It’s a little hard to believe when you look at it, but Miami Vice was once the ultimate expression of cool. Unshaven men with shaggy hair, loafers without socks, and white linen suits once dominated pop culture. That was 40 years ago, and the “Miami Vice” look now just looks like a caricature of all things 1980s. That’s how time works, I guess.
Miami Vice was the top-rated drama of its day and redefined the “cop show” genre. Cop shows in general have a real need for a lot of day players, and with the cool factor, there were definitely a lot of up-and-comers who wanted to be part of it. The surprising thing is how many of them went on to be established names. This is a pattern that would later be repeated on shows like Law & Order and CSI. But we’re not talking about them today.
Take a look for yourself
Watching this video you’ll see a lot of familiar faces. It’s not surprising that there are a lot of Latinx leads there, as Miami’s population is heavily Latinx. To the show’s credit, not all the non-white characters were bad guys. Just… most of them. But realistically this isn’t that sort of blog, we don’t delve too deep into that sort of thing.
There’s also a surprising number of 1970s musicians in the mix, from Gene Simmons to Isaac Hayes. I’m presuming these folks weren’t really at the top of their popularity at that point, and the producers just wanted to meet them. So why not put them in a small role? I have to admit I’d do the same.
Gus Fring doing his thing
Probably the most fun for me at least is to see a very young Giancarlo Esposito, also known as Gus Fring from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. IMDB implies he was about 26 when he appeared on the show, and one of his three appearances is in this video. Esposito is a very accomplished fellow, and if you only know him as Gus Fring you’d be surprised by his other credits. I mean, dude was on Sesame Street.
Who’s your favorite? Is it the fresh-faced Julia Roberts or the typically incomprehensible James Brown? Leave a comment below. Let’s get the discussion started.
