Miami Vice

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix Barton Palmer encouraged me to propose a volume on Miami Vice for the TV Milestones series. Barton’s extensive work on film has been a model for my own efforts to “cinematize” (his word) my writing, so I am doubly indebted to him. No one has helped me more in the work on this book than Christeen Clemens, who viewed and discussed most of the one hundred and eleven episodes of Miami Vice with me and made many helpful comments on drafts of the manuscript. We also worked together to produce the screen captures for the book’s photo illustrations. Christeen and Aeon Skoble, who also read and commented on several chapters in draft, were invaluable resources for all things Vice-related. Their mastery of the show’s details was an indispensable corrective to my fallible and selective memory. I am grateful to Mark Conard for his comments on early drafts of chapters 2 and 3, Jim Muller, who provided insight and guidance, and Jim Trombetta, who corresponded with me about his experience as a staff writer for the show. For their knowledge of the city from which Miami Vice takes its name, I have benefited enormously from conversations with my sister Lynn Lapin, Larry Lapin, Jeffrey Lapin, Gerry Johnson, Michael Genden, and Michael Stephans, all of whom thought of x Acknowledgments Miami as not only a place but also a state of mind. Of course, this book would not have been possible without Herb and Ruth Sanders, who had the foresight to move to Miami in time for me to be born there. Miami is often written about with an air of condescension. For this reason I am grateful to Dave Barry, Tim Dorsey, Carl Hiaasen, Les Standiford, and Charles Willeford, whose superlative writing and apposite humor provide an alternative basis for understanding what Miami was, is, and will become. Acquisitions Editor Annie Martin gave Wayne State University Press color and life with her enthusiasm for the project, prompt and informative emails, and unflagging optimism. The comments of the TV Milestones series editors, Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski and two anonymous readers for the press concentrated my mind wonderfully and led to important revisions. Assistant Editorial Manager Carrie Teefey smoothed the way through the production process with her good cheer and encouragement. Assistant Design and Production Manager Maya Rhodes came to my rescue more than once. I thank her for soliciting my thoughts about the book and for producing a look and design that will delight the most discriminating viewer of Miami Vice. I owe a special debt to copyeditor Eric Schramm for his exceptionally close reading of the text and incisive comments. His expertise and generosity with his time led to numerous improvements . Excerpts from this book, in somewhat different form and significantly revised here, have appeared in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, edited by Mark T. Conard (University Press of Kentucky , 2007) and Film Noir: The Encyclopedia, edited by Alain Silver, James Ursini, Elizabeth Ward, and Robert Porfirio (Overlook Press, 2010). I am grateful to the editors and publishers for their permission to reprint. ...