Miami Vice Guest Stars: Top 10 Musicians

While I've backed off a bit from my long-held contention that Miami Vice is the greatest show in the history of television (the main source of my disillusionment? Three words: Philip Michael Thomas), I still maintain that it featured the greatest roster of guest stars of any show ever. Well, of any TV drama. The Muppet Show was also pretty strong.

Anyway, years ago I created a list of the show's many notable guest appearances. It was a document that became famous with the four or five people I shared it with. Now, through the magic of the Interweb, I can reach a theoretical audience of millions. And a realistic audience of ... four or five.

At any rate, the list is so extensive, I've broken it down into four parts: Actors, Actresses, Musicians, and "Others." Let's start with the musicians, shall we? These are just the artists who actually appeared on the show. As far as Vice's revolutionary use of popular music, that will be a whole other post or seven. Here we go ...

10. Frank Zappa
Zappa played "weasel dust" dealer "Mario Fuente" in the Season 2 episode "Payback," which also featured Mr. Hands of Stone, Roberto Duran.

9. Gene Simmons
Remember back before his reality TV career when Gene Simmons was in a band? Any members of the KISS Army out there? In Miami Vice, Dr. Tongue got to play a character with a great name--"Newton Blade"-- to kick off Season 2 in "Prodigal Son." Other notable guests in this episode include: Pam Grier, Luis Guzman, Penn Jilette, and Charles Dutton.

8. Iggy Pop
Okay, IMDb failed to give me an episode listing for Iggy's guest shot, but I had it on my original list and I saw him mentioned elsewhere as appearing on-screen, so I'm going with it. I'll guess it was "Kill Shot" from Season 3, as that episode featured the his classic "Wild Child."

7. Miles Davis
I don't recall this episode--"Junk Love"--from Season 2, but he played "Ivory Jones." I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he was a jazz musician. I'm only ranking him this high because, well, he's Miles Davis.

6. Ted Nugent
The Motor City Madman none too surprisingly portrayed a bad guy, "Charlie Barret," the femme fatale's henchman in Season 2's "Definitely Miami" episode. The Nuge (not to be confused with "Noogie," a recurring character played by Charlie Barnett--wow, that is kind of confusing) also had his song "Angry Young Man" featured.

Here he is in all his no-shirt-under-a-linen-blazered glory:


5. James Brown
I can't dis the The Hardest Working Man In Show Business by ranking him lower. In this case, his work was in "Missing Hours" as "Lou De Long" alongside Chris Rock in Season 4. One review I read called this the worst episode of the entire series, but it did feature The Godfather of Soul's "I Feel Good," so it can't be all bad.

4. Glenn Frey
Glenn makes it this high because he was the first major musician to guest on the show, portraying "Jimmy Cole" in "Smuggler's Blues" from Season 1. That show also featured his hit song of the same name.

Hey, look, here he is now!


3. Sheena Easton
I know, I know. While this Scottish siren isn't a music legend like some of the others ranked lower, she did have the largest role on the show of any "musician" by far. As singer Caitlin Davies (ooo, a stretch), she was featured in four episodes in Season 4, and actually became Mrs. Sonny Crockett (and, assumedly, Mrs. Sonny Burnett as a bonus) in "Deliver Us From Evil." Alas, a long and happy life together was not meant to be.

Try not to tear up as you watch their nuptials. BTW, I think Sonny's hair being this feathered signaled the beginning of the end for the show.


2. Willie Nelson
Did someone say "legend?" Long before he was singing duets and smoking blunts with Snoop Dogg, Willie crossed over to play "Old Texas Ranger" in the "El Viejo" episode from Season 3.

He shows up toward the end of this video, getting tough with an extra weaselly looking Steve Buscemi.


1. Phil Collins
Yes, Phil Collins. While only appearing in one episode as "Phil Mayhew" in Season 2's "Phil The Shill" (along with Kyra Sedgwick and Emo Philips), he gets extra points for writing and performing the seminal Miami Vice song for the seminal Miami Vice music-driven scene: "In The Air Tonight" from Season 1, Episode 1.

Hard as it may be to believe today, this scene was a breakthrough in episodic television and unlike anything that had come before. So forget seeing Phil act, let's just let him sing ...


Other Guest Starring Musicians: Isaac Hayes, Little Richard, Frankie Valli, John Taylor