What would Miami Vice had been like if it had carried on into the 90's?

[Detective_Crockett]

Season 6, 7, and 8...I'm truly glad this didn't happen and the show remained in the 1980's but you can't help but think and imagine...I reckon Crockett would have worn stuff along the lines he did briefly in the end of Freefall (the Kansas university t shirt and jeans but still with the white jacket)  

 

What does everybody else think? I also think ratings may have dropped down incredibly..I'm not sure :/

Edited April 20, 2015 by Detective_Crockett

[Kavinsky]

Hmm I remember coming across a show called Homicde Life on the streets, and they did an intro montage of a crime happening in a biker bar in New York. set to A cult a personality, the song that they used in GTA San Andreas and it downright seemed like what it would have been.

 

and while the show wasnt bad, the setting of it was downright miserable, it was like the shows before vice's time were reborn with new cameras and new music.

 

funny thing was it looked like Law and Order coppied this show, sans music at the start, and they used some of the same actors as well.

 

hell maybe don saw this and thought why dont I do one of these shows with a far better setting and some of vices more memorable elements, hence nash bridges, the million dollar cuda, written off as a Vienam hand me down from his brother and the SF setting.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Kavinsky

[James]

I'd imagine it would sound something like this if it was still around in 1997:

 

[Victor]

I imagine it would be more like the movie Bad Boys with more rap music because the criminals changed in the 90s.no more neons at night,no more linen jackets and silk shirts more gold chains,big jerseys and the underground action in the back alleys.well thats my guess.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Victor

[Touch of Class]

I read somewhere that the '90s were the hangover after the '80s. The era can perhaps be seen as more sober and, perhaps, less concerned with distinguishing itself. I think Miami Vice would have had to become another show entirely to adequately capture or define the feeling of that time (whatever it was). 

 

I just think it's appropriate that the show which presented a unique vision of the '80s ended when the era came to a close.

[COOPER&BURNETT]

I think it ended when it should, in the 80's. Would HAPPY DAYS been the same if it were set in the 60's? MIAMI VICE is a product of the 80's. 

 

If it had continued, the clothes would have been very dark, and people would have too big of a pair of pants that would be showing off underwear, The grunge look would be on bad guys, there would be tattoos galore, backward baseball caps....it would not have been anywhere near the same. It was a different time. The shows were not getting any better, and as shows go on for years, they generally get worse in the ratings. As a show, even a hit show wears out it's welcome, and originality.

 

MIAMI VICE was unique, and I like it just like it was.

[Jerry B.]

Coop, Touch Of Class, it's sad, but I'm with you. Definitely.

[COOPER&BURNETT]

Definitely, as in "DEFINITELY MIAMI?!"   

 

 

Thanks Jerry, I agree with the things you post about too.  

[AndrewRemington]

I was just thinking of this last night when I was posting about the reboot.  The 90s would have not treated Miami Vice well.  Clothing got more ratty and unpolished, music started to deteriorate.

 

The 80s were the perfect time for the show.  Even if it had even been released back in 1974, it would have not had the flavor we all love.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the 70s or 90s, but the 80s are the decade I love the most.

[mvnyc]

Fortunately, it ended at the beginning of the summer of 1989, which gave us those hideous neon clothes, imagine that on C&T!  

Edited April 20, 2015 by mvnyc

[AndrewRemington]

Fortunately, it ended at the beginning of the summer of 1989, which gave us those hideous neon clothes, imagine that on C&T!  

 

Yes!  Haha.  It's funny how some think of the 80s as all neon-colored clothes, but really that was only the very late 80s and early 90s.

 

The 80s were more about pastels, blacks, whites, grays, and bold reds and blues.

Edited April 21, 2015 by AndrewRemington

[Vicefan7777]

Miami Vice came along at the right time.  The MTV cops defined the 80s decade.  Happy, great fashion, spend money like crazy. Vice would have been very dark going into the 90s and us fans would not have liked it one bit.  The Grunge look and rap would have destroyed the show.  It ended at the right time. 

[Kristina]

There is a TV show from 1993 called 'Wild Palms' which stylewise has a somewhat similar atmosphere to Miami Vice, so perhaps that is what the show would have been like had it stayed on longer.

[Matt5]

I always imagined a show carrying on with a darker tone like Season 5 !!

[Vice Immersion]

It could have gone into the early '90s since there were neon colored clothes and synth-driven music, still having some residual 80s pop culture to it.  But by 1992-1993, there would have been a drastic twist in music (grunge music and gangsta rap), darker earth tone clothes (i.e. plaid shirts), and a "rougher" sense of style.  By 1992-1993, a lot of iconic 80s shows (i.e. Cheers, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, A Different World, Saved By The Bell) were ending since humor and drama were changing (i.e. X-Files, NYPD Blue premiered).  No longer were there the squeaky clean, and sugary comedies and soap dramas (i.e. Dallas and Dynasty) that were prevelant in the 80s, as the comedy became slightly cruder and the dramas more serious and weighty in the 90s.

 

The decadence of the 80s embraced lavish spending and escapism with that money, but the 90s was a retaliation of all that.  The cultural shift of the 90s was a hard sobering period that wanted to explicitly display the ills of society rather than ignore or escape from it (i.e. though aggressive sounding music and darker colored clothes).

 

Due to Michael Mann's incredible imagery for the show (i.e. the clothes, music, and pastel scenery), the show became too iconic of the 80s.  But with pop culture aside, even if it extended to the 91-92 season, it would have gone to its 8th season, and I don't know if the writing could have lasted that long.  ...At least in the condition that Miami Vice was at the time.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Vice Immersion

[mvnyc]

I think one of the biggest changes would've been the use of cell phones.  Even though Crockett had a car phone, a cell phone for any detective would've made catching the bad guys in action a lot quicker than hoping out to a car to call or using a pay phone.    

Edited June 11, 2015 by mvnyc

[Jerry B.]

Didn't Castillo use a cell phone in one of the last episodes?

[texasvicefan]

Without a doubt, Miami Vice was the zeitgeist of the 1980's. Despite starting off the the decade with some widespread worldwide recession, the economy continued to climb progressively into the Stratosphere. In fact, everything seemed to be in ascension. In 1981 the U.S. triumphantly returned to space onboard the Space Shuttle. Music, entertainment, the ascendance of Yuppies and conspicuous consumption (be it for good or bad), all of this laid the groundwork for the greatest television show ever.

 

And not only was the series great, it managed to be a looking glass at our society; its ills and issues, its obsessions and fortunes. Technology was slowly on the rise and Miami Vice displayed this periodically in various episodes. For these reasons and so many more, the show is an artistic time capsule of the decade. I seriously think there will never be another decade like it. Getting all of the right factors aligned to enable a duplicate decade would be near impossible; in my humble opinion, the 1980's were a unique decade that will not come again.

 

And it is for these reasons that I am glad that Vice ended before the 1990's began. Music had started to become soulless and more crude and unimaginative as we swung into 1989. It was clear there was change on the horizon. The exuberant and often effervescent confidence that comprised the national mindset was rapidly eroding away. Yes, there was hope that Communism looked like it was headed out the door, but I'd rather have had the Soviet boogeyman to worry about than the myriad of alleged "threats" the media peddles today.

 

Miami Vice captured this gradual downfall of the decade and was reflected in its later episodes. I loved every one of those episodes, good or bad, because it was Vice and the locale, the actors, the music and the scripts evoked the true essence of the 80's. We all knew by 1989 that the series was probably not long for the screen. Let's face it people: the American public is and has been terribly finicky and fickle with trends and pop culture. Miami Vice enjoyed a very long ride at the top due to its accurate depiction and groundbreaking technique, be it the music, the storyline, etc. Vice was the 80's.

 

The 90's deserves an essay of its own, but in short, that gritty, dark, dank decade was devoid of the enthusiasm and originality that was the cornerstone of the 80's. For me and I would guess many others, the 90's became almost a mourning period for the 80's. You knew it was gone and you felt immense nostalgia for it and perhaps even some regret if you didn't live it up as much as you could have.

 

Which brings me to the present day......I know there has been discussion surrounding the revival of Miami Vice set in the present day, but I feel that would be a mistake and only tarnish the good name of Miami Vice. There's enough of the DNA from Miami Vice that filtered down through various TV shows in the form of cinematography and background music that lives on today. Vice was the father of much of the way many programs are filmed, scored and produced today. 

 

A revival of Miami Vice would, in my opinion, not be a good idea. Leave her where she was, where she reigned supreme over the airwaves for many seasons, triumphant in her originality and concept. There is far too much imitation these days and hardly any originality. Look at the lack of quality in movies; once very successful and original concepts like Mad Max, for example (Which I loved). It seems that Hollywood is bankrupt of original ideas and bereft of original scripts, not to mention imagination. Films today are just explosion after sex scene after explosion. Not that I have anything against sex scenes   

 

It would appear from the successive line of dreck coming out of Hollywood, that producers are genuinely afraid of originality and that the beancounters are in control of what hits the screen. Many of Hollywood's classic TV series are celebrated in Europe even today. Series like Miami Vice, the late 1960's Sci-Fi show The Invaders, and others are still fanatically followed today. They seem to have the good sense to know class and originality when they see it. And they're not afraid to be proud of it either. 

 

Back in 2000 I remember watching a show called Survivor and while enjoying the unique premise of the show, I was afraid that the nastiness and cutthroat attitudes depicted in the show would become mainstream. I was hoping it was a one-time curiosity......sadly, every "reality" show today is a carbon copy of each other. Rancid and full of content that once was the hallmark of bullies.

 

For these reasons and many others, I am glad Miami Vice ceased to be as the 1980's closed out. Vice was the 80's. To reboot the series today would ruin the essence of what the show once was. It belongs exactly where it is: a treasured piece of an incredible decade that forever remains in our hearts.

 

Sorry for the long missive people; it's just that as a Vice fan, I feel quite strongly about the show and what makes it unique from other TV series. I am sure you all can agree

[Jerry B.]

Absolutely agreed, Texasvicefan. That's it.

 

PS In a world where dialogues are reduced to quick impressive, superficial headlines, log posts are always welcome ;-)

[Spyder]

It depends on how long the show would've lasted into the 90s to see how it might have changed. An extra season or two, into 1990 or 1991, wouldn't have produced many changes. Stylistically, we were still in the denim-and-leather/Guns 'N Roses phase that Crockett was into. Ferrari didn't replace the Testarossa until 1996, so we'd still see Sonny behind the wheel of the same car.

 

The problem MV had in the last season was that the show just got silly. Every episode had the worst, most cartoonish villains. How were we supposed to take a foppish Brit with a pug dog named Edwina seriously? Or the Shakespeareian bard drug dealer? There were no more Calderones that gave the show its sense of Scarface danger. What MV needed more than stylistic changes was getting Michael Mann back on board full time. I imagine the show would have started to return back to those original roots, and start to resemble more what Mann's "Heat" from 1995 looked like. MV didn't need a return to pastels and Phil Collins -- it needed more grittiness, better storylines, more compelling plots akin to the issues of the day. Mann would have told DJ and PMT, "No more solo albums, no other distractions, because the disconnect has been showing on screen." Never mind C&T suffering "burnout"; these guys needed something to be hungry about again.

 

I would have loved to see MV last a few years longer. Shows these days have pretty long life spans, but MV simply lasted so quickly, it's almost shocking, considering how much hype it got in '84-'85, you'd think it would still be on the air today.

[Noggie]

I can't think of many shows that started in the 80's that lasted far into the 90's. We're in an odd time where you have shows like CSI & NCIS that seem like they've been on forever. Other than the aging cast members, it's tough to distinguish one season from the next. That was both a blessing & a curse for Vice. We can all look at a pic from Vice & tell what season it's from. Maybe the Vice style would have taken a backseat to the stories. That might have enabled the show to last longer but it wouldn't have been "special" anymore. It probably ended at the right time. However, the last two seasons could have been better.

I hate reboots. I wouldn't mind a new show with ties to MIAMI VICE but not a reboot. Maybe call it GOLD COAST in honor of the original title. New characters & not reimagined versions of Crockett & Tubbs.

[COOPER&BURNETT]

MIAMI VICE belonged in the 80's. It started, and ended in the correct decade. I didn't like how the show ended. No goodbye's from Gina, Trudy, Stan, or Castillo. It felt hollow to me.

[Kavinsky]

I wonder how much of that came down to dick wolf.

[COOPER&BURNETT]

I don't know. I just thought things could have wrapped up better than they did. Too many loose ends.

[Vincent Hanna]

With the decline in quality in Season 4 & 5. A season 6 would just have continued the trend and sank even lower imo. Don was pretty much finished at that point and all of the core crew members like Michael Mann and Jan Hammer were long gone.

 

If the quality had consistent all the way through to the 90s then I guess Miami Vice would have turned more into Law and Order: Miami edition. The fashion would have been all muted and boring with Jeans and frumpy t shirts and it would have emphasised the police procedural aspect rather than the music sequences to appeal to an older demo. Don and PMT were pushing 40 at that point. Teenagers didn't want to be them anymore. Anyways it would have been interesting to see.