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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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By CHASE SQUIRES
Published February 9, 2005
AP
If you were a bad guy in the ‘80s, Tubbs and Crockett were the two cops you didn’t want to see pull up in the Ferrari.
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Original Miami Vice (TV) Theme
Miami Vice: Complete Collection Jan Hammer One Way Records Inc. |
Before Miami Vice , there was brown.
Television cops worked in rundown precinct houses, background music was just that, and earth tones screamed 1970-something.
Then there was Vice, painting South Florida in pastel and neon, reinventing a city's image and delivering an increasingly sophisticated generation of television viewers something new on Friday nights: intense color, sound, vibe.
Fans can finally toss their tattered, homemade VHS tapes. Miami Vice is back with the release of the first season this week on DVD.
The hourlong weekly series, a cross between Scarface and MTV, aired on Friday nights from 1984 to 1989. Through much of the '90s, it bounced around in syndication, then disappeared along with the three-day stubble and no-socks look, left to Internet fan sites and rumors of a movie revival.
The collection arrives amid reports of a 2006 movie version (reported to star Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell).
Here's a look at why Vice has kept its cool all of these years:
THE CITY: With Vice, executive producer Michael Mann (who would go on to big-screen credits for The Aviator, Ali and Collateral , to name a few) crafted a new image for Miami. Instead of clips from the evening news -- the 1980 Liberty City riots and the Mariel boatlift -- Mann presented a cosmopolitan, glowing city steeped in mystery, sun and fashion. Sure, the show was about crime, but the crooks, and the cops, had style.
"Drugs, along with its propensity for political intrigue, has given Miami an image of a subtropical Casablanca," wrote Miami Dade College professor Paul George in a history of Miami-Dade County. "This image was burnished by Miami Vice ."
In an interview, George said including Miami Vice in his account wasn't just a casual nod to pop culture. He remembers the buzz in his town when the show debuted. It created its own reality. Property owners saw the show's version of Miami and painted their homes and businesses to reflect it. South Beach came alive, he said.
THE LOOK: Miami Vice: Season One comes complete with Don Johnson in white cotton pants and turquoise tank tops, Philip Michael Thomas in striped silver suits and open-collar shirts, and Edward James Olmos in skinny silk ties.
With so many pieces in place -- crime lords, sunshine, drugs and money -- Miami Vice costume designer Jodie Tillen said she couldn't go wrong with the last part of the equation: fashion.
"The show dictated something tropical, and there was all that color," Tillen said in a telephone interview.
Tropical temperatures meant light fabrics, and hidden weapons meant loose-fitting jackets.
The look spread across the country.
"Television reaches such an unbelievable audience," she said. "It was just extraordinary when that show hit. Anybody could do that style at any store, and you didn't have to spend a million dollars to do it."
THE LESSONS: The style may be dated, but time has helped uncover the themes beneath the surface of the show, said David Tetzlaff, a professor of film studies at Connecticut College (and Miami Vice fan). The show, he said, was about moral men taking a stand against the growing wave of commercialization, fast money and raw greed.
"Neither Crockett nor Tubbs has a wavering from good. Their moral compass has no error, they always do the right thing," Tetzlaff said. "Yet the result of always doing the right thing is that they almost always fail. It's a deeply sad show, which I think most people do not get. By being unambiguously good in a bad world, the characters are isolated. They're lonely guys."
- Chase Squires squires@tampabay.com
Here's the deal
Miami Vice: Season One, on sale now at retail outlets and online. Suggested price, $59.98. Three double-sided DVDs, 22 episodes, including the pilot, plus bonus features.
[Last modified February 9, 2005, 11:33:35]
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