Actors and fans celebrate the ‘Miami Vice’ television series’ 40th anniversary in Miami Beach

One of the first TV shows that I realized I don’t like TV shows.

I don't particularly remember the show, I was more of a Riptide fan.

I just saw Mr Don Johnson on a, I'm guessing, straight to Netflix jam called Rebel Ridge. Not the best flick but fine for a turn-your-brain-off couple of hours.

Johnson still looks great at 74.

The romanticization of a city built with drug money..

No thanks

Was it a good show?

RougeDolphinSep. 15  02:17 pm JST

Was it a good show?

You bet your can-can it was! When I was in the Navy this was the show we all had to watch, before anything else! If I was talking to my folks on the telephone (remember those things?) and they'd a number of time zones away, it'd be 'I gotta hang up now, it's time for "Miami Vice"'!

Unpredictable plots, loony characters, flashy stylish clothes worn by Crockett and Tubbs, stylish car, great synthesizer soundtrack music from genius Jan Hammer (I have this stuff on CD now), and the bad guys always got their karma in ways you couldn't predict. None of this sick morbid sadistic glorification of crime and sordid stuff like in the Tarantino movies of the following decade.

And there was actual hit songs played (the Friday USA Today issues would tell the readers which ones) = no lousy covers. And the guests! Everyone from Little Richard, Glenn Frey, James Brown, Vanity, Lee Iacocca, Miles Davis, G Gordon Liddy, then-VP George H W Bush, and so many more. Phil Collins was a main criminal villain in the episode 'Phil the Shill'. He introduced the word 'wanker' into the American vernacular with that episode. That show was stylish, innovative, fun and a bit funny. TV today is none of these things.

TokyoLivingSep. 15  10:29 am JST

The romanticization of a city built with drug money..

No thanks

I was stationed in Orlando, Florida for about 9 months when this show was on the air. Yes, there is plenty of cocaine that comes there all the time, just like it was during the 80's. The Coasties (Coast Guard) always have work to do. I took part of a cocaine bust myself once. Nonetheless, it's all what you make of it and what you put into it. It's all different now, everything has changed, and there's no Navy facilities in Orlando at all now. And in this post-Cold War world with everything that has happened since, I wouldn't join the service now. And TV since then has descended deep into Suck City.

But I had my fun then, and Miami Vice was a good part of it. That's what matters to me.

TokyoLivingSep. 15 10:29 am JST

The romanticization of a city built with drug money..

If you can't handle freedom, that is on you.

Loved this show as a high school kid. The music was great - even included Blood and Roses by The Smithereens in one episode.

XamoToday  03:48 am JST

Loved this show as a high school kid. The music was great - even included Blood and Roses by The Smithereens in one episode.

I remember that. This and MTV is where I first heard that song. That bass line is suitable for a crime drama in the first place.

And years later I saw and met the Smithereens. A bunch of cool moody rock'n'rollers. Pat Dinizio had a velvety voice and mature lyrics, yet their music had the amps cranked up to 15!!!!!