26th
Here it is - the famous scene from the first episode of Miami Vice that cemeted the era of good feelings between MTV and primetime television. I can’t possibly express how inspired this scene really is. But let’s do a blow by blow.
Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”: This song is strange: subdued analog synth pads mixed with drum machine set to what must be “minimal rumba” followed by a classic Phil Collins’ hollow tom mega fill. Phil Collins may be an an easy man to hate, but this song fits so well and lends an immediate structure to the scene.
Sonny: It was real? Wasn’t it? (Collins’s voice swells in the background: “Well I remember!”)
Caroline: [Pause] Yeah, it was. (Collins: “I remember, don’t worry”) You bet it was!
Sometimes I call up my friend Phil and ask the same probing question. Onto the next point…
Sound editing: Like a true music video, the diagetic sound (sound within a scene) is kept to a minimum. All we hear is Phil Collins as Crockett and Tubbs speed into the night, wind coursing through their hair (but no wind sound). The shots of the car, the hood, its wheels are so powerful because of this - minus any engine noises, Collins’s strange synth dirge resonates perfectly with neon reflected across the car’s black exterior.
Marketing: Miami Vice was a terrible show despite (or perhaps because of) Michael Mann’s continual effort to make it edgy, over-sexed, and ultra-violent. What eventually sold Miami Vice was the Italian suits rolled up to the elbow, the flashy cars (especially after the first season when they really got a real Ferrari, instead of their Corvette which passed as one), and the music like Phil Collins here. My dad, who was a fan in the 80s, said that every week they’d announce the guest stars and music for the upcoming episode. The series was clearly a vehicle for selling lifestyles, not crime dramas. Nowadays, it is common for popular songs or upcoming hits to be plastered all over our primetime television (Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” deserves a special mention). This was pioneering stuff in Miami Vice’s day, especially when it was done so effectively.
