You Had To Be There


Dadrian

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A few things happen on the episodes here and there that a viewer may not fully understand unless he/she was alive and aware at the time the episodes originally broadcast. 

These things have probably came up here and there on this forum over the years, but I don't think there has ever been a dedicated thread. Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

Otherwise, let's see how many of these we can name. 

The first one that come to mind for me is in "Made for Each Other" when Izzy is ranting at the pet store he's broken into, and closes his remarks by slamming down the crowbar and demanding, "...I'm a man of no convictions". :):):)  

If you weren't alive at that time, you may not realize the band "Culture Club" (Boy George) was all over the radio, and this allusion to the lyrics of their hit song Karma Chameleon shows yet another ill-fated attempt of Izzy speaking English only through what he's heard from television and radio. 

I've got a few others, but you guys go ahead first! :thumbsup:

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Interesting topic Dadrian. I know we have discussed tangentially the 'ripped from the headlines' at times in here as storylines incorporated into various episodes of vice.  lol, nice catch on the 'No Convictions' line re Culture Club. I always thought it was just an Izzyism where he frequently misspoke, as he was trying to state that he was never convicted of anything yet it came out as self-deprecating. Was a classic Izzy mis-speak kind of like "color cooperated".

In Baseballs of Death Switek refers to the "Pizza Connection" case which was an ongoing Mafia trial at the time and unless you were current with news then that reference may have been meaningless.

 

Edited by Sonny-Burnett
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Out Where The Buses Don't Run - Tubbs's line (was it Tubbs?), that they buried Tony Arcaro right next to Jimmy Hoffa. I just read on wikipedia that Hoffa was declared dead only in 1982, so that whole case was probably still floating around in popular culture three years later in 1985.

Also, When Irish Eyes Are Crying - the whole thing about the conflict in Northern Ireland. That ended about 25 years ago.

 

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Good topic Dadrian.  Here's one - In the episode ‘French Twist’ a French spy involved in the fatal bombing of a Greenpeace ship works with the Vice Squad.  This was based on a real incident in 1985.  Interested to see what other members can come up with.

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Not really 100 percent relevant to this thread - but younger people today have no idea what it meant to actually not have cell phones widely available. The whole scene in the pilot where Tubbs nearly gets killed by Trini de Soto would make no sense today.

Or you'd have to make it so that Tubbs's cell phone was conveniently not working at that particular moment. You still see malfunctioning cell phones as a plot device now and then these days, come to think.

Edited by Daytona74
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Wow! These are all great, and news to me! Thanks guys. Let's keep it going!

I think the cell phone post is very relevant to this thread,  @Daytona74. While watching an episode just the other night, I joked to my wife, "they should just call his cell phone!"  

Shakespeare helped me appreciate the humor of inserting achronisms. :) 

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"Ears, Sandanista ears."  from Stone's War. which referenced the Nicaraguan conflict between the Contras and the Sandanistas, and Maynard's attempts to illegally fund the Contras. It was current news in the mid 80s.

And in Amen.. Send Money, Rev Bill Bob Proverb to me is a parody of Jim Bakker, the infamous televangelist who founded and built the PTL club, (Praise the Lord) by bilking his flock out of $Millions in the mid 80s and was later prosecuted. His wife Tammy Faye also was a bit similar to Proverb's strange wife.

There is also a nod to televangelist Rev Ernest Angely  in the closing TV scene in Phil the Shill who infamously professed to be a healer and was outed as a scammer. Remember Phil's  "Devil get out!"   Angely was notorious for claiming to heal people that he had planted in the audience, and apparently used an earpiece to receive personal info about these people in advance from an aide as he pretended to have spiritual knowledge about them.   

As a side note Phil Collins poked fun at these televangelist wackos in one of his more humorous music videos "Jesus He Knows Me"...don't miss the pool scene.

 

Edited by Sonny-Burnett
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12 hours ago, Dadrian said:

 While watching an episode just the other night, I joked to my wife, "they should just call his cell phone!"  

 

I know, right?  Pay phones and two way radios were all they had back in the day, except for the recently introduced analog cell phones, The original transportable (bag phones) and later the car phones, such as that installed in the Daytona ran around $3,500 back in the day, but they were few and far between because of cost.  Brick phones came out a bit later,

Edited by Sonny-Burnett
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Speaking of technology, I wonder what the inside of the bug van would look like today... :) You could probably do all the things that the equipment in it was capable of with one or two laptops today... so when the new Miami Vice series gets made, it will definitely be interesting how they are going to portray a modern-day bug van.

Also, in "Cool Runnin'", where Zito tries to insert a VHS tape into a recorder and it jams...  you had to be a kid in the 80s to fully appreciate that scene... :p

 

There is an entire generation of young people now who have never seen, nor operated a VHS cassette recorder.

 

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And continuing the technological advances part of this thread, how about when Trudy shows Rico the dot matrix printout that included Calderone's image?  I watch the episode and I can barely tell which one is Calderone, and I know what to look for!  Contrast that with how easily we find images nowadays on our computers and smartphones...

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In Sons and Lovers when Crockett throws dude out of a window and then says to Trudy and Gina "Book em' Danno."  Obviously a Hawaii 5-0 reference, not sure if people would get that today? 

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Ok 80s cultural references...

When the bikers in The Home Invaders are starting to grab Tubbs by his necktie, and Tubbs jumps into the Daytona's passenger seat, and he says "Edwin Moses, look out!"

I think PMT uses a similar reference in the E True Hollywood Story documentary, where he says that one time, Elvis got loose on the set, and he started running from Elvis... I think he says "You're talking Jesse Owens... I was GONE!" :)

Edited by Daytona74
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Just now, Daytona74 said:

Ok cultural references...

When the bikers in The Home Invaders are starting to grab Tubbs by his necktie, and Tubbs jumps into the Daytona's passenger seat, and he says "Edwin Moses, look out!"

I think PMT uses a similar reference in the E True Hollywood Story documentary, where he says that one time, Elvis got loose on the set, and he started running from Elvis... I think he says "You're talking Jesse Owens... I was GONE!" :)

Pretty sure that episode was Milk Run :)

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vor 2 Minuten schrieb Detective_Crockett:

Pretty sure that episode was Milk Run :)

oh ok, was it? Yeah I wasnt sure anymore... I need to start watching some S1 episodes again :p

Edited by Daytona74
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Cultural references: 

Crockett to the crooked banker in Prodigal Son "I don't give a damn if he's on the USS Enterprise." Star Trek.. xD 

 

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Good topic.............. I didn't get a lot of the references since I didn't really listen to lyrics such as the Boy George song.

A lot of the quips went over my head at the time.

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I was going to say maybe the DeLorean in "Glades" was a nod to Back to the Future, but I just checked, the movie didn't come out for another seven or eight months after "Glades" first aired... 

It was probably just a prop to show that the hillbillies in that town were making a lot of money with illegal activity... ;)

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2 hours ago, Daytona74 said:

I was going to say maybe the DeLorean in "Glades" was a nod to Back to the Future, but I just checked, the movie didn't come out for another seven or eight months after "Glades" first aired... 

It was probably just a prop to show that the hillbillies in that town were making a lot of money with illegal activity... ;)

I've always thought so. Although they look very dated now, most of the cars in that pan were high-dollar automobiles at the time. 

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3 hours ago, Dadrian said:

I've always thought so. Although they look very dated now, most of the cars in that pan were high-dollar automobiles at the time. 

The new Delorean coming out next year though, oh boy New-DeLorean-engine-options.jpg.81e7b57b9f1e5524c35eda7baa65557f.jpg

DMC-DeLorean-2017-e1480696848668.jpg.17b5ac7c62b361d5729a1d57099ec4fd.jpg

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41 minutes ago, Detective_Crockett said:

The new Delorean coming out next year though, oh boy New-DeLorean-engine-options.jpg.81e7b57b9f1e5524c35eda7baa65557f.jpg

DMC-DeLorean-2017-e1480696848668.jpg.17b5ac7c62b361d5729a1d57099ec4fd.jpg

Hey Lamborghini called...they want their Reventon back.

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Looks like I wasn't far off with my guess :p

notnewdelorean.jpg

 

I think they did a great job though. If I had that kind of money, a car like this would definitely go on my shortlist :thumbsup:

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