs there.  Meanwhile, a hitman who has disguised himself as a woman shoots and kills Leon while Girls Just Want To Have Fun plays on the soundtrack.

And so ends part one of Brother’s Keeper.  And you know what?  Even after all this time, it’s still easy to see why Miami Vice took off and why it continue to inspire a slew of imitators.  The pilot was genuinely exciting, with the perfect mix of music, visuals, and charismatic performances.  Jimmy Smits broke my heart in his tiny role.  Mykelti Williamson made Leon into an almost sympathetic character as he realized that the cops were willing to sacrifice him to get at his boss.  From the start, Don Johnson’s gruff performance as Sonny feels like a perfect match for Philip Michael Thomas’s more earnest portrayal of Tubbs.  If Sonny is a cynic, Tubbs seems to feel that he can make a difference by taking down men like Calderone. We’ll have to see how long that lasts.

Next week, we’ll finish up the pilot with part two of Brother’s Keeper!