Miami Vice or Miami faux

[Bandit01]

Okay, I'm watching Season 1 of Miami Vice. The first disk (Heart of Darkness) that starred Ed O'Neil (from Married with Children). Towards the end, the gun shoot out, Sonny told tubbs to, "lay some heat". Tubbs then shot "7" shots from his snub nose .38 caliber. Now, I'm not pretending to be an expert on .38's. (I carry a snub nose .357 (Taurus 605) which is 5 shot). Now keep in mind, this is the mid 80's.

The question is, did he, Tubbs carry a 7 shot .38? Who made snub nose .38's that fired shots--back then?

Again, I'm not a fan of .38's, I prefer .357's. Are there snub nose .38's that can shoot 7 shots? Also, this is a general question, why would anyone prefer a .38 when they can have the power of a .357. Okay, fine, I'm a reloader and have a lot of recipe's for .357 but I've shot .38's probably 5 times in my life. Every time, I've hated it.

Let the explaining begin!

 

[gwitness]

ummmm....a belt fed revolver?

 

[Sindawe]

I know, it has ones of the evil black high capacity clips!

Actually, a Google search did turn up this.

http://www.gunshopfinder.com/smithandwesson/smithandwesson386PD.asp



Specifications

Caliber: .357 Magnum®/.38 S&W Special +P
Capacity: 7 Rounds
Barrel Length: 2-1/2"
Front Sight: Red Ramp
Rear Sight: Adjustable V Notch
Firing System: N/A
Grip: Hogue Bantam
Trigger: .312" Smooth Target
Hammer: .375" Target
External Safety: N/A
Frame: Medium
Finish: Black/ Grey
Overall length: 7-1/2"
Material: Scandium Alloy Frame, Barrel Shroud and Yoke; Titanium Cylinder
Weight Empty: 17.5 ounces

Also available with "Light Gathering" HIVIZ Orange Dot front sight.

Click here to visit Gunshopfinder's Smith and Wesson page. Or, to find a Smith and Wesson dealer near you, select a state and then click "Submit."

I've no idea about the first date of manufacture though.

 

[Bandit01]

Hey Sindawe, thanks for answering the second part of my question. But as regards to my initial question, that particular pistol doesn't qualify because "Tubbs" carried a hammerless snub nose .38 special--not a .357. On this site I believe, I saw someone post the pistol that he carried. This is an uneducated guess but I'm thinking that the writers exzagerrated on that scence with a snub nose being 7 shot. I mean my S&W 686 is a 7 shot but there are alot of similars that are 6 shots. I can't believe that I'm obsessing over this stupid inquiry.

 

[DMF]

Dude it's TV. If you're looking for realism, whether it's guns or not, go to the switch labeled power, and use it to shut the TV off.

 

[Razor]

Bad editing.

Same thing as Doc Holiday's 3 shot double barrel shotgun in Tombstone.

 

[GreenFurniture]

Doc's shotgun with the three shots was actually just two shots, it's the same shot but from a different angle.

 

[Mannlicher]

I lived and worked in Miami during that time. The restaurant I managed was a hang out for many of the 'stars' of the show. Trust me, they played fast and loose with fact, location, weapons, plot, police procedure.
I would not take as gospel, anything that is said, or shown on Miami Vice.

 

[cortez kid]

Tubb's 7 shot six shooter is imppressive, but not nearly as much as Rambo's belt exanding machine gun!
good shootin
kid

 

[DigMe]

This is a show about two cops who tooled around in a Ferrari Testarossa (although I don't think they had it yet in the first season). And you want reality!?

brad cook

 

[Third_Rail]

Maybe he loaded it 6+1?

 

[Dirty Bob]

The show was silly, but fun!

Perhaps the biggest departure from reality was that Sonny Crockett had magazines for his Bren 10!

IIRC, the 1st episode had a pretty good "video" with that Phil Collins song. Perhaps I need to go shopping...

Regards,
Dirty Bob

 

[centac]

Hooray for Hollywood.

There is a Phd. dissertation on the impact that "Miami Vice" had on police culture. I will go to my grave contending that if it had not been for that show we'd still be carrying revolvers, not that that would be necesarily a bad thing.

IIRC Tubbs had transferred down from NYPD, one of those Hollywood tranfers where all hiring phases are dispensed with and you automatically get into a cake job, ahead of all the inhouse guys who've beed stuggling to make Detective 3 for the last 10 years. The 2-inch .38 was the hallmark of a NYPD detective, so it was probably just a character thing.

What I want to know is why TV cops ALWAYS find a parking space right in front of whereever they need to interview someone and they never need to make a 27 point turn to parallel park. You ever try to squeeze a Crown Vic nto a Mini space?

 

[OldLawman]

Miami Vice

I was a firearms trainer in South Florida in the 1980's, and had some contact with those folks.
The wheelgun Tubbs used was a S&W M49 (or M38) Bodyguard, a shrouded hammer 5-shot J-Frame.
Interestingly, Don Johnson's charecter carried a SIG 220 in the first episode, then was switched to the famous Bren 10 for a couple of seasons. Given the supply problems the Bren 10 folks had, it was said the Miami Vice prop crew were the only ones in the country with magazines !

 

[dakotasin]

You ever try to squeeze a Crown Vic nto a Mini space?

well, not a crown vic but its cousin the merc grand marquis, but even that isn't so bad. my longbox double cab f-250 is a nuisance in town and absolute murder in the city...

 

[HighVelocity]

My favorite gun play in Miami Vice season one has got to be when Crockett drops through the ceiling vent in the house in the glades and starts smoking all the bad guys one at a time while searching for the little girl that's being held hostage.
Right before he enters the last room, he removes the mag from his Bren Ten, holds it in his mouth and you can see the mag is not empty. Inserts a fresh mag before kicking the door open.
I think this is the first and last time I ever saw a tactical reload on TV.

Finally, when the door is open and the badguy has a sawed off dbl barrel (or maybe it was a lever action) to the little girls head he says "If I even flinch, she gets it!"
Crockett responds, "maybe.... you won't even flinch" BANG! right between the eyes.
The little girl is saved and the peasants rejoice.

 

[SkyDaver]

The car in season one wasn't a Testarossa

It was a Ferrari Daytona Spyder replica, on a Corvette chassis. IIRC (and I haven't seen it since it was broadcast) it wasn't a real Ferrari, even in the show.

Got blowed up, too, but I can't remember which season.

 

[OldLawman]

Ferrari

Skydiver is correct.

They didn't get a real Ferrari - the white Testarossa until later. It was confiscated from some bad guy, and was originally black, not white.

Sorry to sound like a Miami Vice nerd.

 

[taliv]

you guys must really like guns or something... i only watched that show for the bikinis

 

[DigMe]

The car in season one wasn't a Testarossa

Skydiver is correct.

They didn't get a real Ferrari - the white Testarossa until later.

That's why I said "although I don't think they had it yet in the first season"

You guys are just stumbling over each other to show how much you know about Miami Vice. You're worse than Star Wars dorks!

brad cook

 

[Razor]

Doc's shotgun with the three shots was actually just two shots, it's the same shot but from a different angle.

Exactly.

The scene with Tubbs is the same way.

He is in the background when he starts shooting (one shot), then the camera angle switches to a close-up for the next 6 shots. Same shot, different angle.

 

[DragonFire]

Just curious, if you don't know what gun it is, how do you know it's a .38 special and not a .357?

 

[No_Brakes23]

I can understand some of the critique, considerning who made Miami Vice. Michael Mann is usually somewhat of a stickler for realism, (he made the cast of Heat and Collateral get some range time with a Self Defense instructor,) and his locations are usually accurate. Now given the budget of a TV show, he may not have been able to do this as much, and editing sometimes messes with the realism, but as a general rule, his work is pretty accurate. So his work often bears a closer inspection versus an immediate dismissal as Hollywood hokery

This was also 20 years ago.

 

[OldLawman]

Miami Vice Dorks ?

Hey, at least I don't wear Storm Trooper costumes and carry a fake light saber !

All of this is in good fun, and all (mostly all) good comments.

 

[Trebor]

There's a great scene in the episode where Tubbs is held hostage in the abandoned hotel. They show the SWAT team loading up before the raid. The have a mix of M-16's (SP1 style), shotguns and the team leader has what looks like a Swedish K or S&W M76. There's also a close up of a team member loading a Colt 1911A1 or Commander.

The interesting thing is that I bet those were the real SWAT guys with their real load out in that scene. The show often used off-duty cops and NONE of those weapons are actually fired. That means they didn't have to be modified for blanks and could possibly have been actual duty weapons.