Miami Vice supercut reminds you of the ludicrous number of celebrities who guested on Miami Vice
From Julia Roberts and Chris Rock, to Leonard Cohen and Miles Davis, pretty much everyone appeared on the show
TV Features Miami Vice
When Miami Vice is thought of now, it may call to mind lazy, rerun-filled afternoons spent marveling at an incredible assortment of hairstyles and sports jackets, a tidal wave of synth melodies, and Michael Mann’s return to the ‘80s series with a feature film adaptation of the same name in 2006.
What we don’t immediately remember, though, is just how many celebrities appeared on the show over the length of its five-season run. A supercut documenting 55 of these guest spots, published on the (surprisingly active) Miami Vice YouTube channel, helps jog the memory.
Some of these guest stars include the kind of early career actors you might expect to pop up on TV shows of the time. There’s Lou Diamond Phillips, Pam Grier, John Turturro, and Ed O’Neill. There’s Richard Jenkins, Dennis Farina, and Michael Richards.
There are also some of our most famous modern actors among the guest spots. We see Julia Roberts, Liam Neeson, and Stanley Tucci play minor characters. Steve Buscemi, Helena Bonham Carter, Chris Rock, and Benicio Del Toro all appear in scenes. We also get Viggo Mortenson, Bruce Willis, and Ben Stiller wearing a whole bunch of gold chain necklaces.
The best, though, are the less expected musical cameos. Frank Zappa, for example, shows up to demand three million dollars from Don Johnson’s Sonny Crockett. Leonard Cohen menaces as a French-speaking villain. Phil Collins pleads for mercy from another criminal. James Brown gets questioned during an investigation. Isaac Hayes, Gene Simmons, Barbara Streisand, Little Richard, and Miles Goddamn Davis feature in various scenes, too.
If all of that’s not enough, we suggest checking out one of the compilation’s future stars, Giancarlo Esposito, foreshadowing his later career by playing two different drug dealers. Here are both of his parts, excerpted on their own, with the first soundtracked to the most sinister use of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax” we’ve ever witnessed.
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43 Comments
They forgot David Johansen/Buster Pointdexter.Guess you gotta go to YouTube see it though.
Hell yeah. Working at a shoe store is the perfect front for a coke dealer.
They left out John Taylor and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran.
LOL @ Tubbs having to bail on dancing with the honeys because his partner just started a fight.
One of those top 55 celebrities?
You guessed it – Frank Stallone.
Or so the Germans would have us believe.
You know what? I actually believe you.
I remember Phil Collins. Seems like Glenn Frey was on too, or maybe they just used his music.
It’s both! Glenn Frey appeared on an episode that was based on his song, Smuggler’s Blues
You Belong to the City was also featured on it. Just watched the video, it’s full of MV clips (despite Glenn walking around NYC)
Absolutely killer single.
Fast search: Frey was in it.
The Smugglers Blues video practically IS an episode of Miami Vice
Interesting, too, that so many musicians did guest spots. Was it an offshoot of Michael Mann’s short hand concept for the show, “MTV cops”?
In the Air Tonight was used in the pilot, as buildup in a scene where Crockett and Tubbs are driving to a confrontation they don’t necessarily expect to survive. It’s an iconic moment that help set the tone for the show and so hardly a surprise Collins got a cameo out of it.
The H was definitely O that day.
When she appeared on Miami Vice, Pam Grier was most certainly not an “early career actor.” She had been an established movie star since the early 70s.
You can put together a large list using just the ones who got killed on the show. Spoilers.
Zappa was my favorite one. Apparently the deal with Leonard Cohen is that the director or someone high up hated his performance, which is why he strangely only appears in the beginning of the episode and is never seen or mentioned again.Man this show was the shit when I was a kid in 80s Miami.
It didn’t just influence TV, there’s no question its neon look and Don Johnson’s wardrobe were major influences on 80s culture in general. It’s shorthand for the decade as a whole at this point.
Who’s that guy that’s about to have his face roasted over the fire grill?? You guessed it, Frank Stallone.
Liam Neeson didn’t play a minor role bro, he was the main villain of his episode, an IRA terrorist who seeked to blow up planes. But it’s interesting how many famous people showed up. I also find it interesting that Magnum PI had more Genesis songs than Miami Vice considering how Phil Collins appeared on Miami Vice and not Magnum PI.
He also blew up Crockett’s first Ferrari.Collins is the most famous one but Peter Gabriel actually beats him by one song as the most prolific artist who is featured in Miami Vice. Collins has six songs, Gabriel has seven.
actually, Ted Nugent blew up the first Ferrari, which was a fake anyway, in the awesome episode Definitely Miam. Yeah, i love this show
Did not know Anita Morris was on MV. She was in one of my all time favorite movies, and Bill Pullman was her idiot lover. Ruthless People — about as perfect a comedy as it gets.
She’s great in Cheers as the woman whose dog bites Cliff, but who then seduces him when he tries to bring a lawsuit against her.
This and Outrageous Fortune are two of my favourite 80’s comedies.
You forgot Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I mean look at the leads in those three movies: Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Shelly Long, Bette Midler (again), George Carlin, Michael Caine, Steve Martin, Glenne Headly — and that’s not even counting the rest of the cast of those movies. People like Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater, Morris and Pulman, Peter Coyote and Barbara Harris.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one of my all-time favorite comedies. Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma!
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is just one the best comedies ever. Solid gold.
And let’s not forget the Ruthless People soundtrack: Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Luther Vandross, Kool and the Gang…
The scene where Reinhold finally decides he’s going to fleece a poor sap into buying a massive pair of speakers he doesn’t need, before letting his conscience get the best of him, is pure gold. Especially since that rube is Dave from Summer School, perfect casting.
Reinhold and Slater are perfect as the kidnappers. I mean that whole movie was just perfectly cast. And there are so many great scenes in that movie, but one of my faves is the last scene between Bette and Danny.
That is one of the all-time great comedies.
Flawless movie – and an awesome 90’s-design title sequence too!
Today I heard Teller’s voice and I may never be the same.
Miami Vice was the Law and Order of the 80’s.
OK. Now do the X-Files, and then Buffy.
Recently departed Bill Russell as Judge Roger Ferguson in the S2.E18 episode “The Fix”
(1986)…
LOL at the ice cube that leaves no water trail. Brian Dennehy was in the same episode with Anita Morris. Surprised he didn’t make the cut.Also Willie Nelson in one of the best episodes of the series, El Viejo.Chris Elliott (with G. Gordon Liddy), Bob Balaban, Bruce McGill, Kelly Lynch, Holy shit I watched a lot of Miami Vice.
Does it have the extended Jan Hammer Crockett’s Theme scene?
Appointment viewing in the ‘80’s.
Not as ludicrous as the number of celebrities who appeared in the West-Ward “Batman” series (either as guest villains or in a cameo appearance sticking their heads out the window during the “Batman and Robin climb up the side of a building” sequence).