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The pulse and rhythm of a glamorous resort city was juxtaposed against the seamy haunts of the drug underworld in this gritty action series, which made heavy use of rock music background and music video effects. James “Sonny” Crockett (Don Johnson) was a rough-edged Miami vice detective who lived on a sailboat called ‘St. Vitus’ Dance’ that was guarded by his dyspeptic pet alligator, Elvis. Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) was an ex-New York street cop who had come south to find the drug dealer who murdered his brother. They were an unlikely but effective team, working undercover on the flashy Gold Coast and down the seedy alleyways that made Miami such a city of contrasts. Often they sped around town in Sonny’s black Ferrari Spider sports car (later upgraded to a state-of-the-art Ferrari Testarossa). Lt. Martin Castillo (Edward James Olmos) was their moody superior, Gina Navarro Calabrese (Saundra Santiago) and Trudy Joplin (Olivia Brown) a hip, female undercover team and Stan Switek (Michael Talbott) and Larry Zito (John Diehl) more conventional backup.
The stylish, MTV-influenced series (music by rock composer Jan Hammer) was a smash hit and transformed struggling actor Don Johnson into a major sex symbol in the mid-1980s. His expensive pastel sports jackets worn over a T-shirt, with stubbly beard, no socks and an angry scowl started a fashion trend for those into the macho / grubby look. Female characters on the show fawned over him and usually got blown up or shot for their trouble. Sonny’s estranged wife, Caroline (Belinda Montgomery) and his young son were rarely seen and a later quickie bride played by rock singer Sheena Easton also appeared infrequently. A multi-part story in 1988 had Sonny believing that he really was his drug-dealing undercover alter ego, Sonny Burnett, forcing partner Tubbs (who was “Rico Cooper” undercover) to bail him out. Sonny’s co-workers weren’t so lucky; his original partner in the pilot (Jimmy Smits) was killed, as were his backup Zito and his original superior Lt. Lou Rodriquez (Gregory Sierra). Even his original Ferrari was blown up accidentally at the beginning of the third season.
The hip series attracted many famous celebrities not normally seen in TV acting roles to do cameos (or more), including singers from the ‘50s (Little Richard, James Brown) to the ‘80s (Phil Collins, Ted Nugent, the Fat Boys). Watergate felon G. Gordon Liddy made quite an impression in the role of sneaky Capt. Real Estate; also seen fleetingly were such unlikely folks as boxing promoter Don King, boxing champ Roberto Duran, comic Tommy Chong, Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca and the President of NBC-TV (as a bartender).
Michael Mann went on to direct a film adaptation of the television series, which was released on July 28, 2006.
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