Vote for why you think it jumped
Never Jumped
I Do (Crockett and Special Guest Star Sheena Easton)
Death (Spyder)
Crockett gets amnesia
Day One
Shark Bytes
Original Post:
Vice jumped the shark when dummy Michael Mann decided to go against the time-honored rule of "Don't fix it if it ain't broken" by changing EVERYTHING about the show's "look" starting with Episode 1 of the Third Season. Mann just couldn't leave well-enough-alone when he had a MAJOR GREAT THING GOING IN THE FIRST TWO SEASONS when Don Johnson, back then in 1985, the most impossibly hot, cooly handsome man on the planet, set a fashion-quake in menswear and had men of all ages duplicating Don's typical uniform of unconstructed pastel sportcoat thrown over a T-shirt and multipleated pants (all in tropical-chic shades of pastel pink, aqua, peach, fuschia and white). THAT was the REAL REASON for Vice's phenomenal popularity during it's first two seasons--Don Johnson's pastel shapeless sportcoats, fashionably baggy linen pants, designer stubble and white leather sockless slip-on shoes. It was something that hadn't been done since the Great Masculine Renunciation at the dawn of the Industrial Era (basically, men giving up their pretty clothes and donning drab body coverings like grey flannel suits and the like): having a prettily displayed, colorfully and casually chic human being being fetishized by the camera: and having that pretty, fetishized human is, contrary to convention, a goodlooking flashy-clad MAN, not a beautiful woman as had alwyas been the case in the past. So in a nutshell, Miami Vice owed its great popularity during the first 2 seasons to the fetishization of Don Johnson's PASTEL COLORFUL TROPICAL-CHIC CLOTHES. I LIVED in that era, back in 1984-86 when the first two seasons aired, and I was swept away by the fashion wave of Don Johnsonish togs that popped up everywhere in department stores, boutiques, any place that sold clothes, there it was--Don Johnson-influenced pastel colorfully chic clothes. I WORE them as a 16 to 18 year old boy back then; then, at the beginning of Season 3, when they went out of style, I taught myself to sew and MADE myself wardrobes of Don Johnson-esque blazers, sportshirts, multipleated pants, etc. and I wear them to the present day as a 39-and-a-half year old man now in mid-2007. OK, I'm rambling, let me try to make my point a little more concise: Miami Vice jumped the shark when Michael Mann got "sick" of the glitzy pastel clothes of the first two seasons and replaced them with darker, drabber togs starting in Season 3, then sinking the ratings to rock-bottom when he decked Don Johnson out in (I STILL DON'T BELIEVE IT AND WRITING THIS HURTS EVEN NOW)--decked Don Johnson out in Seasons 4 and 5 in torn hideous bluejeans, black leather jackets, conventional earth-tone-colored business suits and neck-nooses (er, I mean neck-TIES, UGH!) Yup, Season three sucked because of Mann changing Don Johnson's chic pastel clothes into dark, drab rags that mutated--in Seasons VERY LOW RATED 4 and 5--into even more horrid bluejeaned and business-suited necktied scumwear. Mann broke the rules when he jumped the shark at the beginning of Season Three by ACTUALLY RIDDING THE SHOW of the ONLY reason I and most other fans tuned into Vice--to watch the impossibly handsome mannequin Don Johnson showing off his latest pastel-chic fashions--and replacing said casual-chic fashions wirth dark, drab hohum scumwear. The one-man fashion show that was Don Johnson during the first two seasons was killed off and made obsolete by Mann himself at the start of Season 3. I actually stopped watching the show starting Season 3 and almost had a nervous breakdown when Don Johnson flashed his ugly bluejeaned, sloppily business-suited scuzz-wear in Seasons 4 and 5. That was it: the ONLY reason we fans tuned in during Seasons 1 and 2 was to see Don Johnson's GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, PRETTY-BOY COOL wardrobe; and when Michael Mann La Nutty One nixed the colorful, casually-chic Sonny Crockett clothes for ugly scuzzy junk, the show was over. Jumped the Shark completely when Crockett first appeared in his dark drab scumwear in the first scene of episode 1 of Season 3 instead of his dashing, colorfully cool and chic fashions of Seasons 1 and 2. The TV series that was a glorious one-man fashion-show (and had all us enraptured viewers dressing up just like that man Don Johnson as Crockett) ended when Mann himself made the pretty men's fashions obsolete, passe, out-of-style. So sad. So very sad indeed. To this day, the ONLY episodes I watch on DVD or in reruns are Season 1 and 2; I HATE the grungewear of Seasons 3, 4 and 5 and I never force myself the torture of watching those last 3 seasons. However, the chic pastels of Seasons 1 and 2 live on in my self-created wardrobe nowadays in 2007--the unconstructed sportcoats thrown over T-shirts and multipleated trousers with sockless white slip-on shoes in shades of flashy-cool pink, aqua, lilac, white, peach and fuschia all stitched up on my industrial-strength sewing machine to duplicate my one and only hero and idol Don Johnson as he was dressed in Seasons 1 and 2 of Miami Vice. And that, dear readers, is the final word.
PS. If anyone wants to revive the series(like the way they revived the old 1960's Star Trek TV series with the 1990's Star Trek:the New Generation), here's how to do it: get the now 57-year-old Don Johnson to drop 25 pounds to look like his former 35-year-old self-starved fashion plate/male model 1985 self; then give him a massive but very professional face-lift...and then, deck the dude out in those great old Season 1 and 2 flashy-cool pretty pastel fashions set to MTVideography instead of plotlines. Then--and ONLY THEN--would people watch Miami Vice: the New Generation. But what does Mann do? In 2006 he forgets about Don Johnson's pretty-boy fashion plate Seasons 1 and 2 image...and Mann decks out Colin Farrel in the grubbiest scuzwear this side of ScumVille USA and stars the grubbified Farrel in "Miami Vice: the Movie." Which of course went nowhere--but down. And there you have it. Miami Vice the TV series was popular solely because of Don Johnson's seasons 1 and 2 pastel-chic fashions and nothing more. If Crockett had been wearing jeans and T-shirts, flannel and earth-tones in Seasons 1 and 2, the show would have been cancelled after the opening Pilot Episode because there'd be no pretty pastel menswear to watch flaunting in our faces. In short, face facts: If the pilot episode of Miami Vice back in 1984 had Sonny Crockett tricked out as a bluejeaned scuzball like every other slobbish-ugly man who makes up 99 percent of the male population...well, then Vice would have been axed after Episode 1 of Season 1, just like that ill-fated new series "ANCHORWOMAN" that aired last year ago (as of Friday August 24, 2007) and was cancelled after one episode (which I and most people didn't even watch) because it didn't have what it takes. And Vice, in Seasons 1 and 2, had what it took: colorfully chic casual menswear. There you have it. Go figure.
August 17, 2008 5:38 PM Mike Vice
Vice jumped the shark when dummy Michael Mann decided to go against the time-honored rule of "Don't fix it if it ain't broken" by changing EVERYTHING about the show's "look" starting with Episode 1 of the Third Season. Mann just couldn't leave well-enough-alone when he had a MAJOR GREAT THING GOING IN THE FIRST TWO SEASONS when Don Johnson, back then in 1985, the most impossibly hot, cooly handsome man on the planet, set a fashion-quake in menswear and had men of all ages duplicating Don's typical uniform of unconstructed pastel sportcoat thrown over a T-shirt and multipleated pants (all in tropical-chic shades of pastel pink, aqua, peach, fuschia and white). THAT was the REAL REASON for Vice's phenomenal popularity during it's first two seasons--Don Johnson's pastel shapeless sportcoats, fashionably baggy linen pants, designer stubble and white leather sockless slip-on shoes. It was something that hadn't been done since the Great Masculine Renunciation at the dawn of the Industrial Era (basically, men giving up their pretty clothes and donning drab body coverings like grey flannel suits and the like): having a prettily displayed, colorfully and casually chic human being being fetishized by the camera: and having that pretty, fetishized human is, contrary to convention, a goodlooking flashy-clad MAN, not a beautiful woman as had alwyas been the case in the past. So in a nutshell, Miami Vice owed its great popularity during the first 2 seasons to the fetishization of Don Johnson's PASTEL COLORFUL TROPICAL-CHIC CLOTHES. I LIVED in that era, back in 1984-86 when the first two seasons aired, and I was swept away by the fashion wave of Don Johnsonish togs that popped up everywhere in department stores, boutiques, any place that sold clothes, there it was--Don Johnson-influenced pastel colorfully chic clothes. I WORE them as a 16 to 18 year old boy back then; then, at the beginning of Season 3, when they went out of style, I taught myself to sew and MADE myself wardrobes of Don Johnson-esque blazers, sportshirts, multipleated pants, etc. and I wear them to the present day as a 39-and-a-half year old man now in mid-2007. OK, I'm rambling, let me try to make my point a little more concise: Miami Vice jumped the shark when Michael Mann got "sick" of the glitzy pastel clothes of the first two seasons and replaced them with darker, drabber togs starting in Season 3, then sinking the ratings to rock-bottom when he decked Don Johnson out in (I STILL DON'T BELIEVE IT AND WRITING THIS HURTS EVEN NOW)--decked Don Johnson out in Seasons 4 and 5 in torn hideous bluejeans, black leather jackets, conventional earth-tone-colored business suits and neck-nooses (er, I mean neck-TIES, UGH!) Yup, Season three sucked because of Mann changing Don Johnson's chic pastel clothes into dark, drab rags that mutated--in Seasons VERY LOW RATED 4 and 5--into even more horrid bluejeaned and business-suited necktied scumwear. Mann broke the rules when he jumped the shark at the beginning of Season Three by ACTUALLY RIDDING THE SHOW of the ONLY reason I and most other fans tuned into Vice--to watch the impossibly handsome mannequin Don Johnson showing off his latest pastel-chic fashions--and replacing said casual-chic fashions wirth dark, drab hohum scumwear. The one-man fashion show that was Don Johnson during the first two seasons was killed off and made obsolete by Mann himself at the start of Season 3. I actually stopped watching the show starting Season 3 and almost had a nervous breakdown when Don Johnson flashed his ugly bluejeaned, sloppily business-suited scuzz-wear in Seasons 4 and 5. That was it: the ONLY reason we fans tuned in during Seasons 1 and 2 was to see Don Johnson's GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, PRETTY-BOY COOL wardrobe; and when Michael Mann La Nutty One nixed the colorful, casually-chic Sonny Crockett clothes for ugly scuzzy junk, the show was over. Jumped the Shark completely when Crockett first appeared in his dark drab scumwear in the first scene of episode 1 of Season 3 instead of his dashing, colorfully cool and chic fashions of Seasons 1 and 2. The TV series that was a glorious one-man fashion-show (and had all us enraptured viewers dressing up just like that man Don Johnson as Crockett) ended when Mann himself made the pretty men's fashions obsolete, passe, out-of-style. So sad. So very sad indeed. To this day, the ONLY episodes I watch on DVD or in reruns are Season 1 and 2; I HATE the grungewear of Seasons 3, 4 and 5 and I never force myself the torture of watching those last 3 seasons. However, the chic pastels of Seasons 1 and 2 live on in my self-created wardrobe nowadays in 2007--the unconstructed sportcoats thrown over T-shirts and multipleated trousers with sockless white slip-on shoes in shades of flashy-cool pink, aqua, lilac, white, peach and fuschia all stitched up on my industrial-strength sewing machine to duplicate my one and only hero and idol Don Johnson as he was dressed in Seasons 1 and 2 of Miami Vice. And that, dear readers, is the final word.
PS. If anyone wants to revive the series(like the way they revived the old 1960's Star Trek TV series with the 1990's Star Trek:the New Generation), here's how to do it: get the now 57-year-old Don Johnson to drop 25 pounds to look like his former 35-year-old self-starved fashion plate/male model 1985 self; then give him a massive but very professional face-lift...and then, deck the dude out in those great old Season 1 and 2 flashy-cool pretty pastel fashions set to MTVideography instead of plotlines. Then--and ONLY THEN--would people watch Miami Vice: the New Generation. But what does Mann do? In 2006 he forgets about Don Johnson's pretty-boy fashion plate Seasons 1 and 2 image...and Mann decks out Colin Farrel in the grubbiest scuzwear this side of ScumVille USA and stars the grubbified Farrel in "Miami Vice: the Movie." Which of course went nowhere--but down. And there you have it. Miami Vice the TV series was popular solely because of Don Johnson's seasons 1 and 2 pastel-chic fashions and nothing more. If Crockett had been wearing jeans and T-shirts, flannel and earth-tones in Seasons 1 and 2, the show would have been cancelled after the opening Pilot Episode because there'd be no pretty pastel menswear to watch flaunting in our faces. In short, face facts: If the pilot episode of Miami Vice back in 1984 had Sonny Crockett tricked out as a bluejeaned scuzball like every other slobbish-ugly man who makes up 99 percent of the male population...well, then Vice would have been axed after Episode 1 of Season 1, just like that ill-fated new series "ANCHORWOMAN" that aired last year ago (as of Friday August 24, 2007) and was cancelled after one episode (which I and most people didn't even watch) because it didn't have what it takes. And Vice, in Seasons 1 and 2, had what it took: colorfully chic casual menswear. There you have it. Go figure.
August 17, 2008 5:38 PM Mike Vice
A great show for the first two seasons. From the fall of 1984 to the spring of 1986, Vice was great. Until the Fall of 1986 when Season 3 began. The storylines were different, more dark, the Ferrari was now a Testarossa and Zito was killed off. Come on, why Zito? Why didn't they just leave the cast alone. Everybody did a great job. Seasons 3-5 were abysmal, but Seasons 1 and 2 were great. They were classic, and the reason for Vice getting cancelled was not only the writers and producers, but NBC. They killed some great shows that were in their primetime. Such as The A-Team, Knight Rider and many others. Vice was a poor, helpless victim. But CBS never killed off Magnum P.I. or The Dukes of Hazzard. But that's besides the point. Also in Seasons 4-5, Crockett looks like a girl with his dumb hair. And the last 4 episodes of the series, some eps. hardly include Crockett or Tubbs. Miracle Man was just Tubbs and Switek, Leap of Faith had nobody but some retarded teen cops, and Too Much Too Late was just Tubbs.
Bad, bad, very bad. Shame on you guys.
Bad, bad, very bad. Shame on you guys.
Look, this was one of the best cop shows every on TV. It defined a decade of American history. Many episodes were good to great! Let's not forget, it's a television program depicting reality, not the other way around.
The show was great, one of the best ever, and i don't personally think it jumped. The third season and some fourth season epiosdes were gritty and nihlistic, with a large body count by the end of the episode, however the last episodes such as Free Fall and Line of Fire returned to the shows roots like in the first seasons.
Here are, in particular order, marks of a shark jumping 3 times.
1) After a while, we got to see Elvis the alligator as nothing more than a cheap looking plastic toy that even a blind man would see was fake. How insulting to the audience. Only Noog and Izzy were more annoying.
2) Having Trudy and Gina eventually doing nothing more than be errand girls with 5 minutes of script.
3) The ultimate in shark jumping, because it caused viewership to decline, was having every celebrity come out of the woodwork to act. Some could but others were unmentionable. James Brown, come on.
Sheena Easton...well, the only good thing was when she was killed off. That was up there with killing off the daughter in Godfather lll.
Anyway, some of the drama came back to Vice although brief. Notice Crockett on the boat after her death.
Tragically, the show's last episode was a disappointment. Only good thing was that no one was killed off. A refreshing change.
1) After a while, we got to see Elvis the alligator as nothing more than a cheap looking plastic toy that even a blind man would see was fake. How insulting to the audience. Only Noog and Izzy were more annoying.
2) Having Trudy and Gina eventually doing nothing more than be errand girls with 5 minutes of script.
3) The ultimate in shark jumping, because it caused viewership to decline, was having every celebrity come out of the woodwork to act. Some could but others were unmentionable. James Brown, come on.
Sheena Easton...well, the only good thing was when she was killed off. That was up there with killing off the daughter in Godfather lll.
Anyway, some of the drama came back to Vice although brief. Notice Crockett on the boat after her death.
Tragically, the show's last episode was a disappointment. Only good thing was that no one was killed off. A refreshing change.
A great show with excellent acting and stylish production. Unfortunately, the show jumped the shark. The exact point is nebulous, but for arguement's sake (and personal taste), it was the destruction of the spyder.
The first two to three years, provided some of the best television to be had. The shows had substance to match the style. Storylines were more thought provoking and often ended with a dark closing sequence which left feelings that resonated with the viewer. Interplaced montages showed the real depth the characters had and highlighted some of the great actors who were either stalwarts (particularly Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos) or part of the cavalcade of endless celebrities (or soon to be known celebrities) who graced the shows.
As a complete aside: the movie doesn't do the show justice. Jaime Fox brought his A game and dominates the movie, but untimately the show really was about Sunny and Colin Farrel is no Don Johnson.
The first two to three years, provided some of the best television to be had. The shows had substance to match the style. Storylines were more thought provoking and often ended with a dark closing sequence which left feelings that resonated with the viewer. Interplaced montages showed the real depth the characters had and highlighted some of the great actors who were either stalwarts (particularly Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos) or part of the cavalcade of endless celebrities (or soon to be known celebrities) who graced the shows.
As a complete aside: the movie doesn't do the show justice. Jaime Fox brought his A game and dominates the movie, but untimately the show really was about Sunny and Colin Farrel is no Don Johnson.
Definately jumped in season 3.
An early season 3 episode where Tubbs goes undercover as a prison inmate to bust a corrupt officer was definately the last great episode..
That episode ran on Sleuth TV this past weekend...
An early season 3 episode where Tubbs goes undercover as a prison inmate to bust a corrupt officer was definately the last great episode..
That episode ran on Sleuth TV this past weekend...
When this show was popular, I was in college, so I didn’t have much TV time. I do remember saying to a classmate with a cover like that it’s just a matter of time before somebody says “That’s the guy who busted Jose down on the beach last week.”
The show was interesting during its original run but I wasn't too happy with how they let Philip Michael Thomas grow a beard. It made him look like he was having a mid-life crisis and it tarnished his "suave" look he had in the beginning. Crockett was still sharp with the mullet he grew by the mid-late 80's. Also, the Spyder was the "trademark" car of the show and they shouldn't have changed it.
I sure do remember..
that episode aired in the last season and was about a teacher...
It was kind of a 21 Jump st rip off..
Show jumped during season 3....
that episode aired in the last season and was about a teacher...
It was kind of a 21 Jump st rip off..
Show jumped during season 3....
Do y'all not remember when almost all of the regular cast was gone & Crockett & Castillo were mentoring this new young group of cops (probably meant to carry the show a couple of more years but failed)?
I was a HUGE fan of this show when it originally aired. There was nothing like setting your VCR and watching this show hungover on Saturday morning. However, it DID jump and the jump took awhile to happen. First off, the show started slowly. I recall the Bruce Willis episode being one of the first really good ones. By early '85 a major buzz was going around about this show, leading to the last two episodes of the first season, "Evan" & "Lombard" , that were AWESOME...I remember being totally creeped out by the final scene in Lombard showing Dennis Farina driving away from the courthouse with the two hitman following close behind. Then season two hit and this show was all the rage. However, I recall being disappointed with the season two opener, thinking it was boring. A couple of weeks later one of the greatest episodes EVER aired, "Out Where The Buses Run". When season three hit, the show started to strap on the skiis and Henry Winkler appeared. The season three opener looked like that it had been filmed originally for season 2, and just plain sucked. Then Miami Vice officially jumped the shark in my opinion when they had an episode where some high school basketball player was working with Crockett, and he was killed. I recall a seen where Crockett throws a tantrum in a car, done with VERY BAD acting by Don Johnson, and that was it for me....
Miami VIce definately lost its edge in the fall of 1986....
Miami VIce definately lost its edge in the fall of 1986....
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