The show that redefined Miami

It’s hard to imagine now, amid the sea of luxury high rises and shiny sports cars, but during the early 1980s, Miami was a disaster of a city. Well-armed drug lords, better known as cocaine cowboys or marijuana millionaires, helped transformed the place into a warzone; Miami had the highest murder rate in the world. Yet amid all that blight, a couple of guys saw gold. TV writer Anthony Yerkovich teamed with producer Michael Mann to create a cop drama that would redefine television and the city in which the show was set: Miami Vice.

Cue Crockett and Tubbs.

Crockett and Tubbs, played by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty)

The show premiered in the US 30 years ago and was ultimately syndicated in 77 countries, introducing viewers to two dapper undercover narcotics officers played by too-cool-for-school Don Johnson and hot-as-hell Philip Michael Thomas. It also introduced a fleet of cigarette boats, sports cars and bikini clad women set against the backdrop of Miami’s Art Deco architecture. Add Jan Hammer's thumping theme song and a killer New Wave soundtrack, and Miami Vice created a character arguably sexier than Armani-clad Crockett and Tubbs: the city of Miami.
Does that Miami – the show's Miami – still exist? I wanted to find out.
I didn’t have to spend more than a few minutes in the city to see that Miami has spruced itself up considerably since the '80s. But the city is a work in progress; more than a few cranes loom above multi-million-dollar condo construction sites.
I strolled through the Brickell neighbourhood, just south of Miami's downtown, past the intersection that was home to the show's Organized Crime Bureau of the Metro-Dade Police Department, better known as Miami Vice. The building – covertly labelled in the show as "Gold Coast Shipping Company" to keep their anti-narcotics operation undercover – was where Crockett and Tubbs debriefed cases. Today, the building is just a memory, and the intersection of SW 7th Street and SW 2nd Avenue where it sat is shadowed by a looming luxury apartment complex; a brightly lit Publix supermarket lies steps away.

Blue sky over Miami. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty)

But I didn’t have to travel far to reach another iconic Miami Vice location. Just south of the show's former headquarters along Brickell's bayfront lies the 20-storey Atlantis Condominium building with its shocking, square hole in the centre – the building was featured in the show's opening credits. The Atlantis telegraphed just the kind of futuristic cool image that producers wanted. As the sleazy racketeer Vinnie DeMarco played by Joe Dallesandro remarked in one episode, "If Miami hasn't got it, they haven't invented it yet."
But 30 years later, the Atlantis' dark, mirrored exterior and relatively squat height look dated, particularly compared to neighbouring buildings – newer, sleek white towers with gleaming, pale-tinted glass and balconies.

The Atlantis Condominium, completed in 1982. (Valerie Conners)

Of course, Miami's shimmering turquoise water featured prominently in the show, and just north of Brickell in Miami's downtown I found the Miamarina, a marina filled with flashy yachts and speedboats where Crockett docked his houseboat, the St Vitus Dance.
The marina now houses the sprawling Bayside Marketplace, a hub of shops, restaurants and bars. Crockett's dock no longer exists; the place has been completely remodelled since the ‘80s, and the St Vitus, portrayed by three different yachts over the show's five lifespan, is long gone from the marina.

The waterfront Bayside Marketplace. (Valerie Conners)

The marina makes the roster of sights visited by one local tour operator, Speedboat Tours, whose boat also zips past Hibiscus Island and a mansion whose exterior and waterfront deck stood in for a drug dealer's house.
"Really, if it wasn't for Miami Vice, the tourists wouldn't be here," said tour guide Michael Lynch. "The show transformed the city. In those days, people used to call Miami 'heaven's waiting room’. It was old people playing chess and waiting to see God, and it was also the deadliest city in the country."
But Miami changed. In a way, it was life – city life – imitating art.
"People started filming music videos, doing fashion shoots here," Lynch said. "This drew models and people looking to be discovered, and then, tourists from around the world."
South Beach and the Art Deco buildings along Ocean Avenue were an ideal backdrop for videos and photo spreads, and not surprisingly featured heavily in countless scenes throughout Miami Vice's five seasons.