Miami Vice Trivia
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59 free Miami Vice trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
46 free Miami Vice trivia questions with answers. Miami Vice ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989 and changed how television looked and sounded: pastel suits with no socks, Ferraris on Ocean Drive, and $10,000 an episode spent on real pop records. This quiz covers the whole run: Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, Lieutenant Castillo, Gina, Trudy, Switek and Zito, Izzy Moreno, Elvis the alligator, the St. Vitus Dance sailboat, the fake Daytona that got blown up and the real Testarossas Ferrari sent to replace it. There are questions on how the show was made too: the disputed "MTV cops" memo, the actors nearly cast as Crockett, Michael Mann's ban on earth tones, Jan Hammer's chart-topping theme, the season three ratings war with Dallas, the future stars who guested, the finale, and Michael Mann's 2006 film with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. It works for an 80s TV quiz night or a solo test for anyone who owned the soundtrack. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the series, its characters, its music and its stars, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How is Crockett's black Daytona destroyed in Miami Vice's season three premiere?
A Stinger missile
A Stinger missile, fired by an arms dealer showing off his stock, blows it up. Ferrari had sued the maker of the show's replica, so the producers wrote the car out.
Q 02Which actress guest-starred as a madam in a 1987 Miami Vice episode that Don Johnson directed?
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith played madam Christine von Marburg in the third-season episode. Twice married to Johnson, she had divorced him in 1976 and wed him again in 1989.
Q 03Who plays Crockett's partner, Detective Ricardo Tubbs, in Miami Vice?
Philip Michael Thomas
Philip Michael Thomas later traded on the role as the television face of a telephone psychic hotline, long after the series had ended.
Q 04Which agency employs Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice?
Metro-Dade Police
Metro-Dade Police was the county force, not the city's: Crockett's badge marks him as a deputy sheriff of Dade County.
Q 05Where did Tubbs work before coming to Miami in Miami Vice?
The New York Police Department
The New York Police Department lost him when he came south hunting the drug lord who had his brother Rafael killed, and he stayed on in Miami.
Q 06What kind of pet does Sonny Crockett keep on his sailboat in Miami Vice?
An alligator
An alligator shares the boat as Crockett's "watch-gator", there to give uninvited visitors a hostile welcome.
Q 07What is the name of Crockett's pet in Miami Vice?
Elvis
Elvis earns his keep as a guard, left aboard to protect the sailboat that Crockett calls home.
Q 08What is the name of the sailboat Crockett lives on in Miami Vice?
St. Vitus' Dance
St. Vitus' Dance was really three different yachts over the run: one for the pilot, then two successive Endeavour sailboats.
Q 09What was Crockett's black Ferrari Daytona Spyder actually built on in Miami Vice's first two seasons?
A Chevrolet Corvette chassis
A Chevrolet Corvette chassis sat under fibreglass panels from McBurnie Coachcraft. Ferrari sued over the lookalikes, and the firm was ordered to stop building them.
Q 10Which car replaced Crockett's Daytona from season three of Miami Vice?
A white Ferrari Testarossa
A white Ferrari Testarossa: Ferrari supplied two real cars in black, and the show repainted them, in one account because black was lost in night scenes.
Q 11Who plays the taciturn Lieutenant Martin Castillo in Miami Vice?
Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos took command of the squad after Gregory Sierra asked to leave because he disliked living in Miami, and won a 1985 Emmy for the role.
Q 12What happens to the vice squad's first commander, Lieutenant Rodriguez, early in Miami Vice?
He is shot by a hitman
He is shot by a hitman whose bullet was meant for Crockett, the last name on a drug lord's hit list, and dies of his wounds.
Q 13Who plays Detective Gina Calabrese in Miami Vice?
Saundra Santiago
Saundra Santiago's Gina has a brief romance with Crockett after his divorce, then remains one of his closest friends on the squad.
Q 21Which future action star played abusive arms dealer Tony Amato in the 1984 Miami Vice episode 'No Exit'?
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis's Amato is so brutal to his wife Rita that she tries to hire a hitman, a call Crockett intercepts while watching the house.
Q 22Which actor was NBC ready to replace Miami Vice's Don Johnson with during his 1986 contract dispute?
Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon had just left St. Elsewhere, but the threat was never carried out: Johnson and the network settled, and he stayed until the series ended.
Q 23Which future TV star played Crockett's ill-fated partner Eddie Rivera in the Miami Vice pilot?
Jimmy Smits
Q 14Which fast-talking petty criminal, played by Martin Ferrero, informs for Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice?
Izzy Moreno
Izzy Moreno is forever running get-rich-quick scams, now and then with fellow informant Noogie Lamont, and trades street gossip to stay out of jail.
Q 15Which two-word memo is NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff said to have written to sum up Miami Vice's concept?
"MTV cops"
"MTV cops" is the legend, but creator Anthony Yerkovich disputes it, saying the idea came from laws that let police use property seized from drug dealers.
Q 16What was the working title of the two-hour pilot before it became Miami Vice?
Gold Coast
Gold Coast was the title on Anthony Yerkovich's pilot script, and the phrase stayed on screen: the squad works behind a front called Gold Coast Shipping.
Q 17Which show had creator Anthony Yerkovich written for before Miami Vice?
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues employed him as a writer and producer, and it was there that he began collecting material on Miami, which he saw as a modern-day Casablanca.
Q 18Which jazz great guest-starred as pimp Ivory Jones in the 1985 Miami Vice episode 'Junk Love'?
Miles Davis
Miles Davis plays a pimp whom Castillo pressures into informing on a smuggler, one of many musicians the show handed acting roles.
Q 19Which two colours did director Bobby Roth say were forbidden on Miami Vice?
Red and brown
Red and brown were off limits, Roth said: if a script called for a Mercedes, the car people would show white, black and silver ones, never those two.
Q 20Which show beat Miami Vice to the 1985 Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series?
Cagney & Lacey
Cagney & Lacey took the top drama prize, and Miami Vice left with four wins from its 15 nominations, none of them for either of its two leads.
Jimmy Smits lasts about five minutes: Rivera is killed by a car bomb in the opening scenes, two years before L.A. Law made Smits a star.
Q 24Which keyboardist composed Miami Vice's synthesizer score and theme?
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer left Czechoslovakia after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion, studied at Berklee and played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra before turning to television scores.
Q 25How high did the Miami Vice Theme climb on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985?
Number 1
Number 1 in November 1985. In the single's video its composer plays the bad guy himself, his performance intercut with scenes from the series.
Q 26Which Glenn Frey song inspired a Miami Vice episode in which he played a pilot?
Smuggler's Blues
Smuggler's Blues so caught producer Michael Mann's attention that he had a first-season script built around the song, and the episode took its title too.
Q 27Which Phil Collins song plays as Crockett and Tubbs drive through Miami at night in the Miami Vice pilot?
In the Air Tonight
In the Air Tonight began a long link between the show and the singer, who later turned up as a guest star himself.
Q 28Miami Vice was among the first American network shows broadcast in which sound format, showing off its pop soundtrack?
Stereo sound
Stereo sound let the show make the most of the current pop and rock hits on its soundtrack, and several of the musicians turned up as guest stars.
Q 29Which Ray-Ban model did Crockett help turn into a 1980s bestseller on Miami Vice?
Wayfarer
Wayfarer frames were one part of a look that swept menswear: the show also popularised T-shirts under suit jackets and a permanent five o'clock shadow.
Q 30What was the electric razor sold in 1986 to give men Crockett's permanent five o'clock shadow called?
The Stubble Device
The Stubble Device had settings for one to five days' growth; one columnist asked how it differed from a shaver that simply didn't work very well.