As I watch Miami Vice, I cannot help but notice the different segments used in the opening montages as well as smaller differences such as the different colors used in the Miami Vice logo during the opening montages. I decided it might be interesting to study the differences and post that work on this site. I will start with the season 1 opening montages.
Season 1
I start with the Miami Vice logo seen during the opening montages. They seem to have experimented with the logo as the season went on to see what they liked best.
Pilot; Brother’s Keeper
2: Heart Of Darkness
Miami went from blue to green and the gray Vice was made darker.
3: Cool Runnin’
5: Calderone’s Demise
4: Hit List
Miami switched from green to gray and Vice went from gray to pink. This is the first episode where they used backlighting on the logo. Orange back lighting.
6: One Eyed Jack
The pink Vice gets more vibrant and the backlighting is now pink.
7: No Exit
The colors are the same but appear muted by a gray or blue filter.
8: The Great McCarthy
9: Glades
10: Give A Little, Take A Little
Orange tint
11: Little Prince
Brighter pink
12: Milk Run
13: Golden Triangle
14: Golden Triangle 2
15: Smuggler’s Blues
17:The Maze
18: Made For Each Other
19: Home Invaders
Much sharper and brighter
20: Nobody Lives Forever
21: Evan
22: Lombard
Segments:
The Pilot montage is probably the most unique of the series. It is definitely the longest at approximately 1 minute 37 seconds. All the following opening montages are 1 minute long. The Pilot Montage consist of 34 segments.
Palm Trees, Location unknown. Possibly at the Deering Estate.
Flamingos. Filmed at Hialeah Park, 2200 East 4th Avenue, Hialeah, Florida.
Probably filmed on Calle Ocho.
Jai Alai filmed at Miami Jai Alai. 3500 NW 37th Avenue, Miami.
Water skier’s wake. Location unknown.
Parrots were most likely filmed at Parrot Jungle. Killian Parkway at S. Red Road, Pinecrest, Fl.
5600 Biscayne Blvd.
Miami.
Location unknown.
Filmed at Biscayne Kennel Club, NW 115th Street at NW 5th Ave. Miami Beach.
5600 Biscayne Blvd.
1200 Brickell Ave.
Flagship National Bank
701 Brickell Ave.
Dade County Courthouse. South Side. 73 West Flagler Street, Miami.
The Forge Restaurant.
432 West 41st Street
Miami Beach
Sunset pictures most likely from the MacArthur Causeway.
Bal Harbour. Regency and
Beau Rivage Hotels.
Collins Ave. north of Bal Harbour shops.
The End
Location unknown
Chalk’s Airline seaplane taking off between Watson Island and the Port of Miami.
SW 8th Street (Calle Ocho) and SW 36th Ave. Miami
Auto Toy Store
1600 blk. Of Sunrise Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.
Bal Harbour/Haulover cut.
Most likely filmed at Gulfstream Park, 901 S Federal Hwy. Hallandale, Florida.
4800 Blk. Of Collins, looking north.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Heart Of darkness:
(the segment numbering is based on the order in which it appeared in
the Pilot’s montage.)
The Heart of Darkness montage starts off as the Pilot episode’s montage did. Showing the same first three segments.
Then it drops the 4th segement (#4 above) and the 7th segment.
#8 gets moved to the very end of the montage.
Segment #13 is deleted.
Segment 15 is deleted.
Segment 20 is moved up to follow # 14
Which is then followed by # 34 which had ended the Pilot montage.
Segment 16 is deleted.
Then segments 19 thru 21 are deleted with #20 having been moved up.
Segments 23 thru 28 are deleted.
Segments 30 thru 34 are deleted with segment # 8 ending the montage.
3: Cool Runnin’ Same montage as Heart of Darkness
4: Hit List Same Montage as Heart of Darkness and Cool Runnin’
Opening montage for episodes 2,3 + 4 (with the Pilot movie, Brother’s Keeper counted as “episode” 1):
Sequence of the courthouse pan:
5; Calderone’s Return Part 2/Calderone’s Demise
The first two thirds of this opening montage are segments used in the Pilot’s opening montage, just in a different order. In the last third of the montage we see 5 new segments.
1
3
Number beside the picture corresponds to the segment’s order of appearance in the Pilot’s montage.
Pictures are placed in order of how they appear in this opening montage.
2
Flamingos are moved up ahead of the Miami Vice logo.
34
4
6
5
27
26
28
9
30
7
5
11
New
Biscayne Kennel Club
NW 115th Street at NW 5th Ave.
5
16
New; Atlantis, 2025 Brickell Ave., Miami.
New: Carlyle Hotel. Ocean Drive at 13th Street, Miami Beach.
New: Boats racing south past Watson Island toward the Port of Miami.
New: Downtown Miami at night from Dodge Island/Port of Miami.
The End
6: One Eyed Jack; 7: No Exit; and 8: The Great McCarthy all use the same opening montage as, 5: Calderone’s Demise.
9: Glades; Very similar to episodes 5,6,7,+8 however; it adds a water flyover segment after the Bal Harbour cut segment (#30) and it cuts both the racing greyhounds segment that was added in episode 5, Calderone’s Demise as well as the water flyover segment that followed the greyhounds. Now it goes straight from #11 the single running greyhound to #16, the Flagship National Bank segment.
This will become the standard season 1 opening montage for the remaining episodes with the exception of episode 10, Give A Little, Take A Little.
10: Give A Little, Take A Little;
This is the fifth and last new version of the montage that we see in season 1. The first 12 segments remain the same as we see in episode 9. However; after # 30 the Bal Harbour Cut segment we see # 7(the parrots) added before the water flyover that we saw added in episode 9. Both the racing greyhounds and the following water flyover segments that were removed in episode 9 have been returned and placed in their original location.
Episode 11 thru 22 all use the same opening montage that we saw used in episode 9, Glades.
Shortest teaser of Season 1: Home Invaders.
Longest Teaser of season 1: Calderone’s Demise
Average length of season 1 teasers: 4:41
16 Rites Of Passage
