TEASER - 143: Miami Vice: Ripped from the Headlines (with Matthew Kinkaid)

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Friend of the show and Miami Vice head Matthew Kinkaid joins us from San Antonio, Texas for the sixth episode in our summer sidebar series.

We discuss selected Vice episodes from Seasons 3 and 4; when Michael Mann departed from the production to work on Manhunter and Crime Story, Wolf took over as show runner and started to change the way Vice looked and felt, eschewing the pastel color scheme for harder neon lighting and a flatter visual look. The plots were now based on current events and tabloid fare, a new “ripped from the headlines” approach Wolf would soon bring to his next show Law & Order. Crockett wore a long mullet and Tubbs grew a beard. These changes, plus the newer earlier timeslot on Friday nights (up against Dallas) led to the slow decline of the popularity of the series.

Matthew and I discuss three representative episodes of this period in the series, with Crockett and Tubbs up against a sleazy lawyer who is trafficking in stolen Colombian babies, crooked televangelists, and a scary porn director / artiste who may have made a snuff film, in a disturbing case that sets off the unravelling of Sonny Crockett throughout the rest of season 4.

Currently most Miami Vice episodes are available for streaming in the US on Tubi.

Episodes discussed on this show:

Baby Blues - Season 3, Ep 9

Amen…Send Money - Season 4, Ep 2

Death and the Lady - Season 4, Ep 3

Follow Matthew Kinkaid on Twitter.

Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas accepting the 1986 People’s Choice Award for Miami Vice.