Miami Vice Trivia
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60 free Miami Vice trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which network did Miami Vice air from 1984 to 1989?
NBC
It ran on Friday nights for five seasons; USA Network picked up the reruns in 1988.
Q 02Who plays James "Sonny" Crockett?
Don Johnson
NBC had doubts because of his string of failed pilots; creator Anthony Yerkovich read the scripts and blamed them, not the actor.
Q 03What is the full name of Philip Michael Thomas's character?
Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs
Thomas later voiced Lance Vance in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the game the show inspired.
Q 04Which agency employs Crockett and Tubbs?
Metro-Dade Police
Their vice squad offices hide behind the front of the Gold Coast Shipping building.
Q 05Where did Tubbs work before coming to Miami?
The New York Police Department
He came south chasing Calderone, the drug lord who had his brother Rafael killed.
Q 06What kind of pet does Sonny Crockett keep on his sailboat?
An alligator
It is named Elvis, which is also the obsession of Detective Stan Switek, a huge Presley fan.
Q 07What is the name of Crockett's scaly pet?
Elvis
The name was a nod to Sonny's boat-based bachelor life; Switek's love of Elvis Presley was a separate running joke.
Q 08What is the name of the sailboat Crockett lives on?
St. Vitus' Dance
It was an Endeavour 42, priced at $120,000 in 1986; the season's boat was later sold to a couple in the Midwest.
Q 09What was Crockett's black Ferrari Daytona Spyder in the first two seasons actually built on?
A Chevrolet Corvette chassis
McBurnie Coachcraft made the replica; Ferrari sued, so the car was "blown up" and two real Testarossas were donated instead.
Q 10Which car replaced Crockett's Daytona from season three?
A white Ferrari Testarossa
Ferrari donated two brand-new 1986 Testarossas; the stunt car was a De Tomaso Pantera in disguise.
Q 11What did Tubbs drive?
A 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible
The Thunderbird was Switek's and the Cougar was Gina's; Crockett drove the Porsche in a 1980 flashback.
Q 12Who plays the taciturn Lieutenant Martin Castillo?
Edward James Olmos
Castillo replaced Lieutenant Rodriguez, who was killed in the fourth episode; his past was as a DEA agent in the Golden Triangle.
Q 13What happens to the vice squad's first commander, Lieutenant Rodriguez?
He is killed by an assassin in the fourth episode
Q 21How many Emmy nominations did the first season receive?
15
It won four; each episode cost $2 million and was one of the first network shows broadcast in stereo.
Q 22Which two film stars were considered for Crockett but were too big for television at the time?
Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges
Mickey Rourke turned it down and CHiPs star Larry Wilcox was rejected for having just played a cop.
Q 23Whom was NBC ready to replace its Crockett actor with during his contract dispute after season two?
Mark Harmon
Harmon had just left St. Elsewhere; Johnson settled and stayed to the end.
Gregory Sierra played him; the hitman had been hired to kill Crockett.
Q 14Who plays Detective Gina Calabrese?
Saundra Santiago
Olivia Brown is her partner Trudy Joplin; Gina had a brief romance with Crockett after his divorce.
Q 15Which fast-talking petty criminal, played by Martin Ferrero, informs for Crockett and Tubbs?
Izzy Moreno
Noogie Lamont, played by Charlie Barnett, was the other comic informant in the early years.
Q 16Which two-word memo is NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff said to have written to sum up the show's concept?
"MTV cops"
Creator Anthony Yerkovich disputes it, saying his real inspiration was asset-forfeiture laws that let police seize dealers' toys.
Q 17What was the working title of the two-hour pilot before it became Miami Vice?
Gold Coast
The name survives as Gold Coast Shipping, the front for the squad's offices.
Q 18Which show had creator Anthony Yerkovich written for before Miami Vice?
Hill Street Blues
The name "Sonny Crockett" had already been used for a criminal on Hill Street Blues in 1983.
Q 19Which director served as executive producer and enforced the show's famous colour rules?
Michael Mann
He banned earth tones and even red; Dick Wolf took over as showrunner in season three when Mann left for Crime Story.
Q 20Which two colours did director Bobby Roth say were forbidden on the show?
Red and brown
When a script called for a Mercedes, the car people would offer white, black or silver, never red or brown.
Q 24Which future TV star played Crockett's ill-fated first partner Eddie Rivera in the pilot?
Jimmy Smits
He was one of many future names to pass through, alongside Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson.
Q 25Which Czech-born keyboardist composed the show's synthesizer score and theme?
Jan Hammer
He had played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra; Michael Mann simply told him to "run with it".
Q 26How high did the Miami Vice Theme climb on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985?
Number 1
It was the last instrumental to top the chart until "Harlem Shake" in 2013, and won two Grammys.
Q 27How many weeks did the Miami Vice soundtrack spend at the top of the US album chart in 1985?
11
It featured Glenn Frey's "Smuggler's Blues" and "You Belong to the City", and was the most successful TV soundtrack up to then.
Q 28Which Phil Collins song plays as Crockett and Tubbs drive through Miami at night in the pilot?
In the Air Tonight
The show paid $10,000 or more per episode for real recordings, and Collins later guest-starred himself.
Q 29Roughly how much did the show spend per episode licensing original pop recordings?
$10,000 or more
USA Today would print the songs featured each week, and a placement was a boost for any label.
Q 30Which Ray-Ban model did Crockett make a bestseller, pushing sales to 720,000 pairs in 1984?
Wayfarer
The rest of the look was Italian sport coat, T-shirt, linen trousers and sockless loafers.