Don Johnson as Detective Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice (Episode 1.01: “Brother’s Keeper”)
Vitals
Don Johnson as James “Sonny” Crockett, smooth Miami-Dade vice detective
Miami, Spring 1984
Series: Miami Vice
Episode: “Brother’s Keeper” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: September 16, 1984
Director: Thomas Carter
Creator: Anthony Yerkovich
Costume Designer: Jodie Lynn Tillen
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Miami Vice premiered 40 years ago tonight on Sunday, September 16, 1984 when NBC aired the feature-length pilot “Brother’s Keeper” at 9:00 p.m., introducing audiences to stylish Metro-Dade Police Department detectives Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas). The two-part episode established the show’s signature pop-scored blend of fashion and fast action, set against the sun-bleached days and neon nights of Magic City.
What’d He Wear?
“As far as the locals are concerned, I’m just another hard-partying ocean guy of questionable means,” Crockett explains to Tubbs regarding his undercover persona as cocaine smuggler Sonny Burnett. The amount of time Crockett spends undercover crafts a feasible in-universe explanation for why the first season’s Emmy-nominated costume designer Jodie Lynn Tillen could dress Don Johnson in bright linens and pastels, defying the professional attire that was expected for even the most stylish TV cops to this point in time.
“It changed the way men dressed in the world,” Tillen explained to Fawnia Soo Hoo earlier this year for The Hollywood Reporter. “It gave men permission to wear pastels.”
Executive producer Michael Mann explained in the same interview that their wardrobe was indeed rationalized by their undercover façade “as effective practitioners in the whole drug trade… so they were able to use these cars, boats, planes and clothes. The DEA does this all the time.” Mann elaborated that “the sense of vibrating pastels came from” his wife, the artist Summer Mann, explaining color theory while the couple was perusing Easter egg-toned paint chips, resulting in what Soo Hoo describes as “a strict three-color modus operandi for the show’s first two seasons” that was closely followed by Tillen.
This direction is well-modeled with the peachy linen sport jacket that Crockett wears for a significant portion of “Brother’s Keeper”, layered over a pale-gray T-shirt tucked into distinctively detailed white trousers, sportily accessorized with luxury watches and natty sunglasses.
Crockett’s light-peach linen jacket is unlined to keep him cool in the Miami heat, structured only with the shoulder padding associated with ’80s fashions while the body of the ventless jacket hangs freely on Don Johnson’s athletic frame.
The notch lapels are insouciantly unkempt with the collar and revers curling back at the corners. The jacket’s shorter cut with the squared corners makes the two-button stance look lower than it actually is, as the top of the two brown sew-through buttons is proportionally aligned with Johnson’s waist at the top of Crockett’s trousers.
In addition to the very narrowly welted breast pocket, the jacket has straight hand pockets with vertical openings rather than the horizontal-oriented pockets traditionally used on tailored jackets. This further signals the jacket’s informality and thus its suitability to be so casually worn over a T-shirt. The lack of cuff buttons at the ends of the set-in sleeves also depart from conventions.
Crockett balances the bright color of his jacket by wearing it over a T-shirt in a cool, pale shade of gray that doesn’t compete with the peach jacket while still being a relatively interesting neutral shade. The short-sleeved T-shirt has a high crew neck where he often clips his sunglasses when not wearing them.
Before adopting the Galco Miami Classic
shoulder system, Crockett carried his sidearm during “Brother’s Keeper” in a conventional walnut-brown leather shoulder rig. With a short strap to secure it to the left side of his trouser waistband, the holster itself carries his pistol in a downward-facing vertical position under his left arm while the harness connects to an adjustable support strap that loops around his right shoulder.
Crockett’s white cotton casual trousers rise to just below Don Johnson’s natural waist, self-suspended with belted-strap adjusters on each side of the waistband and an extended tab that closes through a single nickel rivet button. These trousers have double forward-facing pleats that are consistent with ’80s trends while adding roominess that maintains Crockett’s slouchy, unstructured silhouette. In addition to the side pockets with their on-seam vertical entries, these trousers have a set-in back-right pocket covered with a gently pointed single-button flap and a button-through inset pocket over the right thigh, similar to “dressing pockets” on World War II-era British battledress.
“Everybody makes the mistake that Crockett was a fashionista. He was not. He wore a uniform to infiltrate the bad guys that dress like that. Crockett would rather be shirtless and shoeless on his boat,” costume designer Jodie Tillen explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rather than the slip-on shoes that accompanied the white linen suit in his introductory scene, Crockett wears white leather four-eyelet cap-toe oxfords. The sporty way in which he wears them recalls the “white bucks” celebrated in Ivy style as the more sophisticated alternative to sneakers, though true white bucks have nubuck suede uppers (hence the name) and brick-red rubber soles rather than Crockett’s smooth calf leather uppers and hard brown leather soles—which can’t offer much traction on the open deck of his boat, the St. Vitus Dance.
Crockett introduces Tubbs to his alligator, Elvis.
Before transitioning to sunglasses by Ray-Ban, Persol, and Revo in future episodes, Crockett shielded his eyes for the pilot episode in the sporty Carrera 5512 sunglasses, recognizable for their oversized aviator-style frame even despite the production team taking lengths to hide the “Carrera” logos printed in black on each temple of the silver metal arms. Crockett’s frames are matte black acetate with brown tinted teardrop-shaped lenses.
Unlike the ill-fated Corky who spent his final seconds bemoaning that he didn’t spend $18,000 on a “Presidential” Rolex watch because “it just screams ‘dealer’ if you know what I mean,” Crockett has no conjunctions about Sonny Burnett appearing to be a well-to-do dealer in his own 18-karat yellow-gold Rolex “President” Day-Date with its matching gold bracelet and gold dial framed by a fluted bezel.
Launched in 1956, this iconic luxury chronometer is characterized by its dual date complications that provide the day of the week arced across the top of the dial (available in 26 languages) and the date displayed in a smaller window at the 3 o’clock position. It is also Rolex’s only watch mated to the matching three-piece semi-circular link bracelet, nicknamed the “President” or “Presidential” due to its executive connotations.
To protect the show’s budget, Don Johnson was initially outfitted with a replica watch rather than a true Rolex President, eventually swapped out for a two-tone Rolex Datejust and then the pair of Ebel chronographs he more prominently wore through the end of the series.
The Guns
In the pilot episode, “Brother’s Keeper,” Sonny Crockett wields a different sidearm than the Bren Ten that would later become his weapon throughout the first two seasons. Instead, he carries a SIG-Sauer P220, a practical yet temporary choice for the stylish detective.
Introduced in 1975, the P220 was developed to replace the aging SIG P210 as the Swiss Army’s service pistol and has been offered in calibers like .45 ACP and 10mm, along with discontinued versions chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum, 7.65x21mm Parabellum, .38 Super, and 9mm Steyr. The P220’s innovative design led to its adoption by militaries in Japan and Denmark and its import into the U.S. as the Browning BDA until 1980. Some sources suggest that Don Johnson may have used the Browning BDA in the pilot, though it’s more commonly identified as a European-made SIG-Sauer P220 with a heel-clip magazine release.
By the next episode, “Heart of Darkness,” Crockett had switched to the chromed Bren Ten, which became his iconic sidearm until the gun’s discontinuation. At that point, Crockett transitioned to a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson, first the Model 645 in seasons three and four, followed by the Smith & Wesson 4506 for the final season.
“Why put off what you can do today… drive.”
In “Brother’s Keeper”, Crockett supplements his full-sized SIG-Sauer pistol with a backup Detonics Pocket 9 tucked into the back of his waistband. This traditional double-action (DA/SA) semi-automatic pistol was produced briefly through the mid-1980s by the now-defunct Washington-based Detonics Manufacturing Company, which initially specialized in variations of 1911 pistols chambered for .45 ACP, .38 Super, 9x19mm Parabellum, and its proprietary .451 Detonics Magnum cartridge.
The Pocket 9 was an exception to this pattern, named for its compact size and 9mm caliber. Produced with a matte stainless steel frame, the Pocket 9 measures 5.7 inches long, with a 3.2-inch barrel. At 26 ounces, it weighed slightly more than the larger Walther PPK, though its six rounds of 9mm produced more stopping power than the PPK’s .32 or .380 ammunition.
Although the Pocket 9 was hardly in production for more than a year and had already scored high-profile TV placements on Magnum, P.I., Miami Vice, and the 1980s revival of The A-Team, Detonics ceased production of this unique pistol in 1986.
Through later episodes of Miami Vice‘s first three seasons, Crockett would ankle-carry a slightly larger backup pistol from the same manufacturer—the .45-caliber Detonics CombatMaster on a compact 1911-inspired frame.
What to Imbibe
After Leon’s death convinces Crockett to partner with Tubbs, the pair begins by searching Leon’s ransacked home, where Tubbs regales Crockett with his knowledge of the latter’s college football exploits while Crockett pulls a beer from Leon’s fridge. The generic yellow “Beer” label otherwise resembles Coors Banquet, the 5% ABV lager that drove the plot of Smokey and the Bandit (1977) when Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed were tasked with bringing the regional beer from Texas to Georgia.
Crockett settles in for my unnecessarily long explanation of a generic beer prop in a 40-year-old TV show.
Despite its ubiquity today, Coors wasn’t sold nationwide in the United States until 1991, though it did continue its market expansion in the decade after the Bandit and Snowman were loaded up and truckin’ to bring Coors from Texarkana to the thirsty boys in Atlanta. This expansion included sales to Florida in January 1983, at a time when the New York Times described the Sunshine State as the fifth largest beer market in the country, so even a crook like Leon wouldn’t have needed to hire ol’ Bandit to make another eastbound and down run.
How to Get the Look
Don Johnson on Miami Vice (Episode 1.01: “Brother’s Keeper”)
While certain aspects and details of Sonny Crockett’s character and costumes would evolve over the course of the series, his style of suits and T-shirts with summer-friendly fabrics and colors was firmly established in Miami Vice‘s pilot episode.
- Peach linen single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, narrow-welted breast pocket, vertical side pockets, padded shoulders, plain cuffs, and ventless back
- Pale-gray crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
- White cotton double forward-pleated casual trousers with belted-strap side adjusters, on-seam side pockets, button-through inset right thigh pocket, set-in back-right pocket (with pointed single-button flap), and plain-hemmed bottoms
- White calfskin leather four-eyelet cap-toe oxford shoes
- Walnut brown leather shoulder rig with right-hand-draw vertical holster
- Carrera 5512 aviator sport sunglasses with black matte plastic frame, brown tinted lenses, and gray branded arms
- Rolex Day-Date “President” 18-karat yellow-gold watch with gold dial on gold three-piece semi-circular link bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series.
The Quote
Little early, aren’t ya, airheads?!
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