Actors and fans celebrate the ‘Miami Vice’ television series’ 40th anniversary in Miami Beach
MIAMI BEACH, Florida — Residents and visitors to Miami Beach can feel it in the air tonight – and throughout the weekend – as the cast and crew of “Miami Vice” gather to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the iconic television series.
The series premiered on NBC on September 16, 1984, and ran for five seasons. The crime drama set in the “cocaine cowboy” era, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as undercover cops, was revolutionary in its use of pop culture, style, and music, and led to a 2006 film reboot. And by filming primarily in South Florida, the series helped transform the image of Miami and Miami Beach in a way that would reverberate for decades.
Former cast members including Edward James Olmos and Michael Madsen met fans at the Royal Palm South Beach on Friday and were set to return on Saturday. Also in attendance were Saundra Santiago, Olivia Brown, Bruce McGill, Joaquim De Almeida, Bill Smitrovich, Pepe Serna and Ismael East Carlo.
“It wasn’t ‘Hill Street Blues.’ It wasn’t ‘Police Story,’ ” Olmos said Friday. “It was a whole different artistic endeavor on all levels. The creativity, in terms of music, writing, production value. The production value was so overwhelming. We spared no expense. I mean, these people were serious, and they spent a lot of time and money on every episode, and it shows.”
Olmos said the series had a major influence in introducing Miami to the world and in creating an idealized version of South Beach that would later become a reality.
“When we were here, when we started the show in 1984, there was no South Beach,” Olmos said. “There was a South Beach, but it was run down. The buildings were literally falling into disrepair.”
Years before South Beach would be transformed into a fashion, music and tourism hub through major restoration efforts, Olmos says production crews were painting the exteriors of the neighborhood’s historic Art Deco buildings themselves to make them look good on camera.
“We painted the facades and put up tables, and we did what has now become the reality of South Beach,” Olmos said.
Although most television productions in the 1980s still took place in Los Angeles or New York, Olmos doubts that the series would have been as successful if they had tried to emulate South Florida in California.
“They couldn’t have filmed this anywhere else in the world,” Olmos said. “You watch the show from the very first episode and what it’s been like, the beauty of Miami is unparalleled.”
Premiering just a few years after MTV launched, “Miami Vice” embraced contemporary style and music. In addition to original music by Jan Hammer, the producers frequently used songs from popular artists such as Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Dire Straits and Foreigner.
Fred Lyle, an associate producer and music coordinator for “Miami Vice,” said the importance of music was evident from the first episode, when Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” played as Johnson and Thomas drove through the streets of Miami in their Ferrari convertible.
“And that was the moment where ‘Miami Vice’ became musically different from everything else,” Lyle said. “The music was about this scene, that scene. One song helped stitch the fabric of the story together.”
In addition to the show’s style, the stories and characters had substance. Veteran television actor Bruce McGill has played countless cops, coaches and other authority figures over the decades, but he said his guest role as a washed-up former detective in the second season of “Miami Vice” stands out compared to the linear characters that have made up most of his career.
“It was a really good part that they allowed me to make it better, to improve it, to play around with it a little bit,” McGill said. “And it was really satisfying.”
“Miami Vice” fan Matt Lechliter, 39, traveled all the way from Oxnard, California, to Miami Beach to celebrate the show’s anniversary.
“I wasn’t alive when the film premiered, but it’s a part of me,” Lechliter said.
Lechliter says he remembers watching later seasons and reruns with his parents as a child, but didn’t really become a fan until he rediscovered the series about five years ago.
“I watched it in one sitting,” Lechliter said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really awesome.’ When I heard about this event, I said, ‘I have to go.'”
The anniversary celebration continues throughout the weekend, with career talks and bus and walking tours of the film locations.
The Miami Vice Museum is open to the public from Friday to Sunday. It features a wide variety of objects that have never been displayed together since the show ended in 1989. The exhibition is held at the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum.
And to get the party started on Thursday, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner met the cast and crew at the Avalon Hotel in South Beach to present a proclamation declaring September 16, 2024, as “Miami Vice Day.”