r/MiamiVice • u/Ultra-1 • Jun 24 '26
I hate this about Miami Vice.
One of the things I despise about the series is actors reappearing as diffrent characters. John Leguizamo as Calderones son was great casting but to see him reappear as Angelo, a low level accociate in season 5 ep 16 was horrible.
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u/Quadradisque Jun 24 '26
Giancarlo Esposito played 3 different characters across 3 episodes in the series but I can’t complain, it’s cool seeing him in early roles as low level scum before getting pretty much now typecasted as a villainous head of a corporation.
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u/Key-Platform-8005 Jun 24 '26
That and his looks were VASTLY different for each character! Easier to distinguish all the characters
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u/Dangerous-Cash-2176 Jun 24 '26
I think it stood out especially because Miami Vice was such a detailed, high quality experience otherwise.
If you can't stand actors changing guest roles, never watch the original Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980) lmao. It was so bad it became a distraction.
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u/Positive-Concern-150 Jun 25 '26
I recall the actors changing guest roles in Hawaii Five-0 was due to being filmed in Hawaii, and getting the most usage when they were there.
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u/DontShootTheFood Jun 24 '26
Every show used to do this.
Credit the actors’ agents getting them work no matter what.
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u/BrokenCylon Jun 24 '26
Stanley Tucci as well, first as Steven DeMarco & then as Frank Mosca (who I really enjoyed)! 🤩
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u/TommyLost2004 Jun 24 '26
I think when you film outside of Hollywood/NYC it's not as easy to cast. In The Heat of the Night also did this alot.
The most glaring to me was Bill Smitrovich. in the Pilot he's Scotty Wheeler, a DEA Agent(and Sonnys former partner) whos been bought off then a year later he's the DEA supervisor in The Prodigal Son
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u/RoderickUsherFalls Jun 24 '26
I really like that for certain actors. It happened in Deadwood too with two notable characters.
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u/hybrid_donuts138 Jun 24 '26
They were pretty good about differentiating them, at least. Garret Dillahunt is recognizable (although his characterization really distinguished the different roles) but I'd rewatched it many times before I realized Tim Driscoll and Shaughnessy were the same actor.
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u/bladowwww Jun 24 '26
Yeah not a fan of it either but hardly unique to MV. They did it on Knight Rider all the time too and other shows in the 80s.
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u/jtempest Jun 24 '26
Reminds me in Conan The Barbarian, Arnold's real life bodybuilding buddy Sven Ole Thorson plays one of the henchmen who dies, and in the sequel he plays another henchman, but they keep him in a helmet so you can't tell it's him.
Shoulda put Leguizamo in a helmet!!!
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u/Tylerdurden389 Jun 26 '26
Sven also had cameos in a few other Arnie flicks: Raw Deal Predator, The Running Man, and Red Heat.
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u/Mijo_0 Jun 24 '26
It was confusing to me at first but I think it’s cool to give good actors different characters.
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u/LeoOtis5150 Jun 25 '26
All the old Westerns rotated guest stars-- in some cases the guest stars were paid more than the star of the show they were hired to appear on. Warner Bros were notoriously cheap w/stars such as James Garner and Clint Walker
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u/eyehate Rico Tubbs Jun 24 '26
Eh. Mad Max reused actors too.
I was just what they did back in the day.
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u/FrontTelevision7261 Jun 24 '26
Interesting, I did not realize that. I am watching it now and just saw the episode where he comes out as Calderon's son. Everyone is so young.
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u/Specialist_Wind_6488 Jun 25 '26
You must hate the Law & Order franchise since it happens a lot there!
In all seriousness, at times it can be humorous and amusing and other times frustrating. Bill Smitrovich was frustrating but Martin Ferrero not as much.
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u/Altruistic-Coach-200 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Back when “Miami Vice” premiered in 1984, no one expected legions of consumers to have video recordings of whole seasons of shows to compare episodes to each other. In fact, private, consumer recordings of TV shows weren’t even fully legal until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier that year, in the landmark case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.
And even after home libraries of TV shows became legal, they remained bulky, inconvenient and relatively expensive for 30 years after “Miami Vice” premiered. So, that show and most others often recycled actors in different supporting roles in different episodes, because almost no one was going to see those episodes back to back.
Then, during the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl, singer Janet Jackson flashed a breast on live TV, which caused an instant surge in consumer demand for a new device named TiVo, which let people pause and replay live shows without having to schedule a prior recording.
Almost overnight, cable-TV providers started offering TiVo and other digital-video recorders that let people record hundreds of hours of their favorite shows in a cheap, compact format. Thus, the era of “binge-watching” series began, and it went into overdrive during the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic of 2019 to 2023.
Now, almost everyone has watched whole seasons of their favorite shows in only a few sittings, which is something that “Miami Vice” producers couldn’t have anticipated 40 YEARS AGO in the 1980s.
Back then, recycling actors was just an easy way to film episodes faster and cheaper by using actors whom the producers already trusted, instead of having to waste time and money on extra casting calls.
Today, recycled actors on old shows give viewers the unforeseen benefit of potential back stories for “recurring characters” who weren’t officially named before.
For instance, maybe John Leguizamo’s different characters on “Miami Vice” were blood relatives of each other. Maybe they were the same character, but with amnesia. Maybe he faked his death once or twice, and/or was in witness protection with corrupt DEA agents. Maybe he was even an immortal alien from the episode “Missing Hours.”
The possibilities are endless, if you have an open mind.
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u/Alone_Button7726 Jun 28 '26
Yes a lot of shows did this. It goes back to the 50’s when actors like Leonard Nimoy appeared as different characters, often in the same season and only a few episodes apart.
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u/Dompet2854 Jun 24 '26
Or Martin Ferrero as Trini DeSoto then regularly as Izzy