What if Season 5 only had thirteen episodes?

[Remington]

Originally, Season 5 was only going to consist of 13 episodes. Would this have made it a better season? There'd likely be less filler so I think it would.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Remington

[Mr. Vigilante]

Never knew that!  I guess it could have gone either way.  If it had been great maybe I'd have a season 6 DVD in my collection.

[mjcmmv]

18 hours ago, Remington said:

Originally, Season 5 was only going to consist of 13 episodes. Would this have made it a better season? There'd likely be less filler so I think it would.

Not sure I'm glad they changed their minds, but that depends on what the original 13 episodes were, I guess. If they left some of the clunkers in there, like Miracle Man, then, add more episodes, PLEASE!

I also heard there were two endings and one had Crockett and Tubbs killed in an explosion.

Not a good way to end the series, in my opinion! 

Edited January 26, 2020 by mjcmmv

[vicegirl85]

Yes, depends a lot on which 13 episodes had been included. 

And I suppose it still would have ended with Freefall.  Although I believe the outcome of Freefall was inevitable and suitable in many ways (given the characters' experiences during the show's overall run), it will never be a favorite of mine.   

[mjcmmv]

7 minutes ago, vicegirl85 said:

Yes, depends a lot on which 13 episodes had been included. 

And I suppose it still would have ended with Freefall.  Although I believe the outcome of Freefall was inevitable and suitable in many ways (given the characters' experiences during the show's overall run), it will never be a favorite of mine.   

I agree 100%. Freefall left me feeling sad and really down! Don't know what kind of ending would have been better, but I wasn't happy with this one! No wonder I keep trying to resurrect the show and keep the story going!

[Glades]

Tom wrote in his "Episode guide" that Universal only planed 13 episodes for season 5. But some as DJ and some other wanted to do more episodes. Does anybody know who else wanted to do more episodes? And especially if Michael Mann was one of this?

[vicegirl85]

I"m not 100% sure about this but it's been my impression that back in the day, a TV show was considered a good candidate for syndication if it had at least 100 episodes available, but not if the episode total was less than 100.  In the 1980s (and Miami Vice followed this pattern) a full season was generally 22 episodes.  I think at the point Season 5 was beginning, everyone expected it to be the final season.  Universal, looking ahead to future income production through syndication, would have been motivated to film at least 13 episodes.  But if advertising dollars were available, I can't believe they would not have been receptive to doing more.  If advertising revenue was drying up, I don't believe any cast requests to continue would have influenced any decisions.  

Michael Mann was not really involved by this time (from my understanding), except that his name appeared as executive producer.  He was busy with other projects.

Sorry to be so cynical, but I do believe those decisions were all about the money.  Really the fact that they at least tried (with Freefall) to wind up the series with a 2-hour finale, is a little surprising.  By this time, MV had really fallen off the radar as a must-watch TV show.