Miami Vice at 40: An Oral History

Miami Vice burst onto the scene in Reagan-era 1984, a portrait of crime-fighting cool distinguished by trendsetting pastel colors, hot contemporary music and flashy cinematography. The show was an immediate standout for its stylish wardrobe, Italian sports cars and hip attitude — all in contrast to the grim, dangerous work of undercover detectives busting drug cartels and prostitution rings.

Don Johnson was the epitome of slick as undercover Det. James “Sonny” Crockett, sporting stubble and residing on a boat with a pet alligator. Philip Michael Thomas played his partner in crimefighting, Det. Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs.

Miami Vice ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989, scoring 20 Emmy nominations and winning four Emmys. This year marks the 40th anniversary of its premiere.

Creator Anthony Yerkovich had just completed three seasons as a writer-producer on Hill Street Blues. Michael Mann, who signed on as executive producer, had written the pilot for the 1978 series Vega$ and won an Emmy for writing the 1979 TV movie The Jericho Mile. More recently, he’d written and directed Thief, the stylish 1981 feature starring James Caan.

Mann’s ambitious vision, based on Yerkovich’s concept and pilot script, was to shoot a 60-minute feature-like episode every seven days, totaling 22 each season. They did just that, employing innovative cinematography and complex cutting techniques never before used for TV.

Mann recalls Miami as a bland, “war-surplus beige” before production began. His objective, he says, was to use a palette of pastel colors to “generate a feeling of heat.” Shot on location, Miami Vice not only revolutionized the cop-show genre but helped revitalize Miami and South Beach. Decades earlier, the area had been a glitzy vacationland, but by 1984 it was a dreary shamble of decrepit retirement homes, overrun with drug lords and prostitutes. The show’s metropolitan makeover foreshadowed Miami’s current upscale image.

Apart from Crockett and Tubbs, principal characters were Det. Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago) and her partner, Trudy Joplin (Olivia Brown). Edward James Olmos, who joined in the fifth episode, played Lt. Martin Castillo.

Guest stars included up-and-comers like Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Benicio del Toro, Chris Rock, Liam Neeson, Bruce Willis, James Gandolfini and Lorraine Bracco. Pam Grier had a three-episode arc, and Belinda Montgomery and pop star Sheena Easton had recurring roles as Crockett’s first and second wives, respectively.

One of the first series broadcast in stereo, Miami Vice emphasized its music, and many guest stars were prominent musicians, including James Brown, Phil Collins, Miles Davis, Glenn Frey and Little Richard. Collins’s “In the Air Tonight” was featured in the two-hour pilot and became the song most linked with the show.

When Mann left after two seasons to write and direct the feature Manhunter, Dick Wolf moved up from the writing staff to his very first role as showrunner. In 2006, Mann directed a Miami Vice feature starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx.

Emmy contributor Jane Wollman Rusoff interviewed cast and crew for their recollections of working on the series, which had a transformative impact on television, fashion and Miami itself.

Welcome to Miami 

Anthony Yerkovich (creator, writer, executive producer): I had read in the Wall Street Journal that 20% of unreported income in the United States came from Dade County, Florida, even though it had only half of 1% of the nation’s population. That was criminal money from drugs, prostitution, extortion and white-collar crime.

Herb Gains (first assistant director): Miami had once been a hip place, but when we got there it was a really scary place. All the hotels were worn down. Drug deals were going on in the wide open. People from the Drug Enforcement Administration, who went after the drug dealers, were consultants to us. We created a show that depicted the real deal.

Yerkovich: If the federal government indicts anyone for running a criminal organization, they give all the ill-gotten gains — like clothing and fancy cars — to local law enforcement, which enables undercover cops to pose as high-level drug dealers. That’s why Miami Vice’s detectives Crockett and Tubbs dressed the way they did and drove around in a Ferrari and a Cadillac.

One element of my concept was the pop-culture phenomenon of music videos and MTV: I wanted to set the story to music in a dialectical fashion so that it commented on the narrative and characters, and vice-versa. I pitched “Gold Coast” [the show’s original title] to Universal as a film, but they were already doing one that was set in Miami — Scarface. Universal TV said my idea sounded great for a television show. I sold the concept in a 20-minute pitch meeting and wrote the pilot in about six weeks.

I told Universal I didn’t want to be committed as a showrunner for more than a season, and they brought in Michael Mann about six months after I wrote the script. For the first half of the first season, both Michael and I were executive producers.

Michael Mann (executive producer): Sometimes people say I created the show. But that’s Tony Yerkovich’s credit. When Universal asked me to be executive producer, I said I had to have creative control, and I wanted to change the title to Miami Vice. I wanted to give it the same sensibility as a contemporary feature film.

Yerkovich: Brandon Tartikoff [the late executive who headed NBC Entertainment] told the press a falsehood: He said he wrote “MTV cops” on a napkin and that was where the show came from. He didn’t start peddling that self-promotion until the show was looking like it would be a success.

Assembling the Cast

Don Johnson (Det. James “Sonny” Crockett, directed four episodes): Crockett was cynical and suspicious. I said, “I’m going to make this son of a bitch tougher than goddamn nails and softer than cotton.” Tony Yerkovich couldn’t get me out of his mind, even though I’d made five pilots — three for Brandon Tartikoff — and they’d all failed.

Yerkovich: I told NBC that Don would be perfect for Crockett. He had a hustler way, very slick and charming. But Tartikoff and other suits said, “No, no. He’s a three-time loser.” And Michael wasn’t big on Don at all.

Bonnie Timmermann (casting director): One of the reasons I was hired was to try to beat Don Johnson. Everybody loved him, but some people wanted to see who else was out there. But no one beat him to play the role.

Philip Michael Thomas (Det. Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs): I told my manager, “I’ve got to do this role.” It was all written in the stars. Tubbs was a black panther with nine lives.

Johnson: Philip and I never had an argument in five years of working together. He’s an angel.

Mann: I wanted to invert how Black Americans were represented in series television. The character of Tubbs was always going to be a Black man. But I didn’t want him to be Crockett’s assistant — the Black Tonto to his Lone Ranger. I wanted him to be erudite, bilingual, have sophistication.

Saundra Santiago (Det. Gina Calabrese): My character was more than a Latina cop. She was a real human being who wanted to catch bad guys. As undercover cops, Olivia Brown’s character and mine had to dress scantily as hookers and roam the streets. We always had to pull out our guns and say, “Miami Vice! Freeze!” So, we got trained in how to use them. Cops on the set would guide us through.

Edward James Olmos (Lt. Martin Castillo): Gregory Sierra played the [lieutenant] role for four episodes. When he left, Michael Mann called me to replace him [as a different character]. I said I needed a nonexclusive contract and creative control of my character, even though Michael had total control of everything — even how the flowers on the trees were painted. He called me four times, offering more money each time, but I still wouldn’t accept the offer. On the fifth call, Michael gave me nonexclusivity and creative control. The next day at 7 a.m., I was in front of the camera.

My character was a samurai ninja warrior. He smiled only once: when his friend, who he thought was dead, came back. At the beginning, viewers didn’t like my character. He was hardened, not kind and fuzzy. He kept his distance. Later, you find out he’d lost his family and his crew while [with the DEA] in [Southeast Asia’s] Golden Triangle. They wanted my character to go undercover and be a trio with Philip and Don. They both looked at me weirdly when I said no, but lieutenants usually come afterward and say, “What’s going on?”

When I came on the screen, people would say, “Shut up! He’s gonna speak!” I would kind of mumble to bring a sense of reality. They said, “We can’t understand you!” Well, okay, watch it again!

Santiago: Eddie was a serious actor. He created this great character. Once, to try to make him laugh, when it was time for his take in a scene, Olivia and I picked up our shirts and showed him our breasts. He laughed and blushed.

Olmos: [Saundra and Olivia] wanted me to have a different kind of reaction on camera than Castillo would have. Of course, I didn’t give it to them — I was working. But when the director said, “Cut!” I started laughing. It was hysterical.

Olivia Brown (Det. Trudy Joplin): Our characters were working undercover on Biscayne Boulevard, where there were real prostitutes. I was dressed in this pink dress and coming out of the top, like I should be in a Madonna video. Our characters would pick up guys and take them back to a motel. Then the police would bust in from the other room and arrest them.

Santiago: Olivia and I had to stick together, because we had to fight for time on the show. I went to Michael every so often, saying, “I’m the third lead, but I’m not getting my fair share of storytelling.” He would make excuses.

Brown: Saundra battled with Michael Mann, but I made the best of my part, because they were paying us the same amount whether we were there for one day or more days. I had a house on the water and a Porsche.

The first day of filming, Don had the crew put a sign on my desk. It was supposed to say “Trudy Joplin,” but it said “Big Booty Trudy.” The crew wanted to change it to the real sign, but I said, “No, we’re going to keep this one.” We ended up keeping it there for five years.

Olmos: Saundra was a really good find. She and Don were probably the most experienced theater actors we had. Saundra could sing and dance. She did comedy and was very strong in drama.

Timmermann: Michael had a lot to do with bringing in different ethnicities. Every week I was looking for Latin actors. I felt like I was the Queen of Latine. Sometimes I’d put an actress in a male role, or vice-versa. Michael had told me, “Go for it.” But he needed to okay everyone I thought was right. Anybody that I saw and fell in love with, I tried to fit in [as guest stars]. We had Bruce Willis, Pam Grier, John Turturro, Nathan Lane, Jimmy Smits, Liam Neeson, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito and many musicians.

Johnson: My character had a pet alligator [named Elvis] that lived on my boat. His teeth and jaws would have been dangerous enough, but his tail was a pretty damn powerful tool. Once, he got unchained and slid off the dock into the water. Divers spent all day catching him.

Crafting a Wardrobe

Jodie Tillen (season one costume designer): I was a creative tool for Michael, and he was right [in his choices].

We coordinated the clothing colors with the locations: If a restaurant’s walls were peach, you made sure the costumes weren’t peach.

The lead characters had to dress and look like the people they were after. The hot and humid Miami weather — and Michael — dictated the colors. He said, “No earth tones, no red.” The show changed the way men who were fearful of wearing pastels dressed. It gave them permission to wear them. Initially, Don was uncomfortable in pastels. He thought that wasn’t who the character was. But any pushback I got from him, Michael cleared up.

The characters had to wear guns and shoulder holsters, so jackets needed to be fitted to accommodate that and not blatantly reveal they were carrying a gun. We didn’t have enough time to custom-fit costumes, because I had to come up with at least 75 for a new show every seven days. We needed many multiples since we had to dress the stunt people, and also the costumes would get sweaty and dirty.

Johnson: It was warm in Miami, so I started pushing up the sleeves of my jacket. I got rid of the belt and the socks because it was just too hot.

Olmos: I didn’t want Castillo to be dressed up in high-end clothing. I wore a black suit that looked like it came from Woolworth, a thin black tie and high-top shoes. I allowed them to put me in any kind of colored shirt they wanted, as long as it didn’t have a pattern.

Miami Music

Mann: The music was my concept, with help from a number of people who picked some of it. Tony also had an appreciation for the type of music needed. But the final selection was mine. We had a couple of soundtrack albums that topped the charts.

Jan Hammer (theme composer): Michael said he didn’t want the theme music to be generic TV drama music, so I pulled out a cassette and played him things I had done on my own. One — a high-energy, driving piece — ended up being the theme. Michael was known for being a control freak, but he was the total opposite with me. When we found out we were getting picked up, he told me I had total artistic freedom.

Thomas: In the episode “The Maze,” I sang the title song of my album, Living the Book of My Life. I added it a cappella when I was undercover walking into a building and up the stairs.

David Rosenbloom (pilot editor): [Director] Thomas Carter came up with the idea of using the Phil Collins song “In the Air Tonight” when Don calls his wife from a phone booth on the highway, with this neon sign in back that says “Bernay’s Café.” It was almost surreal. It captured most of what the series might become. That song went on to be the one most associated with the show. 

Timmermann: We brought in musicians like Glenn Frey, Leonard Cohen, James Brown, Little Richard, Miles Davis, Phil Collins, Willie Nelson, Ted Nugent, Frankie Valli. I called James Brown in prison. He said, “Listen, ma’am, I happen to be in prison now. But as soon as I get out, I’ll call you.” And he did.

Brown: In the episode Miles Davis was in, I was working undercover as a hooker. Don said, “You should go in and meet Miles Davis.” I liked to greet the guest stars, so I went into his dressing room. He started to undress, and I ran out of there. I was like, “Don, he thought the show had sent him a complimentary prostitute!” He didn’t realize I was one of the actors.

Inside the Writers' Room 

Mann: The show was Tony Yerkovich from a writing point of view. He was in charge of writing for most of the first season.

Yerkovich: I’d do the whole story outline. I’d get a lot of stories from talking to cops and drug dealers. That’s how you get the real deal. I had a big party, with 10–20% of the top drug dealers and some of the top vice cops. They didn’t know one another. Everyone got along.

Mann: Dick Wolf was working for me as a writer in the second season, and I brought him in for the third to run the writing.

Dick Wolf (showrunner): For the first four years, the show was one of the most fashionable in America. Everything was cutting-edge, like the way it was shot, infused with purple highlights. It didn’t look like anything else on TV. Once the stories got a little more structured, I thought it was more satisfying.

One episode that particularly stands out is the first one that I wrote, “When Irish Eyes Are Crying.” It was about an IRA terrorist who gets hold of a Stinger missile and shoots down a passenger jet at Miami Airport. The terrorist was played by Liam Neeson in his American debut.

Olmos: When Dick Wolf came on as showrunner, it was a mega jump up, because of the writing and the production values. Dick would be in the office with the writing staff, keeping the stories organized. But [supervising producer] John Nicolella made it run. He was there from the start and was the key.

Johnson: We’d throw the network’s Standards & Practices suggestions in the trash. We never did them, and they would yell at us. They’d come up with, “You can’t say this, you can’t do that.” We were three hours ahead of them in Florida, so we’d say, “Oh, that bus has already gone. We already shot that six hours ago.”

Mann: Nothing was off-limits.

Johnson: When you’re the star of a series, you have to learn how to produce and manage a production, because if you’re the guy that can’t get fired, you can guess where all the blame is placed if something goes wrong. So, I just kept my head down. I didn’t want to open my eyes and find, “Oh, you mean this is all a dream?”

Michael and I had a complicated relationship, because he was back in L.A., and we were in Florida. He would come in and see a scene that we were supposed to shoot, and he’d rewrite it really quick and send it down. It would be completely changed from what we had already set up.

The Right Direction

Mann: I was an “executive director.” I didn’t actually direct, because we did the shows so quickly.

Some of the directors I hired I let go, because they were TV episodic directors of the ’70s and ’80s, and [that was] self-limiting. I wound up using directors like Thomas Carter, Paul Michael Glaser, Abel Ferrara — they embraced the spirit with which we were doing the show.

Thomas Carter (pilot director): Michael wasn’t in Miami most of the time I was shooting the pilot. He was in L.A. doing post-production on a movie. I was the person on the ground in Miami giving birth to the pilot.

The first act was told from Tubbs’s point of view. The early dailies were concerning to the studio. They felt the white guy wasn’t getting enough to do: “You’ve got to pump up Crockett.” But they were seeing only part of the story. Eventually, Crockett and Tubbs would share the story.

There was a point when the network was thinking of firing Don. There was a point at which they weren’t too sure about me. Don was very anxious about everything. He wanted to know how wide the shot was, for instance. Philip was a much more freewheeling personality who really gave himself over to me as the director.

Gains: All the creative decisions came from Michael. Sometimes changes came at the last minute. He put out a mandate that every shot was important when it came to the colors, wardrobe and cars. He was very particular about which guns everybody had.

We thought [Mann’s directive to] shoot the car wheels and tires spinning was a big waste of time, but that turned out to be one of the signature shots in our storytelling. During one chase scene, we suddenly saw a roadblock. It was the real police thinking it was a real chase. They’d set up a block to catch a guy who was really an actor.

Santiago: One time, when they were about to shoot a scene, Eddie Olmos kept telling the director, Mario DiLeo, “Move out of the way, man!” Sure enough, a blank hit DiLeo in the leg, and he had to be flown to the hospital.

Johnson: [While directing the episode “Mirror Image”] I cast Julia Roberts as a gun moll. She had these big, full lips. I played the whole scene on her face. While a drug dealer and I were having a dialogue, I let the camera stay right on her lips.

Olmos: I think we went through 41 ADs in five years. If there was a mistake, the first one to go was the first AD. Some ADs would only last a week. John Nicolella would say, “You’re outta here!” It kept everybody on their toes. The show cost millions of dollars, and every episode got more expensive.

That's a Wrap

Johnson: When the show ended, I was ready to move on. It’s hard to play the same character season after season after season. Everything gets too comfortable. You get into that format, and before you know it, you’re reaching for the same old hat.

Tillen: Miami Vice singlehandedly revitalized Miami. I knew we landed it when I saw a mannequin display in Sears with a T-shirt and jacket in pastels.

Olmos: We created South Beach the way you see it today. Everything was freshly painted. Before, it was trashy, with people strung out on drugs and buildings shut down. You could buy a hotel for a dollar. Miami Vice was a glamorized and romanticized production. It created a style that went around the world, something that resonated throughout the entire planet. 

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This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, issue #11, 2024, under the title "Gritty in Pink."