Miami Vice: The Birth of the Icon

Miami Vice’s first episode aired on September 16, 1984 and was entitled Brother’s Keeper. The plot for the show was introducing Sonny Crockett, an undercover cop for the Miami Vice department, and introducing his undercover persona, Sonny Burnett. Sonny Burnett lives on a yacht with an alligator named Elvis. Sonny Crockett is separated from his wife and six-year-old son, and feeling guilty over the whole thing.

Ricardo Tubbs is a street cop in New York who comes to Miami to avenge his brother’s death. Tubbs’ brother was a policeman killed in a cocaine transaction by a Columbian smuggler named Calderone. Tubbs’ takes on his own persona as a Jamaican looking for cocaine, and Tubbs and Crockett become unwilling partners as they both hunt down Calderone.

Crockett realizes that his ex-partner and friend is leaking information to Calderone and he forces him to expose the smuggler’s plans. After the smuggler is captured, Crockett and Tubbs find out that a judge has released Calderone on a 2 million dollar bail.

Miami Vice was originally scheduled for Friday nights at 10 p.m. and did very well for its self, finishing 9th in the polls in its second season.

In June of 1986, Miami vice was moved back an hour to go head to head with CBS’s popular night-time soap opera Dallas, which was, at the time, going into its 10th season. The move proved to be an error for the show as Miami Vice slipped into 23rd place in the ratings in 1986-1987 and further down to 36th place in 1987-1988.

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