This Week In Miami Vice History

[mvnyc]

January 27th - February 3rd:

"Smuggler's Blues", the 15th episode of the 1st season, premiered on NBC on Friday, February 1st, 1985 at 10PM EST. Some notes on this episode (from Miami Vice Wiki):
* This episode was inspired by Glenn Frey's hit song "Smuggler's Blues", the lyrics of which deal with the issue of drug smuggling through Florida. Michael Mann heard the song on the radio and asked Miguel Piñero to write an episode based around it. In fact, several of the song's lyrics are repeated or paraphrased in the episode's dialogue.
* An acoustic version of "Smuggler's Blues" can be heard at the end of the episode. It has never been released.
* The yacht blown up in the opening sequence once belonged to actress Bette Davis, called the "Christmas Tree." It was used by Davis to entertain guests in the 1930s and by the time of it's destruction was held in Watson Marina, requiring four pumps to prevent it from sinking into Biscayne Bay. It was sold to Miami Vice producers for $500. It's planned destruction before Christmas Day, 1984, was delayed due to government red tape (caused by environmental concerns), Don Johnson's illness and a no-show by singer Iggy Pop for a role in the episode which held up filming.
* "Trust Fund Pirates" (from the second season) was to be a direct sequel to this episode, but Glenn Frey was unavailable to reprise his role as Jimmy.

"Little Miss Dangerous", the 15th episode of the 2nd season, premiered on NBC on Friday, January 31st, 1986 at 9PM EST. Some notes on this episode (from Miami Vice Wiki):
* Fiona's character, Jackie, gives her birthday as June 21, 1967, making her 18 years old at the time of the show. At the time of filming, Fiona was actually 24 years old.
* The Anchor Hotel sign where Jackie and Cat were staying had letters burned out to make it appear as "A Hor Htel"
* The Henrosa Hotel (where Zito is met by a sea of reporters) is still in existence and was remodeled like the other Art Deco buildings in South Beach.

**There was no Season 3 premiere episode this week.**

**There was no Season 4 premiere episode this week.**

"Fruit Of The Poison Tree", the 9th episode of the 5th season, premiered on NBC on Friday, February 3rd, 1989 at 9PM EST. Some notes on this episode (from Miami Vice Wiki):
* The opening scene (with the train running through the Miami night) is the same as the opening scene to the episode "Hostile Takeover".
* Starting with this episode, Miami Vice's time slot changed from 10:00pm to 9:00pm, where it would remain until the episode "Victims Of Circumstance".
* In the scene with Lisa and Crockett in her office after Enriquez has been released, she has her hands together over her face as Crockett hugs her to comfort her, yet in the clip from another angle, she is hugging Crockett with her right arm on his shoulder. In the same scene, Lisa is wearing one pinky ring on her left hand. Throughout the rest of the episode, she has two pinky rings, one on each hand.
* The doctrine of "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree", which is what the episode's title refers to, requires that something found as a result of an illegal search that leads to evidence in a trial, is inadmissible in court. In the first trial, Switek's error on the search warrant caused the case to be dismissed. However, this doctrine does allow for a search based on the officer's "good-faith" belief in the warrant being valid and in the "real world" may not have been cause for dismissal. The second trial, where Crockett got info on Enriquez from his attorney (Lisa Madsen), violated attorney-client privilege and should have been excluded per the "Fruit of the Poison Tree" doctrine.

[Susanna Girl]

17 hours ago, mvnyc said:

January 27th - February 3rd:

"Smuggler's Blues"
* The yacht blown up in the opening sequence once belonged to actress Bette Davis, called the "Christmas Tree." It was used by Davis to entertain guests in the 1930s and by the time of it's destruction was held in Watson Marina, requiring four pumps to prevent it from sinking into Biscayne Bay. It was sold to Miami Vice producers for $500. It's planned destruction before Christmas Day, 1984, was delayed due to government red tape (caused by environmental concerns), Don Johnson's illness and a no-show by singer Iggy Pop for a role in the episode which held up filming.
* "Trust Fund Pirates" (from the second season) was to be a direct sequel to this episode, but Glenn Frey was unavailable to reprise his role as Jimmy.

I had no idea about any of this...how interesting!  Thanks mvnyc!  Learn something new about MV almost every day.