Story by DinaRella / Photos courtesy of Chris-Craft Stinger 390X Miami Vice Filming Boats, Iconic Premier & NBC-Universal
Fusing imagery of a flashy tropical canvas with modern cinematography and synthpop sounds, Miami Vice was an iconic, influential and interminable symbol of the 1980s that defined the times! The successful NBC TV series contributed to the popularity of everything Metro-Dade Police Department undercover cops Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) touched from exotic cars, boats and babes to their personal firearm picks and fashion tricks.
Its water-borne pursuits played an essential and everlasting role in the powerboating community starting with the two-hour pilot “Brother’s Keeper” premiering on my own brother’s birthday September 16, 1984. Hearing “Is that one of those Don Johnson boats?” was as common as tossing around the “cigar boat" question. Now approaching its 40-year anniversary, RDP takes you on a flashback to see what you might have missed or maybe just forgot.
2- Ranked the #1 show on television, from 1985 onward after Miami Vice was officially picked up by NBC, Sarasota-based boat builder Wellcraft supplied a pair of twin 400-hp Mercruiser inboard-powered 38-foot Scarabs to replace the Stinger. Current online commentary claims the Chris-Craft was not free of charge, nor was it racer-esque enough to satisfy the fast and furious Miami vibe producers were hoping to achieve.
3- High-performance boat scenes blasting up and down Biscayne Bay became a highlight of the show and as more episodes were filmed – 88 in total – sharp-eyed, discrepancy-seeking speedboat geeks detected a teal-turned-silver radar arch to start... then in year four, they noticed a silver hull below the waterline and double searchlights fitted on top of the arch.
4- Miami Vice prompted more than a few go-fasters to test the waters of ownership pulling the trigger on their first adult-sized water pistols; shopping habits to this day are still referenced back to how "sitting around on Friday nights watching Miami Vice fueled one's need for speed." What’s more, Wellcraft made purchasing a Scarab more enticing for a few first-time baller-boat buyers when unveiling 33 units of the sentimental “Miami Vice Edition”
5- The “turquoise, aqua and orchid” Miami Vice color scheme was available on Scarabs of all sizes, and boosted sales orders more than 20 percent. According to those with 20/20 vessel vision, the boats were identical except that, the lower hull side stripe reached the transom rather than the waterline on the for-sale models.
6- In 1986, the Larry Smith-designed Scarab 38 took on a new “KV” title – the “K’ paid homage to the world championship winning KAAMA race boat campaigned by Betty Cook and John Conner, and the “V” stood for VICE. The KAAMA Marine Racing Team was one of the most triumphant offshore racing teams of all times with four boats on the course over the years including a 36’ Cigarette, 38’ Cougar and 38’ Formula.
7- An actor with an affinity offshore, Don Johnson was called upon to design the Scarab 43 Excel for Wellcraft. Planting twin 650-bhp Lamborghini V-12s in the engine compartment, the model (which he went on to race) became known as the Don Johnson Signature Series (DJSS), of which 100 units went up for grabs. Later, Johnson launched his own powerboat racing team called Team USA and competed in the OPT Tour (Offshore Powerboat Tour) in a 50' one-off Revenge catamaran.
Following a trifecta of second place wins in all three Superboat class sweepstakes, Johnson's fifteen minutes of racing fame came in Key West when clinching the 1988 world championship next to throttleman Bill Sirois and navigator Gus Anastasi in Tom Gentry’s triple engine 46' Scarab #99 Gentry Turbo Eagle. During racing’s golden age, joining Johnson on the liquid track were two other Hollywood movie star buddies of his, Kurt Russell and Chuck Norris.
8- To this day, the Stingers and Scarabs continue to reappear. Seen as the “Picasso” of powerboats through the eyes of its current owner and television car collector, David Martino... a few years back he put the 1986 Scarab 38 KV on a 30-day eBay listing with a Buy-It-Now price tag of $20 million; the figure included the Ferrari Daytona Spyder replica as a sidekick. Both caused a commotion when unveiled at the 2016 Miami International Boat Show next to actress Olivia Brown, the actress who portrayed detective Trudy Joplin. The combo never sold, but the publicity for the pair was certainly bold!
9- Speedboats weren’t the only watercrafts on set. Crockett called more than a few sailboats home starting with his 38’ Cabo Rico in the pilot. He then upgraded to a 40’ Endeavour before settling into his 42’ Endeavour St. Vitus Dance alongside his feisty alligator Elvis.
10- During the first two seasons, a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder was used but car nerds in the know, knew the sharp-dressed detectives weren’t dashing across Florida freeways in a legit Ferrari, but rather a replica on a Corvette C3 chassis by Tom McBurnie. The convertible kit was used because it was a cheaper option after Ferrari North America initially turned down the request for the real thing.
11- When Ferrari found out, they sued, but following a change of heart soon thereafter, two 1986 4.9-liter flat 12, 390-hp gated manual Testarossa poster cars fresh out of the Italian toy stable in Maranello were revealed. It's been mentioned (but not confirmed) that the black pair was donated by Enzo himself. Mann quickly painted them cocaine-white for better night filming. After being retired and placed in climate-controlled storage, one recently resurfaced at Barrett Jackson; the expected $1.5 million sale was nowhere close to the top bid of $152,000!
Filming, Fads and Fashion
12- Committed to keeping the show authentic, shooting on location in Miami cost an unprecedented $1.3 million per episode. Technical accomplishments broke all the rules of prime time and led to 15 Emmy nominations. The series was 86-ed after being moved to the Friday night 9 p.m. time slot in direct competition with Dallas.
13- Boosting everything from tunes to tourism, Miami Vice spent $10,000 per episode to buy the rights to original musical recordings. The series pioneered using popular music in a television series. Who can forget the pilot set to Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight?” Written for a MTV audience, the masterfully crafted, music-based action segments included tracks from rockers Glenn Fry, Ted Nugent and ZZ Top, to new wave acts like Duran Duran and Godley & Crème. Newspapers would even list the weekly featured artists and songs.
14-Breaking a record for a television theme song, Jan Hammer’s synthesized instrumental “Miami Vice Theme” held the number one spot for 12 weeks. The show also came out with three soundtracks through the course of its five-year run.
15- From a dilapidated torn down city of disrepair stocked with its share of thugs and drugs... the Vice Effect turned Miami into a top tourist destination with a reputation for attracting more than just retirees to the beach. To maintain and protect the Art Deco facades and architecture, it also resulted in the formation of the MDPL Miami Design Preservation League.
16- Miami Vice had a direct effect on lifestyle choices changing the way men dressed around the world. The light-colored Armani linen sports jackets with rolled up sleeves and a pastel pink or powder blue T-shirt fad took off faster than a leer jet. The pastel look was so iconic in the pop-culture fashion world, Macy’s added a Miami Vice section to its young men’s department. Furthermore, after Tom Cruise put Ray-Ban shades on the map in Risky Business, Crockett propped them up even more rocking his Wayfarers into the dark of night.
17- Weaponry choices stood out as much as the cast's wardrobe. Crocket carried a hard-chromed stainless steel Bren Ten. It was the first to be chambered in 10mm Automatic caliber, although the show pistol was chambered in .45 ACP due to the accessibility and common usage of ACP blanks on movie sets. In 1986, Dornaus & Dixon went out of business apparently from the overload of sales orders from Miami Vice. Crockett switched to a S&W Model 645 before busting out a 4506 later in the series. When looking down, it was .45 Detonics Combatmaster in his ankle holster.
18- The original Ted Blocker Lifeline shoulder holster was not to Johnson’s satisfaction, so Galco International (formerly known as Jackass Leather Company) sent their president to personally fit the actor. The holster would be named the “Miami Classic.”
19- Being accepted by law enforcement gave the then-new Glock 17 credibility, but its movie star presence provided the brand awareness. The Glock 17 made its cutting-edge debut in season three in the “Cuba Libre” episode after Crockett lost his S&W 645.
20- Four decades later the TV series has reached the millennials, giving them a taste of the eighties through Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The videogame includes several direct references, heavy new wave tunes, a Cheetah unmarked chase car modeled after the Testarossa and lots of subtle stylized images.
Stay tuned for an eventual Part Two on a pair of Stinger and Scarab 38 KV restoration projects, recently discovered while gathering info for this story.
Fusing imagery of a flashy tropical canvas with modern cinematography and synthpop sounds, Miami Vice was an iconic, influential and interminable symbol of the 1980s that defined the times! The successful NBC TV series contributed to the popularity of everything Metro-Dade Police Department undercover cops Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) touched from exotic cars, boats and babes to their personal firearm picks and fashion tricks.
Its water-borne pursuits played an essential and everlasting role in the powerboating community starting with the two-hour pilot “Brother’s Keeper” premiering on my own brother’s birthday September 16, 1984. Hearing “Is that one of those Don Johnson boats?” was as common as tossing around the “cigar boat" question. Now approaching its 40-year anniversary, RDP takes you on a flashback to see what you might have missed or maybe just forgot.
Fastboats and Fine Cars
1- Coming off the success of Hill Street Blues, writer/director Michael Mann was the brainchild behind penning scripts and producing scenes. When Mann banned all earth tones and made red and brown colors on set a non-negotiable, the originally proposed red Chris-Craft Stinger 390X had to be swapped for the blue and white 39-footer, propelled by dual stock 400 Mercruisers. Tony Ierardi, the gentleman in charge of the 38 Scarab KV registry and present day owner of one of the 60-mph Stingers clarifies, "In the below photo with the two Stingers side-by-side, the left one was the support boat not seen on air which has just been restored, and on the right side is the hero boat that was used for filming."
2- Ranked the #1 show on television, from 1985 onward after Miami Vice was officially picked up by NBC, Sarasota-based boat builder Wellcraft supplied a pair of twin 400-hp Mercruiser inboard-powered 38-foot Scarabs to replace the Stinger. Current online commentary claims the Chris-Craft was not free of charge, nor was it racer-esque enough to satisfy the fast and furious Miami vibe producers were hoping to achieve.
3- High-performance boat scenes blasting up and down Biscayne Bay became a highlight of the show and as more episodes were filmed – 88 in total – sharp-eyed, discrepancy-seeking speedboat geeks detected a teal-turned-silver radar arch to start... then in year four, they noticed a silver hull below the waterline and double searchlights fitted on top of the arch.
4- Miami Vice prompted more than a few go-fasters to test the waters of ownership pulling the trigger on their first adult-sized water pistols; shopping habits to this day are still referenced back to how "sitting around on Friday nights watching Miami Vice fueled one's need for speed." What’s more, Wellcraft made purchasing a Scarab more enticing for a few first-time baller-boat buyers when unveiling 33 units of the sentimental “Miami Vice Edition”
5- The “turquoise, aqua and orchid” Miami Vice color scheme was available on Scarabs of all sizes, and boosted sales orders more than 20 percent. According to those with 20/20 vessel vision, the boats were identical except that, the lower hull side stripe reached the transom rather than the waterline on the for-sale models.
6- In 1986, the Larry Smith-designed Scarab 38 took on a new “KV” title – the “K’ paid homage to the world championship winning KAAMA race boat campaigned by Betty Cook and John Conner, and the “V” stood for VICE. The KAAMA Marine Racing Team was one of the most triumphant offshore racing teams of all times with four boats on the course over the years including a 36’ Cigarette, 38’ Cougar and 38’ Formula.
7- An actor with an affinity offshore, Don Johnson was called upon to design the Scarab 43 Excel for Wellcraft. Planting twin 650-bhp Lamborghini V-12s in the engine compartment, the model (which he went on to race) became known as the Don Johnson Signature Series (DJSS), of which 100 units went up for grabs. Later, Johnson launched his own powerboat racing team called Team USA and competed in the OPT Tour (Offshore Powerboat Tour) in a 50' one-off Revenge catamaran.
Following a trifecta of second place wins in all three Superboat class sweepstakes, Johnson's fifteen minutes of racing fame came in Key West when clinching the 1988 world championship next to throttleman Bill Sirois and navigator Gus Anastasi in Tom Gentry’s triple engine 46' Scarab #99 Gentry Turbo Eagle. During racing’s golden age, joining Johnson on the liquid track were two other Hollywood movie star buddies of his, Kurt Russell and Chuck Norris.
8- To this day, the Stingers and Scarabs continue to reappear. Seen as the “Picasso” of powerboats through the eyes of its current owner and television car collector, David Martino... a few years back he put the 1986 Scarab 38 KV on a 30-day eBay listing with a Buy-It-Now price tag of $20 million; the figure included the Ferrari Daytona Spyder replica as a sidekick. Both caused a commotion when unveiled at the 2016 Miami International Boat Show next to actress Olivia Brown, the actress who portrayed detective Trudy Joplin. The combo never sold, but the publicity for the pair was certainly bold!
9- Speedboats weren’t the only watercrafts on set. Crockett called more than a few sailboats home starting with his 38’ Cabo Rico in the pilot. He then upgraded to a 40’ Endeavour before settling into his 42’ Endeavour St. Vitus Dance alongside his feisty alligator Elvis.
10- During the first two seasons, a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder was used but car nerds in the know, knew the sharp-dressed detectives weren’t dashing across Florida freeways in a legit Ferrari, but rather a replica on a Corvette C3 chassis by Tom McBurnie. The convertible kit was used because it was a cheaper option after Ferrari North America initially turned down the request for the real thing.
11- When Ferrari found out, they sued, but following a change of heart soon thereafter, two 1986 4.9-liter flat 12, 390-hp gated manual Testarossa poster cars fresh out of the Italian toy stable in Maranello were revealed. It's been mentioned (but not confirmed) that the black pair was donated by Enzo himself. Mann quickly painted them cocaine-white for better night filming. After being retired and placed in climate-controlled storage, one recently resurfaced at Barrett Jackson; the expected $1.5 million sale was nowhere close to the top bid of $152,000!
Filming, Fads and Fashion
12- Committed to keeping the show authentic, shooting on location in Miami cost an unprecedented $1.3 million per episode. Technical accomplishments broke all the rules of prime time and led to 15 Emmy nominations. The series was 86-ed after being moved to the Friday night 9 p.m. time slot in direct competition with Dallas.
13- Boosting everything from tunes to tourism, Miami Vice spent $10,000 per episode to buy the rights to original musical recordings. The series pioneered using popular music in a television series. Who can forget the pilot set to Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight?” Written for a MTV audience, the masterfully crafted, music-based action segments included tracks from rockers Glenn Fry, Ted Nugent and ZZ Top, to new wave acts like Duran Duran and Godley & Crème. Newspapers would even list the weekly featured artists and songs.
14-Breaking a record for a television theme song, Jan Hammer’s synthesized instrumental “Miami Vice Theme” held the number one spot for 12 weeks. The show also came out with three soundtracks through the course of its five-year run.
15- From a dilapidated torn down city of disrepair stocked with its share of thugs and drugs... the Vice Effect turned Miami into a top tourist destination with a reputation for attracting more than just retirees to the beach. To maintain and protect the Art Deco facades and architecture, it also resulted in the formation of the MDPL Miami Design Preservation League.
16- Miami Vice had a direct effect on lifestyle choices changing the way men dressed around the world. The light-colored Armani linen sports jackets with rolled up sleeves and a pastel pink or powder blue T-shirt fad took off faster than a leer jet. The pastel look was so iconic in the pop-culture fashion world, Macy’s added a Miami Vice section to its young men’s department. Furthermore, after Tom Cruise put Ray-Ban shades on the map in Risky Business, Crockett propped them up even more rocking his Wayfarers into the dark of night.
Firearms and Beyond
17- Weaponry choices stood out as much as the cast's wardrobe. Crocket carried a hard-chromed stainless steel Bren Ten. It was the first to be chambered in 10mm Automatic caliber, although the show pistol was chambered in .45 ACP due to the accessibility and common usage of ACP blanks on movie sets. In 1986, Dornaus & Dixon went out of business apparently from the overload of sales orders from Miami Vice. Crockett switched to a S&W Model 645 before busting out a 4506 later in the series. When looking down, it was .45 Detonics Combatmaster in his ankle holster.
18- The original Ted Blocker Lifeline shoulder holster was not to Johnson’s satisfaction, so Galco International (formerly known as Jackass Leather Company) sent their president to personally fit the actor. The holster would be named the “Miami Classic.”
19- Being accepted by law enforcement gave the then-new Glock 17 credibility, but its movie star presence provided the brand awareness. The Glock 17 made its cutting-edge debut in season three in the “Cuba Libre” episode after Crockett lost his S&W 645.
20- Four decades later the TV series has reached the millennials, giving them a taste of the eighties through Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The videogame includes several direct references, heavy new wave tunes, a Cheetah unmarked chase car modeled after the Testarossa and lots of subtle stylized images.
Moving forward into the past, Miami Vice is more than just nostalgia!
Its immense influence has delivered us into the future, and the powerboats we play in today…
Its immense influence has delivered us into the future, and the powerboats we play in today…
Stay tuned for an eventual Part Two on a pair of Stinger and Scarab 38 KV restoration projects, recently discovered while gathering info for this story.
