In The Air Tonight

BY: Zak Wojnar

Before Miami Vice, all TV was Dragnet. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and Dragnet is a classic series, but, for decades, TV dramas were flat, dry, emotionless, and, like Joe Friday himself, focused on “Just the facts, ma’am.”

Then, in 1984, Miami Vice came along, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. For five seasons on NBC, they were the two coolest guys on the planet. The series was the brainchild of creator Anthony Yerkovich and legendary film director Michael Mann. Rather than creating another cop show in the mold of every series which had come before, Michael Mann, in his role as Executive Producer, defined the look and feel of Miami Vice as something different. His influence imbued Vice with a cinematic aesthetic utterly unheard of in the television space.

Miami Vice was the first show to truly take advantage of color photography, and its pastel visuals were a game-changer for TV (season 3 added neon and earth tones). The soundtrack, by Jan Hammer, was extremely modern and totally original, and the show’s use of licensed music was unprecedented; today, every show has a handful of music video sequences, but Miami Vice was the first to showcase the raw power of strong visuals and minimalist dialogue set to a gloriously melodramatic pop song.

The pilot of Miami Vice aired on September 16, 1984, as a two-hour television event. The series was revolutionary with its use of full-length music video sequences; the opening was set to Miss You by The Rolling Stones, and one scene involving a cross-dressing assassin makes strong use of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – although it’s sadly just a sound-alike cover of the Cyndi Lauper version.

Near the end of the episode, tension has been built to the breaking point; in an indictment of both the amoral tendencies of capitalism and the futile War on Drugs, the protagonists have found that cops and judges have been bought and paid for by a powerful drug kingpin. After discovering the villain’s location, Crockett and Tubbs speed off in Crockett’s legendary 1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder.

As they drive to the final showdown, Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight plays in the background. His trust in institutions and individuals shattered by recent revelations, Crockett stops at a payphone to call his wife and ask a question about their crumbling marriage: “The way we used to be together, I don’t mean lately, but before… It was real, wasn’t it?” She replies, “Yeah, it was. You bet it was.” As he returns to the car and drives off, the iconic drums kick in, sending Miami Vice into television history.

Prospective Miami Vice fans can buy the complete series on Blu ray, or watch the first four seasons – in standard definition – on Hulu.