133: Miami Vice: The Calderone Arc (with James Majure)

The pod’s sidebar series on NBC’s revolutionary TV crime drama Miami Vice (1984-1989) begins with returning guest and friend of the show James Majure joining us from Athens, GA.

There is so much to discuss in terms of the influence of Vice on contemporary culture but we’re starting at the beginning, with the origins of the idea of Miami Vice, a glimpse into the real world conditions in the city of Miami in the early 80s that led to the concept, how the show refined its style and formula over a long storyline arc about the war between Crockett and Tubbs and the ruthless Calderone Cartel, and how Vice reflects the vision of its two primary architects: creator Anthony Yerkovich and executive producer Michael Mann.

We also discuss the influence of Scarface on the production, the casting of playwright Miguel Piñero as Calderone, the Mozambique Drill, and the first appearance of “Crockett’s Theme”.

Miami Vice is currently available to watch for free on Tubi. 

Episodes discussed on this show:

Brother’s Keeper (pilot) - Season 1, Ep 1

Calderone’s Return, Parts I & II - Season 1, Eps 4 & 5

Sons and Lovers - Season 2, Ep 23

Become a patron of the podcast to access to this entire Miami Vice sidebar series, as well as dozens of episodes of the show available exclusively to Junk Filter patrons: some notable previous Patreon guests include Jared Yates Sexton, Jacob Bacharach, David Roth, Bryan Quinby and Sooz Kempner. Sign up at ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow James Majure on Twitter.

Opening title sequence for Episode 1 of Miami Vice

Jan Hammer performing “Crockett’s Theme” on Dutch TV