The author, John Marek, is executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.
I was at my favorite BBQ place the other day, waiting for my pickup order, when the soulful strains of a lonely saxophone wafted from the radio behind the counter, followed by the percussive beat and glorious explosion of sound that is the beginning of Glenn Frey’s “You Belong to the City. ”
Although it was one of the biggest hits of 1985, “You Belong to the City” is not a song you often hear on classic rock stations. They seem to favor its chart contemporaries, “We Built This City” and “Shout.” That scarcity makes it something of a time capsule, and as I stood there, I was transported back to what could arguably be called “The Summer of Miami Vice.”
Frey wrote the song specifically for the “Miami Vice” soundtrack. It was the theme for the second season’s premiere episode, “Prodigal Son,” which saw our undercover heroes, Crockett and Tubbs, travel to New York to bring down a drug kingpin who was systematically killing DEA agents. In our modern world of streaming services, video-on-demand and cable channels catering to virtually every niche interest, it’s easy to forget how important certain broadcast television shows seemed back in the day. And in the summer of 1985 no show was more culturally omnipresent than “Miami Vice,” influencing everything from music to graphic design to clothing.
I will admit that I bought into the craze, attempting to mimic as closely as I could on my recent-graduate budget, Crockett’s iconic T-shirt-under-Armani look. I bought a pair of linen-ish slacks, a pale blue sleeveless tee and tan canvas loafers (worn without socks, of course). The problem with that ensemble was that there were very few places in a small Midwest town where one could hang out while dressed like a Colombian drug lord. I distinctly recall putting that outfit on, driving to the Foodtown, buying an Esquire and New Coke, and sipping the soda while reading the magazine on a bench at the Port Clinton City Park. It was more “You Belong in Poughkeepsie” than “You Belong to the City.”
The “Prodigal Son” premiered on Sept. 27, 1985, as a two-hour television event. It drew 25 million viewers and is generally remembered as one of the show’s strongest episodes. A friend of mine commented at the time that it was the best thing he’d ever seen on TV. It wasn’t. In honesty, “Miami Vice” was never much more than an hour-long music video culminating in a gunfight. I have difficulty remembering the plot of any particular episode. That second season premiere was the high water mark of the series in terms of both ratings and cultural relevance. By the end of the next season, fewer than 15 million people were regularly tuning in, and the fickle world of fashion had moved on to oversized, slouch-shouldered leather jackets with puffy sleeves.
The show would hang on for a couple more seasons, with the last original episode, ironically titled “Too Much, Too Late,” airing in January 1990. Interestingly, it was an episode that had been filmed a season earlier, but not aired because its topic of child trafficking was considered too controversial.
Thirty-five years after “Prodigal Son” aired, “Miami Vice” lives on as a cultural touchstone of the ’80s, and its impact is still felt today. It was one of the first police procedurals to feature a diverse, multiracial cast, and one of the first to make the location itself a significant character, setting the stage for shows like “NYPD Blue” and the various incarnations of “Law & Order.” Its integration of music and visual effects were groundbreaking for the time, but are now standard. The Miami Heat basketball team regularly wears a uniform that harkens back to the pastel colors and typography of the show, and several of the cast members – Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos, in particular – continue as stars today. Thankfully, my days in linen were more short-lived.