Magnum Mania!

During the 1980s, Magnum PI was a great hit that aired on December 11, 1980 on the CBS Network with "Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii" 2 hour pilot. It had evolved seventeen episodes in the first season, twenty one episodes in the second, twenty two in the third and twenty one in the fourth. This had amunted up to 81 episodes from 1980-1984. Not bad for a start, but during the 1984-1985 season (Magnum in its fifth season), rival company NBC had aired a new police drama named Miami Vice. Soon enough, Magnum fans were getting bored and turned over to Vice for more thrills and exciting action. Vice only had twenty two episodes in its first season, but attracted more viewers than Magnum PI in its fifth season. Not to mention in the 1985-1986 season (dreadful sixth for Magnum) season two of Vice had hit the top 20 charts, while Magnum didn't. So what do you guys think? Start talking...

I've only seen maybe 6 episodes of Miami Vice. I've seen all episodes of Magnum at least 3 times each. With MPI, you got the sense that you were among friends for an hour per week. You genuinely cared about what happened to the characters as if they were friends. Something that was and still is rare in television. I honestly don't think Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs had any friends. The worst episode of MPI was 10 times better than the best of any other show of it's time. Just my $0.02.

Wow, that's a pretty good response N1095A. I agree. Thanks for your $0.02.

I think Mike sums it up pretty well for the diehards on this board!

Okay, I`ve seen them all back then, but tried the MV reruns now and was bored after 5 minutes. Would never spend money on Miami Vice DVDs.

Well, I was(and in some ways) still am a fan of Miami Vice. I only enjoy watching the first two seasons, but after that it got dull and unrealistic. Season 5 was the rejuvenation of Vice, but not as good of storylines as the first two. Don Johnson looked like a girl with that dumb long hair of his and Philip Michael Thomas looked old in Season 4 with that beard he could've been my grandpa! But Season 4 of Vice was WAY worse than Season Six of Magnum. Aliens, frozen reggae singers and bull semen were just some examples of bad episodes. Season 6 of Magnum is more cheesy with finding lost children, getting arrested for no good reason and having a brat nephew of Higgins. That's my word....

I remember watching a episode from Miami Vice, i gues season 4, and it included James Brown, and... that was the last episode I watched on tv. Later I did bought season 1-5 and watch them all, but didn't realy enjoy watching season 4. Season 5 had a good opener with Joe Santoes in his 'maffia' role, wich he did pretty good.

Eitherway, Magnum is better. Magnum had, indeed, this friendship between the chareacters wich is great. Even the most badd episodes of the show contain a great sense of humor. Action, humor, friendship, drama. Magnum, P.I. is the best show ever made in television history, and all tought I have seen every episode 3-4 times, I still watch them over and over and over again.

I was a fan of both shows, but Miami Vice really went off kilter culminating in the disatrous and now famous "James Brown/UFO episode". It is hard to compare audiences as well, remember, Vice had a sweet Friday night slot, wherein Magnum had a Thursday, then a Wednesday night slot........

Ya, you're right Steve. What happened in that episode anyway? (Didn't bother watching, The Big Thaw was a HUGE joke )

I was never a real big fan of MV. At the time it aired, it seemd like it was the TV show the "cool people" watched. Or, that MPI was not good enough for them (make sense?).
I do recall that one of the big selling points about MV was the music. Back in it's initial run on NBC, USA Today would list the songs that would be heard on the next episode.

Tom_Magnum wrote:Ya, you're right Steve. What happened in that episode anyway? (Didn't bother watching, The Big Thaw was a HUGE joke )

TM, here is the IMDB page on the episode,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0647099/
I forgot that Chris Rock was in it as well, but it was like a bad drug experience that one wanted to forget about and never experience again......

Oh, but what about the UFOs that Trudy sees?Explain please Steve...

Tom_Magnum wrote:Oh, but what about the UFOs that Trudy sees?Explain please Steve...

Geez..It's been years since I have seen that episode,all I remember is some wierd morphing of Trudy's and James Brown's faces.....(and of course she was wearing some great tight clothing!.........LOL) Michael Mann is obviously a very talented person, but I am wondering if he had given up by that point and was already working on his other great series that he did that went into the tank after the first couple of seasons, Crime Stories

Yea, their faces morphed? Wow, no wonder people hated the episode. Yea, Michael Mann might have given up on that point, but where did Dick Wolf come in?

I love Miami Vice. It is my second favorite show after Magnum. It did get stupid in the later seasons but the first 2 were really good! I like vice for the 80's style and music. It was a more serious show then magnum for the most part. Magnum was a better show throughout the whole run...where Miami Vice lost steam when Dick Wolf took over. Vice had darker stories. Prostitution,Drugs etc...