Miami Vice Recreated Miami

 

Axios - "“Miami Vice” celebrates 40 years. How the TV show shaped Miami’s brand"

Flashback: The show — filmed like a music video with glamor shots and a big-budget soundtrack — created a sensationalized version of Miami where detectives in pastel European suits and sockless loafers chased bad guys in sports cars and speedboats.

Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas were the leading men, but the city itself was a main character, too.

Zoom in: "Vice" was a huge hit for national audiences during its five seasons on air, and international viewers loved the reruns, but it was a source of pride for downtrodden Miamians.

In the early 1980s, Miami's murder rate was the highest in the country. The city was recovering from the police killing of Arthur McDuffie, which touched off devastating race riots.

The Art Deco Cultural District in South Beach was known as "God's waiting room" back then — a 180 from the young party crowds that fill Ocean Drive hotels these days.

What they did: The showrunners staged fake clubs, bars and restaurants inside Art Deco hotels.

They cast young, attractive extras to replace the retirees for beach and poolside shots.

Using a strict pastel-only color palette, they painted over drab South Beach hotels, à la preservationist Leonard Horowitz, who began repainting Art Deco hotels in the '70s.

By the end of the '80s, many say, the real Miami was beginning to look like its TV self.