Miami Vice in Popular Culture - 2000s

2000s

• 2000, in the British television series, Lock, Stock..., based on the movie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, the local crime boss was named "Miami Vice".
• 2001, in the Family Guy episode "Brian Does Hollywood", several shots depict Cleveland and Peter driving a speedboat around a Miami-like environment while wearing pastel-colored suits, in an obvious homage to Miami Vice.
• 2001, in the Nash Bridges episode, "Out of Miami", Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas team up again.
• 2002, the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City references Miami Vice on several occasions, with portions of the game's 1980s setting and style heavily influenced by the show. Most notable is, upon attaining a 3-star "wanted" level in the game, the player eventually encounters two undercover cops in a Ferrari Testarossa-styled car. The attires worn by some of the six variations of the cops are also in the trademark style of the show. Another sports car, the Stinger, is based on the Ferrari Daytona Spyder. Lance Vance, a primary character in the game, is voiced by Philip Michael Thomas, who portrayed Tubbs in Miami Vice. Both Vance and Tubbs also share thirst for revenge for the deaths of their brothers at the hands of drug dealers. Another overt reference to the show's influence upon the game is the inclusion of Jan Hammer's "Crockett's Theme" on the romance/power ballad radio station Emotion 98.3. While walking around Vice City, some male civilians are sporting the "Sonny Crockett, Ricardo Tubbs and Lt. Martin Castillo" look.
• 2003-2007, an episode of Streetwise (season 3, episode 10) features a character named Vic Romano, played by Bill Paxton. The character's name was used in Spike TV's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, as the dubbed name of Takeshi-san in which Vic Romano is voiced by Victor Wilson.
• 2004, season 5, episode 2 of The Sopranos ("The Rat Pack") features Steve Buscemi playing Tony Soprano's cousin Tony Blundetto, who after being released from prison (where he had been incarcerated since the 1980s), is wearing his only clothes: a white suit with a blue pastel t-shirt underneath. Upon seeing Blundetto, Artie Bucco asks: "Hey, where's Tubbs?" Buscemi also guest starred in a Miami Vice episode.
• 2004, in an episode of The Simpsons, "Catch 'Em If You Can", Homer and Marge try to have a vacation without their kids by lying to them and going to Miami. When Bart and Lisa track them down and convince Grandpa to take them there, the "Miami Vice Theme" plays while showing stereotypes of elderly people.
• 2004, after hitching a ride to eastern Europe from a psychotic truck driver, the movie EuroTrip, the group meets a man, who after a brief conversation, says: "Ay man, we just got Miami Vice on television. Miami Vice is number one new show!"
• 2005, in the Nickelodeon series Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, one of the recurring characters is named "Vice" Principal Crubbs (played by Hamilton Mitchell). His last name is a combination of Crockett and Tubbs last names. In addition, he is always seen wearing white suits with pastel-colored T-Shirts underneath, his office is filled Miami-related decor, and a theme similar to the "Miami Vice Theme" is played whenever he appears.
• 2005, in the TV teen drama The O.C., Summer Roberts comments that her friend Marissa Cooper's father's living on a boat is "...so Miami Vice!"
• 2006, in an episode of the short-lived court drama series Just Legal, titled "The Heater", Don Johnson plays run-down lawyer Grant Cooper. The character, standing in front of a boat similar to the St. Vitus' Dance from Miami Vice, says: "I used to live on a boat", a clear reference to his role as Sonny Crockett on Vice.
• 2006, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories continues and expand upon 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City homages, including the return of Lance Vance, once again voiced by Philip Michael Thomas. The main character interacts with both an undercover cop dressed in a Crockett-style suit, as well as Phil Collins himself, who performs a full length in-game version of "In the Air Tonight".
• 2006, in the Top Gear episode, "Series 8 Episode 3", you can hear the "Miami Vice Theme" being played in the background during the amphibious vehicles racing scene.
• 2006, Scarface: The World Is Yours, a game based on the movie Scarface, features an encounter with two crooked Vice-cops that look like and are dressed like Crockett and Tubbs.
• 2007, in the film Hot Fuzz, the characters played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are derisively called "Crockett" and "Tubby" by their superior.
• 2007, in the BBC political comedy, The Thick of It, Miami Vice was referred to as a 'popular' element of the 1980s when two politicians argued on how good or bad the 1980s were.
• 2007, in the movie Kickin' It Old Skool, Rocketshoe (played by Jamie Kennedy) refers to his long-time rival Kip as dressing "like someone Crockett and Tubbs beat up".
• 2007, in the second episode of the TV-Series K-Ville, the two main characters were referred to as "Crockett and Tubbs" by the leader of Latin Kings.
• 2007, in an episode of 30 Rock, Kenneth the Page reveals that he has a parakeet named Sonny Crockett.
• 2007, rappers Lil Wayne and Currency wrote a song called "Miami Vice (The Life)".
• 2008, the January 30, 2008 episode of American Idol opens with the "Miami Vice Theme".
• 2008, the Miami Vice drink consists of half strawberry daiquiri and half pina colada.
• 2008, Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer plan to create a television series on HBO loosely based on Cocaine Cowboys, but will trade the flash of Miami Vice for a more realistic look.
• 2008, in the Jonas Brothers music video "Burnin' Up", Joe Jonas dresses up as Rick Lava in a Miami Vice clone show titled Hot Tropic, in which he races around in a powerboat and chases down a criminal.
• 2009, The show is parodied in that year's Chick-fil-A calendar "The Bovines in Blue", wherein the show in September is referred to as Baloney Vice.