Hawaii Five-O and Miami Vice

Private investigation took on a whole new meaning in paradise with these television shows taking place in Hawaii and Florida.

Hawaii Five-O not only featured crime and private investigators, but it did so with the beautiful backdrop of the Hawaiian Islands. The original cast had Jack Lord playing Steve McGarrett the head of Hawaii Five-O, with James McArthur as Danny Williams, Zulu as Kono Kalakaua and Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly. At the end of the 1971-1972 season, Zulu left the cast and was replaced by Al Harrington as Ben Kokua. The 1979-1980 season of the show brought major changes to the cast with William Smith as James ‘Kimo’ Carew to replace Danny Williams when McArthur left the show at the end of the 1979 season. The producers then added a new female Five-O member, Sharon Farrell as Lori Wilson. The series ran for 12 seasons from 1968 to 1980.

Miami Vice changed the way people viewed detective shows. Sonny Crockett, played by Don Johnson, and Rico Tubbs played by Philip Michael Thomas, were an unlikely duo who ended up as partners when Tubbs came to Miami from New York where he was a cop, to avenge his brother’s death. Crockett talked Tubbs into thinking about a career in southern Florida law enforcement. The colors and attention to details that producer Michael Mann paid great attention to. Everything was vibrant colors, no red, no beige no brown. Then there were the flashy cars, including a Ferrari Testarossa, the luxury boats and of course, the ladies. The Crockett and Tubbs team worked as undercover private investigators for the Miami Dade Vice Department. Miami Vice was the most innovative show of all time and changed the way television shows about cops and private investigators were made and viewed. The show lasted for five seasons from 1984 to 1989.

Television shows like Miami Vice paved the way for the television shows of today that portray the lives of private investigators and police-even criminalists in shows like CSI which is already in it’s sixth season and CSI spin-offs CSI:Miami and CSI:New York.

 

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