‘In the Air Tonight': Looking back at ‘Miami Vice,' which premiered 40 years ago

It's time to toss that Versace suit over a pastel t-shirt, put espadrilles on your feet (no socks of course) and hop in the white Ferrari as the 40th anniversary of the premiere of "Miami Vice" is being celebrated this month.

The hit TV show premiered on Sept. 16, 1984 with the episode "Brother's Keeper," which later won two Emmys and started a legacy still felt to this day.

Audiences were introduced to James "Sonny" Crockett, played by Don Johnson, and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, played by Philip Michael Thomas, a pair of gritty Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami in sports cars, cigarette boats and designer threads to take down drug dealers, pimps and anyone else who got in their way.

The show not only changed television, it played a major role in Miami and Miami Beach's transformation from a sleepy beachside haven for retirees, refugees and drug dealers to an international destination for fun and sun.

That first episode set the tone and showed "Miami Vice" would not be like every other cop show that came before it.

From the fast-paced opening credits with a distinctive and very 1980s Jan Hammer instrumental theme to the sounds of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" playing as Crockett and Tubbs drive a convertible through the streets of South Florida, the show sometimes dubbed "MTV cops" set itself apart.

After the show premiered, Johnson and Thomas almost immediately became megastars. Tubbs' quiet demeanor and coolness and Crockett's lone wolf cop attitude and 5 o'clock shadow became just as culturally significant as the expensive suits they wore.

Johnson discussed the show's impact in an interview with the Associated Press earlier this year.

"What we did was contemporize television, we all came from independent movies and stuff like that, so we just brought our sensibilities and our artistic tastes and freshness to television which was pretty staid, it's not that way anymore, but it was pretty into its kind of programs, the doctor show, the cop show, the lawyer show," he said. "And 'Miami Vice' turned out to be one of those that kind of pooled all of those talents of music and fashion and so on and so forth and we kind of contemporized TV by doing so."

Besides Johnson and Thomas, the series helped launch the careers of a number of actors. The list of guest stars who had a brief role on the show reads like a who's who of Hollywood from the past four decades: Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson and many others.

The list of music stars who appeared on the show is also impressive. Everyone from Willie Nelson to Miles Davis and even Barbra Streisand showed up on "Vice."

While the cars, clothes and cinematography stood out, the real star of the show might be the location, specifically South Beach.

When the show started South Beach was mostly run down and not the hot spot it later came to be. The party atmosphere was almost non-existent, the famous Art Deco buildings looking long past their prime.

But each week, "Vice" viewers were transported to the sunny beaches, the hip night clubs and the tropical locales portrayed in the show.

As the Art Deco buildings were fixed up to be backdrops for the show and tourists flocked to South Florida to be part of the action, the show in many ways helped shape the area's revitalization.

Now, South Beach probably more closely resembles the playground for locals and tourists portrayed in "Miami Vice."

LEGACY OF "VICE"

"Miami Vice" only ran for five seasons, ending in 1989. But the show's legacy lives on.

Most of the fashion from the show may have gone out of style, but the bright colors still remain, whether it's the neon on the South Beach buildings or the need to drive a brightly colored sports car up and down U.S. 1.

The "Miami Vice" style has inspired everything from video games like "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" to the pink and blue Miami Heat Vice jerseys.

It also inspired the 2006 "Miami Vice" movie, directed by Michael Mann, a former executive producer of the show, and starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in the Crockett and Tubbs roles - and featuring a brief cameo from NBC6 meteorologist Ryan Phillips.

And those gritty TV shows everyone watches nowadays can also trace their origins back to "Miami Vice," as does the stylized use of music in shows.

To honor the 40th anniversary of the show, Miami Beach's mayor has issued a proclamation declaring Sept. 16 "Miami Vice Day."

A number of events are being held to celebrate the global phenomenon, including meet and greet with some of the show's stars, walking tours of some of the filming locations and visits to the "Miami Vice Museum."

Edward James Olmos, who starred in the show, was in town to be part of the celebrations and reflected on the show's meaning.

"We're celebrating the 40th anniversary of an unbelievable journey that we took here from 1984 through 1989 that changed the course of not only my career, not only the career of many many many Latinos and people that became understanding of who they are," he said. "It really was the start of understanding the city of Miami and South Miami Beach."