12.12.2006

Miami Vice and Mann

In reviewing Bill Simmons' YouTube Hall of Fame clips, I stumbled upon a fantastic video from the original Miami Vice pilot. Simmons' captures the import of the clip:
    Two great things about this one: First, it still holds up -- even now -- and "Vice" is about as dated as it gets. Second, up until that point, there had never been anything on TV even remotely resembling that scene. Remember, this was the same era when A) they were still freezing people's faces mid-laugh during the opening credits of any sitcom; and B) nobody realized that you could use music to accentuate dramatic TV scenes. So this was like watching Bill Russell block someone's running hook shot in the mid-'50s for the first time.
Watch the scene here. I still got chills, and I haven't seen that show since its debut. (Translation: Michael Mann is a genius both now and then. Although I haven't seen the movie version, but he's made enough great films already to cement his place in my pantheon of great directors.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's quite impressive. Great soundtrack synch. I think that may have been at the dawn of car-frame mounted cameras, too.