Synopsis: A two hour Miami Vice TV Reunion movie with the original cast, taking place in Miami today. In the last episode, Crockett and Tubbs tossed their badges to the ground, walking away forever. Crockett (burned out) headed south on a boat and Tubbs headed back to New York, later making Captain. Everyone comes together to celebrate Castillo’s retirement, who gets murdered before the party favors arrive. Crockett, who vowed never to be a cop again, and Tubbs are the only logical choice to investigate. Written in true Miami Vice form, its very cinematic with a music over from Genesis that turns visual on screen with a murder and has a surprise ending. See how our favorite characters have evolved and how it could open the door for a second generation Miami Vice TV series, with a heritage and ties to the original series.

WGAw Reg # 1322759

94 pages/minutes

Genre: Action, Drama and Comedy — written by a fan for the fans.

Note: Franchise and Music rights not secured.

YouTube clips:

Russ Ballard: Voices
Jackson Browne: Lives in the Balance
Phil Collins: Take Me Home [Remix]
Godley and Creme: Cry [Remix]
Don Johnson: Heartbeat
Mr. Mister: Kyrie
The Nobodys: No Guarantees
Red 7: Heartbeat
Tommy Shaw: Girls With Guns
Steve Winwood: There’s A River
The Who: Eminence Front

Red 7’s “Heartbeat” seems to have been a favored song choice of Michael Mann’s.

He used it in 1985, in the episode Nobody Lives Forever, then again in 1986, over the closing credits of his feature film Manhunter (which I think is the superior adaptation of Thomas Harris’ “Red Dragon”, but that’s an argument for another forum). Actress Kim Griest, who played Sonny’s girlfriend Brenda in “Nobody Lives Forever”, also played Will Graham’s wife Molly in Manhunter, and Michael Talbott played a hard put upon real estate agent in the film.

The band was produced by Mike Rutherford (of Genesis and Mike + The Mechanics), but never caught on, despite such high profile usage of a track from their eponymous first album. To make matters worse, that first album featuring “Heartbeat” was hard-to-find back in 1985-87, and the fact that it was never released on CD makes it even more rare today (cassette and vinyl being the only options).

The song was available on the Manhunter soundtrack — again, only in vinyl and cassette, and that soon became hard-to-find as well.

Recently, the 2-CD set “Music from the Films of Michael Mann” was released, and contains “Heartbeat”, along with several other songs from Manhunter, so the song is finally available on CD.

Link: Wikipedia: Red 7
Link: Wikipedia: Manhunter (film)
Link: Manhunter: The Complete Resource Site

“Cold Wind Blows” debuted on Nov 29, 1985 with the airing of the Season 2 episode Bought and Paid For, guest starring Lynn Whitfield and Joaquim de Almeida.

Many Vice fans began searching for the song, but Karla had not yet finished it to the point where she would include it on an album. She had planned to, but because of touring and work on other songs, “Cold Wind Blow” fell by the wayside. For years, Karla would receive questions about the song from Miami Vice fans, but the song never was completed and released.

Many thanks to Paul Grosso, webmaster at the time for Karla’s band, Bryndle, for obtaining permission to use the unfinished clip (from the scene in the episode) here for fans of both Karla and the show

Dates:
Sept 16, 1985
Sept 17, 1985
Sept 18, 1985
Sept 19, 1985
Sept 20, 1985
Sept 21, 1985
Feb 26, 1986
Apr 1, 1988

A long time ago, these strips were available online at doonesbury.com, but they seem to have moved elsewhere, into archives that you have to sign up for to access.

Writers: Don Johnson, Francis DellaVecchia, Gil Evans
Director: John Nicolella

This hour-long video aired on HBO during the height of Miami Vice’s popularity, and while it featured the songs from Don’s “Heartbeat” album, it also included the song “Streetwise”, which wasn’t on the album and was featured in the 3rd season episode “Streetwise”.

It was released on VHS in 1987, and is also categorized as “hard to find”. It’s not on DVD, and the song “Streetwise” has not appeared on any subsequent CD or digital download versions of the album.