Miami Vice

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Television series
German title Miami Vice
Original title Miami Vice
Miami Vice.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1984-1989
length 42 minutes
Episodes 111 (including three full-length films) in 5 seasons ( list )
genre Crime , drama
Theme music Miami Vice Theme - Jan Hammer
idea Anthony Yerkovich
music Jan Hammer ,
Tim Truman,
John Petersen
First broadcast September 16, 1984 (USA) on NBC
German-language
first broadcast		 December 6, 1986 on First German Television
occupation

Main actor:

Supporting cast:

synchronization

Miami Vice is an American television series . Between 1984 and 1989 a total of 111 episodes were produced in five seasons. It is considered one of the most popular series of the 1980s.

action

The main characters of the series, which is set in Miami ( Florida , USA ), are the two undercover police officers of the "Miami Vice Police Squad" James "Sonny" Crockett, alias Sonny Burnett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, alias Ricardo Cooper . They primarily hunt down drug traffickers, gun smugglers and money launderers in and around Miami. In addition to the professional cases, the protagonists experience some personal setbacks in the course of the series, which is why the series is often viewed as dramatic.

characters

James Sonny Crockett is a law enforcement officer with 10 years of police experience in South Florida. Crockett grew up in South Florida. In his teens, he spends most of his time with his older brother Jake Crockett and cousin Jack Crockett. His father died in 1968.

Crockett played for the University of Florida football team . A professional football career was prevented by a knee injury that Crockett mentions from time to time in the series. Crockett was a soldier in the Vietnam War . His pet, the alligator Elvis, was originally the Florida team's mascot . But when one player bit and threatened to kill the alligator, Sonny took the animal in and has kept it - chained - on his sailing yacht ever since . Crockett is divorced and has a six-year-old son at the beginning of the series.

Ricardo Tubbs originally worked in New York for the robbery department, his brother Raphael for the drug department. During an undercover operation, this brother was shot dead by a gangster whom Rico followed to Miami. There he met Sonny Crockett, a southerner who works for Miami Vice and who had prosecuted the same criminal.

Lt. Castillo is the boss of the two, he succeeds Lt. in the sixth episode of the first season. Lou Rodriguez on. He worked as an investigator in Southeast Asia for a long time ; in several episodes, cases in Miami tangle with its Asian past. He heads the department with strict resolutions and rules, but always puts justice first.

Gina Calabrese is another member of Miami Vice . Your colleague and friend is Trudy Joplin . At the beginning of the series, Gina has an affair with her colleague Sonny Crockett, but it is broken off because of Crockett's first wife.

Stanley Switek forms a team with Larry Zito . The two specialize in shading of all kinds and often drive in a van disguised as a pest control vehicle, which, however, attracts attention due to an oversized insect on the roof. Until Zito is killed in a heroin overdose in season three.

style

Miami Beach , Ocean Drive in the Art Deco District
Ray Ban Wayfarer sunglasses

Style elements

The series was considered to be trend-setting and style-setting, both in terms of the equipment and the film implementation of the scripts. Hard cuts and fast image sequences, slow-motion sequences and long shots of faces; Pastel-colored lighting and backdrops or scenes brightly illuminated with cold neon light were often reminiscent of the video clips of the music broadcasters of that time.

Miami Vice had a major influence on the development of men's fashion in the second half of the 1980s and coined the “white t-shirt under Armani jacket” style, which was particularly evident at Don Johnson . The two main characters were dressed in pastel-colored jackets, leather slippers without socks, Ray-Ban wayfarer sunglasses and Italian sports cars ( Ferrari ).

Typical style

The metropolis of Miami and the upstream coastal town of Miami Beach are usually shown in the series from the best and most appropriate side. This reinforced the flair of the sunny south even more. However, images of the red light district and industrial wasteland always create an exciting contrast. The most popular locations include the world-famous Ocean Drive with the adjacent beach in Miami Beach and the Art Deco district. This quarter is shown so often because it matches the style and color of the fashion shown in the series. As already mentioned, the main characters were dressed in classy branded clothing. Sonny Crockett in particular wears (almost) exclusively pastel-colored t-shirts and suits in the first few seasons . The dominant colors are pastel blue, pale blue, pink, white, yellow, (pastel) green and batik- like patterns (only in later seasons). The shirts are often tank tops or polo shirts , usually have a button placket but no collar.

Sonny Crockett wears them under his jacket. From the point at which the series became very successful, the backgrounds were often recolored to match the clothes of the main characters. In 2006, the NZZ jokingly wrote: "Like dressmen in a commercial for cocaine" (Andreas Maurer).

Sonny Crockett's appearance also includes a variety of sunglasses, such as the Wayfarer brand Ray Ban . This model was first launched in 1952 and has been worn by famous people including John F. Kennedy , Bob Dylan and Audrey Hepburn . In the third season he wears black sunglasses from the Persol brand , model 69218. However, in the 4th and 5th seasons you come back to the Wayfarer . Ricardo Tubbs usually wears one of the Porsche Design brands . The wristwatches used were models from Rolex and Ebel .

In Season 3, Michael Mann changes the style of Miami Vice . Since there was a risk that the series would become its own copy, some stylistic changes were made. The colors became partly darker and no longer so pastel-heavy. You can often see Sonny Crockett with green and turquoise shirts or jackets and black pleated trousers. Short jackets (also called Spenzers ) are also very often worn.

In the 4th season, however, you come back stylistically to the beginnings, as the 3rd season disappointed many fans in terms of fashion. The colors white, gray, yellow and blue dominate, as do shirts with tie-dye patterns. Sonny Crockett wears longer hair, Ricardo Tubbs a full beard.

The influence of the neo noir genre

The series is strongly influenced by the Neo-Noir genre . Typical of the genre and clearly seen in many Miami Vice episodes are the light-shadow and light-dark effects, asymmetrical or unusual set designs and camera perspectives, as well as storylines that deal with dramatic events in the past that the Pull protagonists under their spell again.

Especially in the 1980s, this style came back, even in series. With the influence of neo-noir you try to reinforce some scenes and give them emotions.

Michael Mann , Executive Producer of the Miami Vice series, is considered one of the most prominent representatives of neo noir. Echoes of this genre can also be found in many places in his cinema productions such as The Loner , Blood Moon and Heat , which he also directed.

music

Jan Hammer

The theme song Miami Vice Theme by musician Jan Hammer made it to number 1 in the US singles charts . Hammer was popularized by Miami Vice. He also played minor roles in some episodes. In 1987, Hammer's title, Crockett's Theme , reached the top 5 in several European countries.

A total of three regular soundtrack albums with various music from Miami Vice were released during the run of the series. There were also two albums by Jan Hammer: Escape from Television (1987) and Snapshots (1989).

The songs produced by Hammer in Miami Vice were: Miami Vice Theme , Crockett's Theme , Crockett's Return , Flashback , Airport Swap , Boat Party , Candy , New York Theme , Chase , Evan , The Talk , Clues , Payback , Colombia , Cool Runnin , El Viejo Mix , Gina , Golden Triangle , Incoming , Last Flight , Tubbs And Valerie , Night Talk , Rain , Russian Story , Lombard Trial , Marina , One Way Out , Poem , Rum Cay , Rico's Blues , Runaround , Shadow In The Dark , Stone's War , Texas Ranger , The Trial And The Search , The Great Boat Race , Theresa , Turning Point , Voodoo Dance and Wedding

Jan Hammer never published other pieces, but appeared as cover versions.

Tim Truman

Truman was the second major composer in the series. He composed the instrumental music of the 5th season. Some of Truman's plays used in the series never appeared outside of Miami Vice.

Some of Truman's pieces used in Miami Vice are: Sonny Can't Remember , Boy Blows Up , Borrasca , Dope in The Bag , Hard Knocks , Helicopter , Innocent Bystander , Last Piece Of MV , Limo Blows Up, and Money On The table

Other musicians and composers

In addition to Jan Hammer, countless well-known rock and pop greats of the time contributed their part to Miami Vice. Many well-known music titles were found in the series. Well-known pop stars who contributed music to the series included: Brian Eno , Chris de Burgh , Depeche Mode , Phil Collins (who himself starred as the bizarre showmaster in the episode "Phil's Tricks"), Billy Idol , Frankie Goes To Hollywood , The Hooters , Tina Turner , Yello , U2 , Peter Gabriel , Deep Purple , The Who , Public Image Ltd. , Dire Straits , Russ Ballard , Bryan Ferry , Billy Ocean , Glenn Frey , John Waite , Aerosmith , INXS , DeBarge , Fleetwood Mac , Rockwell (Kennedy William Gordy), Cyndi Lauper , Sly & Robbie , The Rolling Stones , Amy Grant , Wang Chung , Lionel Richie , Go West , Foreigner , Steve Jones , Andy Taylor , Thinkman , Alan Parsons Project , Corey Hart , Peter Cetera , Madonna , Joe Cocker , Rod Stewart , The Church , Robert Plant , Terry Kath , Genesis , M / A / R / R / S , Meat Loaf , Godley & Creme , Simply Red , Black Uhuru , Lee Perry , Bon Jovi , Eric Clapton , Gato Barbieri and The Power Station .

production

Often used as a filming location: South Beach
Miami Vice star Don Johnson with his future wife Melanie Griffith (1990), who had a guest appearance on the series

Producers

The series was developed by Anthony Yerkovich , who also acted as producer; next to it was Michael Mann served as executive producer and in that capacity largely responsible among other things for the visual design of the series. Later co-executive producers included George Geiger , Dick Wolf , Robert Ward and Richard Brams .

Locations

Most of Miami Vice's episodes were filmed in South Beach, an area of Miami Beach .

Guest stars

Many actors, musicians and other celebrities played guest roles in Miami Vice , some of them very well-known such as:

There were also a number of guest actors who were less well known at the time of production:

criticism

Critics of the series argue that a stylish visual design , conveying a certain lifestyle and product placement for luxury goods were more important to the creators than a well-crafted realistic plot and characters. The phenomenon “style over substance” was also mentioned here. The example Miami Vice has under this tenor occasionally moving into the (German) Marketing - literature held.

The Hörzu wrote about the pilot film:

"The plot ... quickly turned out to be a familiar game of cops and robbers. The attraction of the show lies rather in its speed, in its music and its perfect color dramaturgy. At times, Miami Vice seems like a drawn out music video that tells its story more through images and gestures than through coherent plot and sophisticated dialogues. This will appeal to young people, this fast-paced and gaudy sequence of images to aggressive music. Almost a comic. Only, comics are meant to be consumed quickly. For a series that needs staying power (24 episodes), that can of course be dangerous. "

Broadcast in Germany

From December 6, 1986, the series Miami Vice was broadcast for the first time on Tuesday evening at around 9:45 p.m. in the first program of ARD in Germany. At the beginning of the 1990s, the series also ran in a few third-party programs . Compared to the original episodes, the episodes edited by ARD were shortened by around three minutes in order to fit them better into the program scheme.

In 1993, the private broadcaster RTL secured the broadcasting rights and showed the series from August 17, 1993 with interruptions until 1997. Since the series was broadcast in the afternoon program, the episodes already cut by ARD were cut again, in some cases considerably, to mainly focus on scenes of violence defuse.

In 1998 the series was broadcast again by RTL II . RTL and RTL II also ensured that from November 1996 to April 1999 nine episodes that had not previously been dubbed in German were broadcast for the first time in Germany. These episodes were not shortened and are therefore a few minutes longer than the other German versions. The consequences are: The battle of the veterans , Cuba Libre , A question of honor , A man goes his way , Heroes of the revolution , The great thawing , Lost time , The prison in me and shadows of the past . Most of the original speakers were retained for the synchronization. The voice of Edward James Olmos is an exception, as Peter Aust died in early 1996. He was replaced by Friedrich G. Beckhaus .

After that, the series was not seen on free-to-air television for eight years. Only the pay-TV channel 13th Street aired the series at the beginning of the new millennium. Since 2006 the series has been repeated regularly on various television channels.

synchronization

The German dubbing was done on behalf of the Alsterstudios in Hamburg , with Wilfried Freitag being responsible for the dialogue.

role actor speaker
James "Sonny" Crockett Don Johnson Reent Reins
Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs Philip Michael Thomas Lutz Mackensy
Lt. Martin Castillo Edward James Olmos Peter Aust (ARD dubbing)
Friedrich G. Beckhaus (RTL II dubbing)
Gina Navarro Calabrese Saundra Santiago Monika Barth
Trudy Joplin Olivia Brown Angela Stresemann
Stanley Switek Michael Talbott Henry King
Larry Zito (Seasons 1-3) John Diehl Edgar Hoppe
Lt. Lou Rodriguez (season 1 episodes 1-4) Gregory Sierra Horst Stark
Caitlin Davies-Crockett (Season 4) Sheena Easton Marion Elskis
Izzy Moreno / Trini DeSoto Martin Ferrero Wilfried Freitag (ARD dubbing)
Gerald Schaale (RTL II dubbing by Izzy Moreno)
Neville "Noogie" Lamont (mainly season 1, one appearance each in seasons 2 and 4) Charlie Barnett Peter Kirchberger (ARD dubbing)
Asad Schwarz (RTL II dubbing)
Caroline Crockett Belinda Montgomery Heidi Schaffrath
Valerie Gordon Pam Grier Astrid Kollex
Albert Lombard Dennis Farina Dieter B. Gerlach

Episode list

background information

Ferrari 365 Daytona Spider Corvette "Miami Vice" from McBurnie Coachcraft
Rear view of one of five replicas from the TV series at the time
View into the original cockpit of one of five replicas from the TV series at the time

The Ferrari 365 GTS / 4 "Daytona Spider" used up to the second season was only a replica , which, like many of these vehicles, was based on a 1980s Corvette , built by McBurnie Coachcraft and equipped with a 250 hp engine. An original Daytona can only be seen briefly in the pilot film (e.g. recognizable by the triangular windows that the replica does not have). This is said to have been rented by the production company from a local doctor who, however, no longer made it available due to expensive damage during filming.

The Daytona replica was blown up in the first episode of the third season; allegedly at Ferrari's instigation, the company is said to have been bothered by the increased popularity of the replica kit due to the TV series (in fact, Ferrari filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the kit on the basis of copyright to prevent further sales). Instead, Ferrari North America provided two black Testarossa , model 1984 with 390 hp, they can be seen from the episode "Love and Death" of the third season. In order to be more effective in night shots, however, they were repainted white. An original Testarossa body on the chassis of a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera was used for stunts, which can be recognized in film recordings by the rims with a low offset (heavily cupped) (e.g. in "Höllenrocker").

Motion picture

In 2006 a remake of Miami Vice was released as a feature film. The main roles were played by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx . The German theatrical release was on August 24, 2006. Directed by Michael Mann, who also wrote the screenplay.

Publications

DVDs

After a DVD release failed for a long time due to the complicated distribution of rights to the numerous music titles used in the series, the first season in Germany (RC2) was finally released on October 20, 2005 (RC1 in USA: February 8, 2005, episodes uncut) . A so-called “Definitive Collection” with a selection of different episodes had already been published.

On DVD, some episodes in Germany are available for the first time in an uncut version with the “Definitive Collection”, but these episodes have been re-dubbed and some of the content has been changed. This was heavily criticized by numerous fans of the series. In the first season box, the original synchronization was retained - at the price that the scenes cut out of the earlier television broadcast were not supplemented.

In December 2005 , the second season of the series was released in the USA on DVD (RC1), in Germany (RC2) on August 10, 2006. The third season of the series was released on August 23, 2007 and the fourth season on October 18, 2007. The fifth and final season of the series was released on March 20, 2008.

literature

Computer games

For the Commodore 64 , Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Schneider CPC , the computer game for the Miami Vice series was released in 1986 .

Computer games were also developed and brought onto the market for PC , Xbox , PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable .

The computer game series Grand Theft Auto is based heavily on Miami Vice and Scarface in the plot of the games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories , which are set in the 1980s . Since there are so many similarities between Miami Vice and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City , Philip Michael Thomas lent his voice to a character. In addition, the virtual form of Phil Collins aka Phil Collins played in GTA: VCS in some story missions. Phil Collins already spoke in the predecessor GTA: VC, the commercial for a radio station. Furthermore, the fictional city of Vice City is an image of the metropolis Miami , which can be seen in the skyscrapers, beaches and the structure of the city.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Maurer: 100 percent meaningless - "Miami Vice" - Michael Mann brings his TV series to the screen. In: NZZ Online. August 25, 2006, accessed March 12, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Miami Vice: Ostentatious Right Down to the Watch on metropolitanbrokers.com ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 6, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metropolitanbrokers.com
  3. ↑ HÖRZU 52, December 19, 1986, p. 8
  4. ↑ Miami Vice. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .