Miami Vice ran for five seasons on NBC, from September 16, 1984, to June 28, 1989. It aired on Friday nights. It was created by Anthony Yerkovich and executive-produced by Michael Mann, and it starred Don Johnson as James “Sonny” Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami, Florida.
It is remembered as a mood. It should be remembered as a bet that paid off unevenly, and mostly on the strength of its surface.
Trailer, via NBC Classics.
Two Cops, One Ferrari, and a Lot of Pop Music
The premise is a partnership. Crockett and Tubbs meet when Tubbs is undercover inside a drug cartel. The vice squad they join works drug trafficking and prostitution, and the show’s scripts were loosely based on real crimes in Miami — local and global organized crime, firearms trafficking, the Miami River Cops scandal, street prostitution, serial home burglaries, crimes committed by Cuban immigrants after the Mariel boatlift, and yakuza and Mafia activity in the city.
What separated Miami Vice from traditional police procedurals was not the casework. It was the 1980s culture it pulled in: contemporary rock and pop music, fashion, and sports cars like the Ferrari Testarossa and Lamborghini Countach. Across five seasons the show tried a number of different approaches, but it generally put music and stylized visuals ahead of elaborate writing. That is the trade at the center of the whole thing, and it is why the show still looks like nothing else on television and why so many episodes dissolve the moment you try to recall what actually happened in them.
The Casting That Made It Work
NBC had doubts about Johnson. He was 34, and the network weighed his several earlier failed pilots against him. Yerkovich pushed back. He asked to read the scripts from those failed shows and came back with a verdict: the scripts were the problem, not the actor. NBC acquiesced. It was the right call, and it is the rare case where a showrunner’s stubbornness is legible on screen.
The role nearly went elsewhere. Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges were considered for Crockett, but film stars did not move into television for money at the time. Mickey Rourke was considered and turned it down. Larry Wilcox of CHiPs was a candidate, but producers felt moving from one police officer role to another would not fit.
The supporting bench changed early. Jimmy Smits played Eddie Rivera, Crockett’s ill-fated partner, in the pilot. Gregory Sierra played Lt. Lou Rodriguez, Crockett’s supervisor in the early episodes, and was written out in the two-part “Calderone’s Return” after he decided he did not like being in Miami. Edward James Olmos replaced him as Lt. Martin Castillo and stayed for the rest of the run.
What the Show Was Actually About
The crimes were ripped from the city. The personal lives were not spared either.
- Crockett separated from his wife Caroline in the pilot and divorced her in the fourth episode
- His second wife, Caitlin Davies, was killed by one of his enemies
- A concussion from an explosion left Crockett believing he was his undercover alter ego, drug dealer Sonny Burnett, across “Mirror Image,” “Hostile Takeover” and “Redemption in Blood”
- Tubbs carried a running, partly personal vendetta against the Calderone family, one of whom ordered the death of his brother Rafael, a New York City police detective
- Castillo is haunted by his past in Southeast Asia, where he worked as a DEA agent in the Golden Triangle
The show also reached for political ground: the Northern Ireland conflict, the drug war in South America, U.S. support of generals and dictators in Southeast Asia and South America, and the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It covered child abuse, homophobia and the AIDS crisis.
That ambition is real, and it is also where the show’s reputation gets oversold. Miami Vice handled those subjects the way it handled everything — through style first. The visuals carry the weight the writing often cannot.
The Fight That Nearly Ended It
After two seasons, Johnson threatened to walk as part of a highly publicized contract dispute. NBC was ready to replace him with Mark Harmon, who had just left St. Elsewhere. The two sides resolved their differences and Johnson stayed to the end.
That standoff matters more than most trivia. A show this dependent on one performer’s presence was one network decision away from becoming a different show entirely, and the fact that it survived says something about how much NBC valued the look it had already paid for.
Miami Vice’s reach outlasted its run. USA Network began airing reruns on cable in 1988. The series heavily inspired the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Mann directed a film adaptation released in 2006, and another, titled Miami Vice ’85, was announced in 2025 with Joseph Kosinski directing and Dan Gilroy writing.
Five seasons, 110 episodes, and a formula that prioritized music and visuals over elaborate writing. That is not a flaw to forgive. It is the actual achievement, and it is why the show’s influence is easier to trace than its plots. The pilot’s casting gamble, Olmos’s Castillo, and the Ferrari are the parts that hold up. The rest is atmosphere doing the work of story, and it mostly gets away with it. 7.4 of 10.
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