Miami Vice: An Icon of the Eighties

Miami Vice was an icon of eighties television, remembered for its stylish clothes and memorable characters: Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. With the large cocaine boom of the eighties, many of the stories were fashioned about cocaine, other drugs and murder. Often throughout the show, Detectives of Miami Vice would have to resort to violence in the course of their work.

The ground breaking television show, Miami Vice paved the way for many of the crime and cop television shows we have on TV today, including today’s wildly popular CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. What’s more, Miami Vice, a story narrated around Miami Beach was an ideal setting for a great cop show; the backdrop of all the Miami Condos and the Florida sunshine made the show even more memorable than had its storyline been set in any other place in the world. Such a setting made the idea that crime can affect even the most beautiful areas of the world, that much more striking.

Most of what people associate with Miami Vice is the look of the show, the flamboyancy of the surroundings and the people. Michael Mann, the executive producer of Miami Vice painstakingly looked for everything that added to the look. He saw the original colors of Miami, Miami Beach, and all the Miami Real Estate. The stylish art-deco buildings, the Miami Condos, the ocean and waterways, and he made a statement and a promise to the show to provide continuity of the colors. No earth tones, only bright blues, hues of pink and green and yellow. No red, beige or brown.

It is said that Mann scanned everything in a scene looking for the ‘no’ colors, removing anything hued red, beige or brown and replacing it with brighter and more vibrant colors. Mann watered the streets during night scenes to reflect night lights, moon light and look slick and appealing.

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