After five seasons and more than 100 episodes, great stretches of the city made their way onto the show. Glimpsing the ghosts of Miami Vice in Miami isn't hard. The thing is, there's still an awful lot of espresso here, and really, a remarkable number of Ray-Bans. Now it's up to its Ray Bans in espresso.'' In a 1989 interview with the New York Times, creator Yerkovich noted, "When we got there, the Art Deco district was somewhat threadbare. At night, crowds of club-goers teeter past on stiletto heels or swig booze out of margarita glasses the size of their faces. Walking past the Carlyle today, I noticed it shines neon-bright as one of Ocean Drive's sleekest hotels. The Carlyle didn't look half bad in the show – a little seedy maybe, but with potted plants out front. "Five thousand street corners in Miami,” he said, “and Gumby here has got to pick ours." In one episode, Crockett, in his usual aloof, linen-bedecked glory, stands outside, watching in distaste as a street dancer busts a move on the otherwise empty blacktop. South Beach and its Art Deco buildings appear in all five seasons of the show in fact, they’re viewers' first glimpse of Miami in the show's two-hour premiere.Īmong the show’s Art Deco stars was The Carlyle Hotel. Investment followed, and then local ordinances were passed to protect the buildings. "People are seeing these bright colours and associating their liveliness with Miami." "The colours became synonymous with Miami Beach," Frankel said. Suddenly the area was awash in vibrant hues: pink, green, turquoise, yellow. "They would actually find the building's owner and ask if they could paint it." "Location scouts would see they wanted to shoot a particular building, but the colours were wrong," says Judith Frankel of the Preservation League. Producer Mann had taken the extraordinary step of declaring that no earth tones be used in the show. When Vice was filming, producers noticed the decaying Art Deco buildings, and also their bland, beige colours. South Beach and the Art Deco buildings along Ocean Avenue were an ideal backdrop for videos and photo spreads, and not surprisingly featured heavily in countless scenes throughout Miami Vice's five seasons.īy the time filming of the show commenced in the early 1980s, groups like the Miami Design Preservation League had succeeded in getting the city’s Art Deco District listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but designation offered no protection from demolition only local ordinances could protect the buildings from being razed. "This drew models and people looking to be discovered, and then, tourists from around the world." "People started filming music videos, doing fashion shoots here," Lynch said. In a way, it was life – city life – imitating art. It was old people playing chess and waiting to see God, and it was also the deadliest city in the country."īut Miami changed. In those days, people used to call Miami 'heaven's waiting room’. "Really, if it wasn't for Miami Vice, the tourists wouldn't be here," said tour guide Michael Lynch. The marina makes the roster of sights visited by one local tour operator, Speedboat Tours, whose boat also zips past Hibiscus Island and a mansion whose exterior and waterfront deck stood in for a drug dealer's house. Today, the building is just a memory, and the intersection of SW 7th Street and SW 2nd Avenue where it sat is shadowed by a looming luxury apartment complex a brightly lit Publix supermarket lies steps away. The building – covertly labelled in the show as "Gold Coast Shipping Company" to keep their anti-narcotics operation undercover – was where Crockett and Tubbs debriefed cases. I strolled through the Brickell neighbourhood, just south of Miami's downtown, past the intersection that was home to the show's Organized Crime Bureau of the Metro-Dade Police Department, better known as Miami Vice. But the city is a work in progress more than a few cranes loom above multi-million-dollar condo construction sites. I didn’t have to spend more than a few minutes in the city to see that Miami has spruced itself up considerably since the '80s. Related article: In search of Miami's Cuban sandwichĭoes that Miami – the show's Miami – still exist? I wanted to find out.Add Jan Hammer's thumping theme song and a killer New Wave soundtrack, and Miami Vice created a character arguably sexier than Armani-clad Crockett and Tubbs: the city of Miami. It also introduced a fleet of cigarette boats, sports cars and bikini clad women set against the backdrop of Miami’s Art Deco architecture. The show premiered in the US 30 years ago and was ultimately syndicated in 77 countries, introducing viewers to two dapper undercover narcotics officers played by too-cool-for-school Don Johnson and hot-as-hell Philip Michael Thomas.
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