Starring Philip Michael Thomas, Don Johnson, Edward James Olmos, Olivia Brown, Saundra Santiago, John Diehl and Michael Talbott, it focuses on the lives of two undercover Metro-Dade police officers, Ricardo Tubbs (Thomas) and James "Sonny" Crockett (Johnson).

[3] Jan Hammer's music for the series was honored with nominations in both 1985 and 1986, losing to Murder, She Wrote's John Addison[4] and Scarecrow and Mrs. King's Arthur B. Rubinstein respectively.

[6] Directors Lee H. Katzin and Paul Michael Glaser both vied for 1985's Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series award, which was ultimately won by Karen Arthur for her work on Cagney & Lacey.

[10] Thomas' nomination was to be the only one for his Miami Vice work, although the actor had earlier coined the phrase "EGOT" to describe his ambitions to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards in his career.

Miami Vice, released on October 26, 1985, reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart in the United States, while several of its singles also found a degree of success.

[16] The follow-up compilation Miami Vice II, released on December 29, 1986, reached a peak position of 82 on the Billboard 200, also spawning several charting singles.

[17] The albums were also popular globally, reaching top ten positions in New Zealand,[18] Austria,[19][20] the Netherlands,[21] and Switzerland.