MIAMI VICE JAMES LYONS A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication 99781405178112_1_pretoc.indd781405178112_1_pretoc.indd iiiiii 111/4/20091/4/2009 33:26:18:26:18 PPMM 99781405178112_6_Index.indd781405178112_6_Index.indd 113838 110/30/20090/30/2009 111:18:491:18:49 AAMM Miami Vice 99781405178112_1_pretoc.indd781405178112_1_pretoc.indd i 111/4/20091/4/2009 33:26:17:26:17 PPMM Wiley-Blackwell Studies in Film and Television Series Editors: Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker Experienced media studies teachers know that real breakthroughs in the classroom are often triggered by texts that an austere notion of the canon would disqualify. Unlike other short book series, Wiley-Blackwell Studies in Film and Television works from a broad field of prospective film and television programs, selected less for their adherence to defi- nitions of “art” than for their resonance with audiences. From Top Hat to Hairspray, from early sitcoms to contemporary forensic dramas, the series encompasses a range of film and television material that reflects diverse genres, forms, styles and periods. The texts explored here are known and recognized worldwide for their ability to generate discussion and debate about evolving media indus- tries as well as, crucially, representations and conceptualizations of gender, class, citizenship, race, consumerism, and capitalism, and other facets of identity and experience. This series is designed to communi- cate these themes clearly and effectively to media studies students at all levels while also introducing groundbreaking scholarship of the very highest caliber. These are the films and shows we really want to watch, the new “teachable canon” of alternative classics that range from silent film to CSI. 99781405178112_1_pretoc.indd781405178112_1_pretoc.indd iiii 111/4/20091/4/2009 33:26:18:26:18 PPMM MIAMI VICE JAMES LYONS A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication 99781405178112_1_pretoc.indd781405178112_1_pretoc.indd iiiiii 111/4/20091/4/2009 33:26:18:26:18 PPMM This edition first published 2010 © 2010 James Lyons Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of James Lyons to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trade- marks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a com- petent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lyons, James. Miami vice / James Lyons. p. cm. – (Wiley-Blackwell studies in film and television) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-7811-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-7810-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Miami vice (Television program) I. Title. PN1992.77.M525L96 2010 741.45¢72–dc22 2009033120 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10.5/13pt Minion by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Singapore 001 2010 99781405178112_1_pretoc.indd781405178112_1_pretoc.indd iivv 111/4/20091/4/2009 33:26:18:26:18 PPMM Contents Acknowledgments vi Introduction 1 1. I Want My MTV Cops: Miami Vice as Television Commodity 7 2. Guns, Glitter, and Glamor: Styling the Show 29 3. Losing the Plot? Storytelling in Miami Vice 58 4. Risky Business: The Cultural Politics of Vice 83 Afterword 106 Broadcast Date Notes 108 Notes 109 Bibliography 122 Index 129 99781405178112_2_toc.indd781405178112_2_toc.indd v 110/30/20090/30/2009 111:12:561:12:56 AAMM Acknowledgments I would like to thank colleagues in the Department of English, University of Exeter, the Institute of Film Studies, University of Nottingham, and at the Screen Studies Conference in Glasgow for offering receptive audiences and providing generous feedback on many of the ideas for this book. Thanks in particular to Steve Neale, Helen Hanson, Dan North, and Paul Grainge for vital observations and encouragement at different points. I am grateful to the University of Exeter and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for the period of leave required to complete this book. I am indebted to my editors, Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, for supporting my initial proposal for the book, and for their numerous perceptive comments on my work. My thanks also to Jayne Fargnoli and Margot Morse at Wiley-Blackwell for their enthusiasm, expertise, and patience. This book has been completed in eventful personal circumstances, and it would not have been possible without the support of my family. A special acknowledgment of gratitude goes to Pam and Melvyn Goldstein, and to Jocelyn Avigad for making the trip out west on numerous occasions, and for cheerfully allowing themselves to be exhausted by Rebecca and, latterly, Austin. My parents, Trevor and Elizabeth Lyons, have also been wonderfully doting grandparents. Above all, I would like to express love and thanks to my wife Karen. 99781405178112_3_posttoc.indd781405178112_3_posttoc.indd vvii 110/30/20090/30/2009 111:13:071:13:07 AAMM Introduction The Premise New York cop Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) travels to Miami to track down Esteban Calderone (Miguel Piñero), the Colombian drug lord responsible for the death of his brother Rafael. Calderone is already under investiga- tion by the Miami-Dade police department’s organized crime bureau vice unit (aka Miami Vice). The lead investigator is James “Sonny” Crockett (Don Johnson), who loses his partner Eddie Rivera (Jimmy Smits) in a car bomb. Tubbs, masquerading initially as his dead brother Rafael, is cajoled into working with Crockett by bureau Lieutenant Lou Rodriguez (Gregory Sierra). Rodriguez is subsequently shot dead and replaced by Lieutenant Martin Castillo (Edward James Olmos). In contrast to the sharp-suited Tubbs, Crockett adopts an unshaven, fashionably disheveled appearance, part of his disguise as drug runner Sonny Burnett. A former college football star and a Vietnam vet, Crockett is recently separated from his wife and child and lives undercover on his boat, The St Vitus Dance, together with his pet alligator, Elvis. The other key members of the vice bureau are detective pairings Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago) and Trudy Joplin (Olivia Brown), and Stan Switek (Michael Talbott) and Larry Zito (John Diehl), who work principally to support investigations led by Crockett and Tubbs. Early episodes also 99781405178112_4_000.indd781405178112_4_000.indd 1 111/4/20091/4/2009 55:57:08:57:08 PPMM 2 INTRODUCTION include Lester Kosko (Julio Oscar Mechoso) as a surveillance and electronics expert. The major recurring characters are Izzy Moreno (Martin Ferraro) and Neville “Noogie” Lamont (Charlie Barnett) as small-time crooks/conmen/informers. Taking advantage of a law that allows bureau officers to appropriate seized criminal possessions, Crockett and Tubbs (the latter undercover as Rico Cooper) furnish themselves with the fast car and designer attire necessary to mix in wealthy crime circles. “Burnett” and “Cooper,” aided by knowledge gleaned from informants, move through the criminal underworld, working to inveigle traffickers of vice (drugs, arms, prostitution) into incriminating themselves, thus effecting seiz- ures and arrests. Gina and Trudy also undertake undercover work, most typically as prostitutes, gaining the trust of victims and felons. Miami Vice debuted on US television in September 1984, supported by a trailer boasting that “the cop show has just graduated to the 1980s.” Trailers are by design exercises in hubris, but, at least on this occasion, the show lived up to the hype; few shows have updated so radically the look and sound of broadcast television in the way that Miami Vice did in its first season on NBC. Additionally, few shows have been identified more closely with the spirit of the decade; Miami Vice is an iconic product of the 1980s, as much a part of the cultural fabric of the period as the Rubik’s cube, Pac-Man, E.T., or Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Miami Vice caught the popular imagination to become a cultural phenomenon, making stars out of lead actors Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, and exerting a considerable influence on men’s fashion and apparel, as the “Miami Vice look” stretched from couture to mainstream trends in fabrics, cuts, and colors, to the sales of Ray-Ban sunglasses and the sporting of “designer stubble.” The show also impacted upon popular music, with record- breaking best-selling TV soundtrack albums, and with songs featured on the show invariably storming to the top of the charts.