Miami Vice, which ran for five seasons on NBC between 1984 and 1989, was probably one of the most influential and pivotal television series of its time. As Steven Sanders aptly remarks, the show "helped to define 1980s popular culture1". The show's striking visual effects and its innovative use of music - which earned the series its nickname, "MTV Cops2" - contributed to its great popular success and its æsthetic appeal. However, while the show bore the inheritance of film noir3 - notably Night and the City (1950) directed by Jules Dassin or The Big Combo (1955) directed by Joseph H. Lewis - as well as neo-noir4 films such as Burt Reynolds's Sharky's Machine (1981) or Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983), it also broke with the traditional conventions of police series. But more surprisingly, the show played a critical part in the city's revival as it led to the enactment of legal protections for the district's buildings and the implementation of urban renovation programmes.