quote:

Originally posted by 4ftty4:
Chicago PD. My wife loves it. I want to throw a brick though the TV. It brutal.

Yep. Was about to say the same thing. Awful.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Miami Vice? Blasphemy out of the mouths of children.

You had to be there, and if you tell me you were, you must have been asleep. Miami Vice wasn't a TV show- it was a movement.

Truer words never spoken.

I'm in the middle of re-watching the first season. I loved it when it first aired, and it is just as interesting, exciting, and meaningful watching it now.

Was there cheese? Yes. There were weak points in some of the story lines, and yes, it is fairly obvious that the cops didn't follow all the policies and procedures that they should have. There were some episodes that were just dogs.

But, there were some poignant story lines in some of the episodes, and the writers really explored some themes that had never been explored in cop shows up to that point. Undercover cops lives and how they sometimes "lose" their identities, the impact of undercover cops lives on their families, bad guys trying to insulate their families from their criminal enterprises, among the ones that first come to my mind. The producers/directors/writers found creative ways to tell these stories while still throwing in the flash of the 80's with the clothing, cars, money, sexiness, exotic locations, ,music and action.

While I didn't care for every single song chosen in the series, there were some incredibly powerful moments highlighted by some of the music choices made. Some of the locations and cinematography were absolutely stunning!

Don Johnson had an incredible range of emotions he could portray with his facial expressions and body language, and Phillip Michael Thomas was right up there with him. The supporting cast did some fine acting in some of the episodes, and were capable of adding both the humor and levity in some of the episodes, as well as the sorrow and heartbreak in others.

Some of the Season 1 episodes that really showed some true brilliance were the pilot episode, the 2 part Calderone episode, the 2 episodes with Dennis Farina starring as a mob boss who wouldn't flip on the mob even after they tried to have him murdered, and the episode in which Gina had to sleep with her pimp to maintain her cover.

Three of my favorites are Smuggler's Blues with Glen Frey starring as a shady pilot for hire, the Glades in which Crockett and Tubbs had to go undercover to a fishing/smuggling town in the Everglades to recover a witness (the old man Clem with his smooth bore Gator Getter was FANTASTIC, even if he only had a small part), and the episode Evan with an undercover cop who has been under too long and has been living with guilt over something he had been a part of years earlier. Pure gold!

Miami Vice aired on Friday nights and I recall many times postponing going out on Friday nights until after we had watched that week's episode.

Miami Vice had some truly great stories made even better with exciting action and powerful music and acting, couched in flashy guns, fast cars, and fancy clothing.

It truly was a movement.

One of my favorite shows was/is Barney Miller.
I didn''t get it when I was younger but now that I am older and have worked the streets for years I think some of the lines are hilarious.

Me and the girlfriend tried watching Banacek with George Peppard. I could not watch ten minutes of it, and I will give anything a try.

I wasn't a big Miami Vice fan but it was a movement, the clothes, the style, the attitude. I did love the show for the guns, and women they featured. Heck I just liked watching the opening intro.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Miami Vice? Blasphemy out of the mouths of children.

You had to be there, and if you tell me you were, you must have been asleep. Miami Vice wasn't a TV show- it was a movement.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
Sheriff Lobo.

Yes, truly horrible TV, a spin-off of BJ and the Bear, a show almost as stupid as Sheriff Lobo

Sonny shooting at bad guys between him and uniformed officers. Not good.

Some of those mentioned I really liked, especially Miami Vice.

I'll add my vote for CHiPS as the worst of the worst, with Vegas, sorry, I mean "Vega$", as a close second. I mean really, who the hell parks their car in the living room?

a;; of them.

Baretta.
Is it true that he never fired his weapon?

In general I have a high tolerance for Cop/Detective shows but when it comes to Med/Doc shows I hate just about all of them > sorry but I digress.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
Hawaii 5-0.

I'm a big fan of tan lines etc., but not even close to worth it.

Surely you don't mean The Jack Lord?

To clarify, I mean the new version. Although I'm sure if I were to re-watch the old show now my memories would be ruined so I'll leave it be.

Grace Park is the only object of value in the new one.

I'm surprised nobody nominated Psych. I'm not. I'm just sayin'...

ALL of the various CSI shows...TOTAL BS.

Truest to reality of ALL cop shows.... Barney Miller.

quote:

Originally posted by Floyd D. Barber:
Sonny shooting at bad guys between him and uniformed officers. Not good.

You miss my point. One had to experience this series when it was originally aired.
There were tons of mistakes in the show and bad acting by guest stars was the norm, mainly because Mann chose his guest stars for their looks or their reputations, not their acting abilities.
It doesn't matter. What made Miami Vice a phenomenon was the way it was experienced by its viewers. People forget how innovative was MV.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:

quote:

Originally posted by 4ftty4:
Chicago PD. My wife loves it. I want to throw a brick though the TV. It brutal.

Yep. Was about to say the same thing. Awful.

I watch it because I like the Sgt. The rest suck and wouldn't last five minutes in the real world. Especially the female detectives.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
Sheriff Lobo. Horrible show from what I remember.

I can't recall the name, but decades ago, I watched a sheriff show episode with Suzzane Somers and that was even worse. It probably lasted one season.

"She's the Sheriff"

Awful doesn't begin to describe it. TV Guide called it #44 on the 50 worst shows in the history of TV in 2002. However, it did last 3 seasons.

My vote is "Murder She Wrote", but I'm probably biased. My Alzheimer's suffering mother watches the same 3 episodes on the DVD endlessly. By the time the third one finishes, she's forgotten the plot of the first one. Its getting to the point where I know every word of dialogue from every cast member, and hearing that opening theme music is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Maybe I can get her hooked on Adam-12 reruns for a change of pace. Those I can actually tolerate.

I agree, Walker Texas Ranger is exquisitely lame. It's like it was created, written and directed by a 10 year old boy. NTTATWWT.

We used to enjoy it as a comedy, when we had TV.

quote:

Originally posted by AirmanJeff:
My Dad was a cop and loved Barney Miller. I thought it was the dumbest show I have ever seen.

When NYPD Blue came on there was lots if talk of how realistic it was. A family member, retired NYPD. swore Barny Miller was the most realistic cop show.


Things like TJ Hooker are painful to watch for several reasons, but Unwatchable Texas Ranger is just that.

I liked how Broderick Crawford would use a telephone pole or stack of pallets for cover during his shootouts. Always with a ricochet sound.



Link to original video: https://youtu.be/fJGlJc-YwH8

[FLASH_VIDEO<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fJGlJc-YwH8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>] [/FLASH_VIDEO]

quote:

Originally posted by AirmanJeff:
My Dad was a cop and loved Barney Miller. I thought it was the dumbest show I have ever seen.

It was one of the most realistic.

Abe Vigoda's character Fish was probably the most accurate depiction of a detective ever on television

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by Floyd D. Barber:
Sonny shooting at bad guys between him and uniformed officers. Not good.

You miss my point. One had to experience this series when it was originally aired.
There were tons of mistakes in the show and bad acting by guest stars was the norm, mainly because Mann chose his guest stars for their looks or their reputations, not their acting abilities.
It doesn't matter. What made Miami Vice a phenomenon was the way it was experienced by its viewers. People forget how innovative was MV.

That a fact right there.

Watched a couple episodes with the stepdaughter. Had to keep explaining just how innovative the show was and it was never done on tv life that before.

Magic sparking bullets and Tubbs with his sawed off shotgun.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by Floyd D. Barber:
Sonny shooting at bad guys between him and uniformed officers. Not good.

You miss my point. One had to experience this series when it was originally aired.
There were tons of mistakes in the show and bad acting by guest stars was the norm, mainly because Mann chose his guest stars for their looks or their reputations, not their acting abilities.
It doesn't matter. What made Miami Vice a phenomenon was the way it was experienced by its viewers. People forget how innovative was MV.

That a fact right there.

Watched a couple episodes with the stepdaughter. Had to keep explaining just how innovative the show was and it was never done on tv life that before.

Magic sparking bullets and Tubbs with his sawed off shotgun.

Yeah, but...