.gif)
Brother's Keeper (Miami Vice)
Encyclopedia
"Brother's Keeper" is the pilot episode
of Miami Vice's
first season. The episode premiered on September 16, 1984 with a two hour (including commercials) season premiere. The episode was received well critically, winning two out of three Emmy award
nominations.
(Don Johnson
) is a Metro-Dade
vice detective who has just lost his colleague Eddie Rivera (Jimmy Smits
) at a car bombing, when they were trying to arrest a small-time drug
dealer. He also is in the middle of an ugly divorce, since his wife can't stand the stress of having a husband working undercover with criminals.
Crockett is investigating a Colombian
drug dealer, named Calderone (Miguel Piñero
), when he meets a New York
police agent called Rafael Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas
). Since they are having problems approaching Calderone due to a traitor (leading Tubbs to say "You've got a leak in your department the size of the East River"), Crockett and Tubbs team up, after a suggestion from Crockett's Lieutenant Rodriguez (Gregory Sierra
) to work together, even though they don't like each other.
Crockett is also dating a colleague, Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago
). But he is not very fortunate, since he whispers his wife's name at Gina, when they are in bed. Gina and her colleague Trudy Joplin (Olivia Brown
) still help Crockett at all job matters, and they discover that Rafael Tubbs is actually a dead New York officer. Crockett confronts "Rafael" and discovers that he is Rafael's brother Ricardo
that wants to catch Calderone, his brother's murderer.
They still decide to work together and it pays off, and discover the traitor to be Scottie Wheeler (Bill Smitrovich
), a DEA Agent who works closely with the Vice squad. Calderone is arrested, but within a matter of hours gets a judge to sign his release on $2 million bail
. Sonny and Rico arrive just in time to see Calderone get into a seaplane and fly off. Crockett and Tubbs decide that they like working with each other after all, and Tubbs decides to transfer to Miami.
This episode started developing the trademark Vice style. Aspects of Miami Vice considered revolutionary lay in its music
, cinematography
, and image
ry, which made large segments of each episode resemble a protracted music video
. A good example of combining these three aspects is found in this episode when Crockett and Tubbs are in the Ferrari Daytona Spyder, driving through a damp, nighttime Miami downtown heading to a somber showdown with a sinister, murderous drug lord as "In the Air Tonight
" by Phil Collins
surrealistically plays along. As Lee H. Katzin
, one of the series' directors, once stated, "The show is written for an MTV
audience, which is more interested in images, emotions and energy than plot and character and words."
The pilot included some of the series trademarks, such as Crocketts' Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4
, his boat, the St. Vitus Dance and Elvis, his pet alligator
.
and won two Emmy's, for best sound editing and cinematography.
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
of Miami Vice's
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
first season. The episode premiered on September 16, 1984 with a two hour (including commercials) season premiere. The episode was received well critically, winning two out of three Emmy award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations.
Plot
James "Sonny" CrockettJames "Sonny" Crockett
James "Sonny" Crockett is a fictional character from the Miami Vice television series and film of the same name. The character is portrayed by Don Johnson in the television series, and Colin Farrell in the movie version of the show. He was introduced in the Miami Vice pilot in 1984 and appeared in...
(Don Johnson
Don Johnson
Donnie Wayne "Don" Johnson is an American actor known for his work in television and film. He played the lead role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s TV cop series, Miami Vice, which led him to huge success. He also played the lead role in the 1990s cop series, Nash Bridges...
) is a Metro-Dade
Miami-Dade Police Department
The Miami-Dade Police Department , formerly known as the Metro-Dade County Police Department , Dade County Public Safety Department and the Dade County Sheriff's Office is a Limited Service County Police Department serving Miami-Dade County, Florida's unincorporated areas, although they have...
vice detective who has just lost his colleague Eddie Rivera (Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...
) at a car bombing, when they were trying to arrest a small-time drug
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
dealer. He also is in the middle of an ugly divorce, since his wife can't stand the stress of having a husband working undercover with criminals.
Crockett is investigating a Colombian
Colombian people
Colombian people are from a multiethnic Spanish speaking nation in South America called Colombia. Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and are a mixture of Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians.-Demography:...
drug dealer, named Calderone (Miguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero
Miguel Piñero was a Puerto Rican playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement.-Early years:...
), when he meets a New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
police agent called Rafael Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas
Philip Michael Thomas
Philip Michael Thomas is an American actor. Thomas's most famous role is that of detective Ricardo Tubbs on the hit 1980s TV series Miami Vice. His first notable roles were in Coonskin and opposite Irene Cara in the 1976 film Sparkle...
). Since they are having problems approaching Calderone due to a traitor (leading Tubbs to say "You've got a leak in your department the size of the East River"), Crockett and Tubbs team up, after a suggestion from Crockett's Lieutenant Rodriguez (Gregory Sierra
Gregory Sierra
Gregory Sierra is an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller and as Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor of Fred G...
) to work together, even though they don't like each other.
Crockett is also dating a colleague, Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago
Saundra Santiago
Saundra Santiago is an American actress. She best known for her role as Det. Gina Calabrese on 1980s television series Miami Vice.-Early life and education:...
). But he is not very fortunate, since he whispers his wife's name at Gina, when they are in bed. Gina and her colleague Trudy Joplin (Olivia Brown
Olivia Brown
Olivia Margarette Brown is an American actress.Brown was born in Frankfurt, Germany and raised in Livonia, Michigan, United States. Her family eventually moved to California and she is also a graduate of Santa Monica High School. She played Det. Trudy Joplin on Miami Vice and Vanessa Hargraves on...
) still help Crockett at all job matters, and they discover that Rafael Tubbs is actually a dead New York officer. Crockett confronts "Rafael" and discovers that he is Rafael's brother Ricardo
Ricardo Tubbs
Detective Ricardo Tubbs is a fictional character and protagonist from the American television series Miami Vice and the 2006 film of the same name. He is portrayed in all his appearances in the television series by Philip Michael Thomas, and in the film by Jamie Foxx...
that wants to catch Calderone, his brother's murderer.
They still decide to work together and it pays off, and discover the traitor to be Scottie Wheeler (Bill Smitrovich
Bill Smitrovich
-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
), a DEA Agent who works closely with the Vice squad. Calderone is arrested, but within a matter of hours gets a judge to sign his release on $2 million bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
. Sonny and Rico arrive just in time to see Calderone get into a seaplane and fly off. Crockett and Tubbs decide that they like working with each other after all, and Tubbs decides to transfer to Miami.
Style
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, and image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
ry, which made large segments of each episode resemble a protracted music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
. A good example of combining these three aspects is found in this episode when Crockett and Tubbs are in the Ferrari Daytona Spyder, driving through a damp, nighttime Miami downtown heading to a somber showdown with a sinister, murderous drug lord as "In the Air Tonight
In the Air Tonight
"In the Air Tonight" is a song by Phil Collins that first appeared on his 1981 album Face Value. It was recorded in 1979 and was the first single of Collins' solo career, and remains one of his best-known hits. The music video, directed by Stuart Orme, was released in 1981.-The song/recording:The...
" by Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
surrealistically plays along. As Lee H. Katzin
Lee H. Katzin
Lee H. Katzin was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States, and became a TV director in the late 1960s, including episodes for Bonanza, Mission: Impossible and Police Story. He also directed the 1971 movie, Le Mans....
, one of the series' directors, once stated, "The show is written for an MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
audience, which is more interested in images, emotions and energy than plot and character and words."
The pilot included some of the series trademarks, such as Crocketts' Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4
Ferrari Daytona
The Ferrari 365 GTB/4, better known by the unofficial name Ferrari Daytona, is a Gran Turismo automobile produced from 1968 to 1973. It was first introduced to the public at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968 and replaced the 275 GTB/4...
, his boat, the St. Vitus Dance and Elvis, his pet alligator
Alligator
An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two extant alligator species: the American alligator and the Chinese alligator ....
.
Awards and nominations
This episode was nominated for three Emmy awardsPrimetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
and won two Emmy's, for best sound editing and cinematography.
| Year | Result | Award | Category | Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Nominated | Emmy Award Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various... |
Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series The Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series is awarded to one television episode each year at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Often regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual episode of television, the nominees and winners often reflect outstanding achievement in... |
Anthony Yerkovich Anthony Yerkovich Anthony Yerkovich is an American television producer and writer.He is best known for creating the 1980s cop show Miami Vice. He served as the show's executive producer along with Michael Mann before handing over full executive responsibilities to Mann after only six episodes... |
| Winner | Outstanding Cinematography for a Series | Robert E. Collins, Cinematographer | ||
| Winner | Outstanding Film Sound Editing for a Series | Bruce Bell, Sound Editor; Jerry Sanford Cohen, Music Editor; Victor B. Lackey, Sound Editor; Ian MacGregor-Scott, Sound Editor; Carl Mahakian, Sound Editor; Chuck Moran, Supervising Sound Editor; John Oettinger, Sound Editor; Bernie Pincus, Sound Editor; Warren Smith, Sound Editor; Bruce Stambler, Sound Editor; Mike Wilhoit, Sound Editor; Paul Wittenberg, ADR Editor; Kyle Wright, Sound Editor | ||
Music
- "Miss You" by The Rolling StonesThe Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
- "Body TalkBody Talk (The Deele song)"Body Talk" is a song by American band, The Deele. It was released as a single in January 1984 and peaked at number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten on the R&B chart. It is featured in the pilot episode, "Brother's Keeper", of the television series Miami Vice....
" by The DeeleThe DeeleThe Deele is an American 80s R&B band from Cincinnati, Ohio, originally consisting of Indianapolis native Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds along with Antonio "L.A." Reid, Carlos "Satin" Greene, Darnell "Dee" Bristol, Stanley Burke, and Kevin "Kayo" Roberson... - "All Night Long (All Night)All Night Long (All Night)"All Night Long " is a hit single for Lionel Richie from 1983. Taken from his second solo album, Can't Slow Down, it combined Richie's soulful Commodores style with Caribbean influences. This new, more dance approach proved popular, as the single reached number one on three Billboard charts...
" by Lionel RichieLionel RichieLionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
(Sung by a band) - "Somebody's Watching MeSomebody's Watching Me"Somebody's Watching Me" is the debut single by R&B artist Rockwell, released on the Motown label in 1984. The song's lyrics relate the narrator's paranoid fear of being followed and watched. It featured former Motown artists Michael Jackson on the chorus and Jermaine Jackson on additional backing...
" by RockwellRockwell (musician)Rockwell is an R&B performer who was signed to the Motown label.-Biography:... - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi LauperCyndi LauperCynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
- "In the Air TonightIn the Air Tonight"In the Air Tonight" is a song by Phil Collins that first appeared on his 1981 album Face Value. It was recorded in 1979 and was the first single of Collins' solo career, and remains one of his best-known hits. The music video, directed by Stuart Orme, was released in 1981.-The song/recording:The...
" by Phil CollinsPhil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
External links
- Miami Vice at wildhorse.com
- Miami Vice at tv.com