Viewing Order for Miami Vice Episodes
Unless a particular series is serialized, we all know how much the TV networks have liked to shift episodes around to time with sweeps weeks, etc., and Miami Vice was no exception. After a few go-rounds watching the DVD sets, I've decided to share my preferred order for watching, and my reasons for shifting them out of original broadcast order. I start with Season 2 because I found no glaring continuity issues in Season 1. Enjoy!
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- DirectorPaul Michael GlaserStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett and Tubbs travel to New York to take down a powerful Colombian cartel.Season Two two-hour premiere. John Diehl(Det. Zito) returned sporting a full beard, which he shaved off midway through the season. After the first few weeks, NBC began airing episodes where he's clean shaven one week, then the beard is back the next, so I shuffled them around to watch all the "bearded Zito" episodes before the rest.
- DirectorJohn NicolellaStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoThe murder of two beat cops outside their jurisdiction immerses the team in the Santeria religion, while Crockett tries to recover his repossessed Ferrari.
- DirectorJim JohnstonStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett and Tubbs stake out a drug dealer, an investigation that is being helped along by an ex-cop that seems to know a bit too much about the case.
- DirectorHarry MastrogeorgeStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett and Tubbs race to find a young mother and her baby when they are targeted for death by mobsters.Originally Episode 2-5; bearded Zito.
- DirectorMichael O'HerlihyStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoWhen Crockett and Tubbs bust the owner of a bordello (Miles Davis), they discover that one of his drug-addicted prostitutes is the object of a powerful drug dealer's twisted obsession.Originally Episode 2-6; bearded Zito.
- DirectorMichael O'HerlihyStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett and Tubbs escort a coffin containing a criminal to his final Miami resting place ... until its learned that he has risen from the dead and has a similar zombie fate scheduled for Tubbs.Originally Episode 2-7; bearded Zito.
- DirectorEdward James OlmosStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCastillo is forced to choose between friendship and duty when Jack Gretsky, his best friend from his days in Vietnam with the CIA, reemerges from the criminal underground complete with a Russian wife who is being pursued by the KGB.Originally Episode 2-8; bearded Zito.
- DirectorJohn NicolellaStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoGina's cleaning woman gets raped in Gina's home by the spoiled son of a wealthy man, who thinks he's above the law. Despite evidence being circumstantial, Gina wants to have the man arrested. Izzy steals Switek and Zito's bug van.Originally Episode 2-9; bearded Zito.
- DirectorJohn NicolellaStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoA British television personality who has dealings with a major cocaine dealer is targeted by Crockett and Tubbs.Originally Episode 2-11; bearded Zito.
- DirectorCraig BolotinStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoA district attorney is killed at a wedding for getting too close to a French-Canadian drug lord that's operating in Miami. Since the victim was a close friend of the criminal's lawyer, Sonny tries to make the lawyer do something about it.Originally Episode 2-14; bearded Zito.
- DirectorAbel FerraraStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoTrudy's old boyfriend has ties to a drug lord and enlists Crockett's help investigating him.Originally Episode 2-4; Zito clean-shaven for remainder of episodes.
- DirectorDon JohnsonStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett flashes to his role during the Saigon evacuation as he and a war correspondent uncover heroin smuggled in body bags. Ten years later in Miami the H resurfaces and so does the reporter looking for the CIA connection.Originally Episode 2-10.
- DirectorRob CohenStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett finds out first hand about Charlie Basset as a violent drug runner with an enticing wife that Sonny just can't get out of his mind.Originally Episode 2-12.
- DirectorAaron LipstadtStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoWhen Crockett sees his stewardess girlfriend die from smuggling balloons of cocaine into the country, he and Tubbs go undercover to expose the ring.Originally Episode 2-13.
- DirectorLeon IchasoStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrocket and Tubbs visit Miami's kinky Sex World parlor when a sailor shows up murdered. The trail leads to a mysterious underage dancer Tubbs tries to straighten out - but is this more than social work?
- DirectorJohn NicolellaStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett and Tubbs track a Grand Prix race-car driver after the body of a slain prostitute is thrown from his speeding car. Guest star: Danny Sullivan.
- DirectorAaron LipstadtStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra Santiago-Crockett goes undercover to take down Mario Fuente (Frank Zappa), a dealer of 'weasel dust'.Originally Episode 2-19. In 1986, construction began on Bayside Marketplace, the shopping center that surrounds the marina where the sailboat St. Vidas Dance, Crockett's undercover residence, was moored. At some point late during production of Season 2 they were forced or chose to move the boat elsewhere until construction was finished. The episode that originally aired in this spot, French Twist, shows the St. Vidas moored in front of a condo building nowhere near here, but in Payback it's still at Bayshore. It fits well as an unspoken plotline, since his cover was blown in Payback anyway.
- DirectorDavid JacksonStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoWhen a known terrorist comes to Miami the team tries to find him. And an Interpol operative comes to assist them. Crockett is taken with her but Tubbs thinks there's something odd about her.Originally Episode 2-17; see above.
- DirectorDick MillerStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoAfter Crockett and Tubbs arrest a dealer, at the bail hearing the judge sets a low bail. Crockett is curious if there's something wrong with him. So he investigates. It seems the man has a gambling problem. And now he's being told to tell his son, who's the star player of his school, to throw a game to settle his debts.Originally Episode 2-18.
- DirectorJohn NicolellaStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoThe team is assigned to protect a renowned poet who has come to the US seeking political asylum. With sexy Carmen in the mix, things get complicated.
- DirectorJim JohnstonStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoA Bolivian cruise ship is attacked by pirates leading Crockett and Tubbs to enlist the help of a renegade pilot in the contraband business to solve the case.
- DirectorJohn NicolellaStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoThe son of Tubbs' arch-enemy Calderone oozes to the surface with a $1 million contract on Tubbs, while Calderone's sister Angelina says Tubbs he is the father of her child.
- DirectorAaron LipstadtStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoCrockett and Tubbs have their hands full with an impatient old-timer (Willie Nelson) anxious to make a deal with a deadly Bolivian cocaine importer.3-1; Originally Episode 3-7; The only episode this season featuring Crockett's Ferrari Daytona from start to finish, so it has to take place before the actual "premiere", where it's destroyed.
- DirectorMario DiLeoStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoGina falls for an Irish pacifist who believes there is no point fighting fire with fire anymore - or so she thinks.3-2; Originally Episode 3-1; see above.
- DirectorDavid JacksonStarsDon JohnsonPhilip Michael ThomasSaundra SantiagoTubbs goes undercover in a penitentiary to try and smoke out a group of corrupt prison guards.3-3; Originally Episode 3-4; the only early season episode where Crockett doesn't drive any car, so I consider it a good bridge between Irish Eyes and Stone's War, where he gets his Testarossa.