Magnum P.I. vs. Miami Vice - The Ultimate Battle

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N1095A · #16 Post by **N1095A** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:57 pm

n.magnum wrote:... Vice had darker stories. Prostitution,Drugs etc...

Well, it was called Miami Vice.

n.magnum · #17 Post by **n.magnum** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:31 pm

LOL!! your funny. I know...its obvious.

lutherhgillis · #18 Post by **lutherhgillis** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:54 pm

I live in Miami. To say Maimi Vice is a redundancy! This place is the armpit of the USA.

Having said that, this post is a great discussion topic. MV was inspired by MPI and maybe even ripped off from MPI. NBC had some good shows during the 80s but they could't beat MPI. They used the fast cars driven by cool detectives theme and added the darker element to be more realistic. Fighting crime in Miami is more than a fulltime job. the 80s were even worse in Miami than today.

MPI did take a hit from MV but MV could not run well with the intercepted ball. It quickly devolved to the rediculous. MPI kept pace fairly well throughout. Season 6 of MPI was a little strange but I like it as well as 7 and better than 8.

MV could never compete with MPI since the perfect storm of characteristics were never duplicated. Don Johnson and the other guy did not like each other. The Ramos guy was a jerk that no one liked. The show ran over budget and imploded under its own disfunctional weight.

MPI ruled, MV drooled.

Tom_Magnum · #19 Post by **Tom_Magnum** » Mon May 11, 2009 9:58 pm

Well, the first two seasons were pretty stellar, but after that it withered...unfortunately.

lutherhgillis · #20 Post by **lutherhgillis** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:47 pm

I also agree that MV was a good show. It took a new and fresh approach and scored with viewers. The music was cool, the cops were hip, and the action was heavy. The concept was inspired by MPI maybe even copied from MPI but they took MV in a different direction. I salute NBC for making it the hit that it was.

When comparing it to MPI is when I have to get a little testy. MPI is the king for me.

Don Johnson had one thing that Tom Selleck will never have however....a hit record (Heartbeat). TS cannot carry a tune in a bucket.

MPI was also getting pounded by The Cosby Show. TCS ruled Thursday night. Once MPI started getting moved around in the lineup, CBS was showing signs of panick IMHO. They should have picked a timeslot and held their ground. I would bet they lost viewers because people could not find the show in the later seasons.

Cheers.

IKnowWhatYoureThinking · Tue May 12, 2009 1:24 pm

Luther, The hit record comment had me laughing out loud! Hilarious!

Steve · #22 Post by **Steve** » Tue May 12, 2009 6:05 pm

Can't have a hilarious reminder of Don Johnson's smooth, cool singing personna with a visual........Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULI5kolBpAk

StarchedUndershirts · Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:14 pm

I'm a fan of both shows. The first three seasons of Miami Vice were great, but it did jump the shark with the "Missing Hours" UFO episode.
In later years, didn't Magnum try to copy MV by introducing more music into the show?

SelleckLover · #24 Post by **SelleckLover** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:46 pm

Steve wrote:

Can't have a hilarious reminder of Don Johnson's smooth, cool singing personna with a visual........Enjoy...

Wow! I had forgotton Don Johnson was such a hottie, and I never knew that was him singing that song! (The things you find out on Magnum-Mania!)

A P Leyland · #25 Post by **A P Leyland** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:01 pm

Magnum's a better show - VICE takes itself far too seriously. Anyway in a battle between the two big 80's cool shows I always preferred MOONLIGHTING to MIAMI VICE.

Andy

Jay-Firestorm · #26 Post by **Jay-Firestorm** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:11 pm

I was a little too young for Miami Vice (it was on after my bedtime!

) so is one of the (few) 1980s action / adventure / detective shows that I'm not into.

It hasn't really had much of a re-run here. One of the Freeview channels showed a few, but not very far into the series, and as they were shown early evening, I have a feeling many of the episodes would have been edited for content.
I'm tempted to get the DVDs, I know I'd probably enjoy it. Maybe I will when I finish my current MPI re-watch and review project.

I'm not sure how much of MPI dipping was down to Miami Vice's popularity, and how much was just down to MPI getting a bit tired.

Certainly, the fifth season coincided with the arrival of MV, but even beyond that, the fifth season of MPI was very weak - I'd say the weakest of the entire run. Things picked up with the sixth season (which I have recently decided that I've been wrong to be hard on for all this time), and things were back on form for the seventh and eight seasons... maybe MPI actually needed MV, to give it a kick up the backside and get its form back again.
I wonder if MV hadn't come along, if the terrible fifth season trend would have followed on into subsequent seasons.

Frodoleader · #27 Post by **Frodoleader** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:17 pm

Luther said:

"MPI was also getting pounded by The Cosby Show. TCS ruled Thursday night. Once MPI started getting moved around in the lineup, CBS was showing signs of panick IMHO. They should have picked a timeslot and held their ground. I would bet they lost viewers because people could not find the show in the later seasons."

Whenever a network does that: moving a show around till you never know when it airs, inevitably sounds the death knell for the show. I know we are a little ticked off that CBS has moved our present day favorite, "The Mentalist" to 10 pm (eastern), Thursdays. Thats getting to be past our bedtime!

MaximRecoil · #28 Post by **MaximRecoil** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:00 am

I hated Miami Vice. I hated it like no other. Maybe it's not the worst show I ever watched, but it was the worst show I ever had to watch. My brother liked that show, and since he was 4 years older than me, he called the shots when it came to the TV dial.

This show was style over substance; and it was "style" that I found annoying. I've always been irritated with people who try to be trendy.

The characters were bland, and scummy drug dealers got entirely too much airtime. None of the sets were comfortable — who would want to hang out in the police station listening to the boring conversations between that guy with the pockmarked face who looked like a villian, and the two cops who thought they were awesome? Or in yet another drug dealer's warehouse? If you wouldn't want to hang out with them in real life, why would you want to virtually hang out with them in front of your TV set every week?

Magnum PI nailed the comfortable thing like no other show. All of the main characters were people that seemed fun to hang out with; and the sets were places that felt comfortable to virtually be in (the guest house especially).

Magnum PI was the best show ever, and not only by a slight margin either. It nailed everything that makes a show enjoyable to watch.

Carmen · #29 Post by **Carmen** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 1:14 pm

*LOL* MaximRecoil, very well said.

Tom_Magnum · #30 Post by **Tom_Magnum** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:47 pm

Well, Miami Vice did jump the shark with silly episodes in Season 4, and Magnum PI did try to add more music in their episodes in Season 7 (when MV was in its third season). So ya, they both copied each other. But I think Magnum is much better than MV, although MV was good for the first three seasons - after that boom! Went downhill and Season 5 was meh.