Origin debates

The origins of the programme are somewhat unclear.

Some have suggested that Brandon Tartikoff had come up with the name and premise, whilst creator Anthony Yerkovich insisted that he had spent years brainstorming the concept himself and had taken inspiration from the iconic 1942 movie 'Casablanca'.

He said: "I thought of [‘Miami Vice’] as a sort of a modern-day American Casablanca.

"It seemed to be an interesting socioeconomic tide pool: the incredible number of refugees from Central America and Cuba, the already extensive Cuban-American community, and on top of all that the drug trade."