FemaleFirst talks to the real Tubbs and Crockett

07-11-2006 15:29

Miami Vice starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, is being released on DVD this month! To celebrate FemaleFirst managed to gain access to some great talent - two real lives Miami Vice cops!!David Ward and Vincent Farina are the real Miami Vice Tubbs & Crockett, - partners who worked together in the 1976-1981 Miami-Dade Vice Squad.Two decades ago the glamorous hit TV series from which the movie is spawned oozed cool with its Ferraris, powerboats and designer clothes. It even had an alligator in it called Elvis. However life certainly wasn’t anywhere close to being glamorous then for David and Vincent when they were going deep into the heart of the Miami criminal underworld.The pair were both involved in major busts as members of the vice, intelligence and narcotics team, with cases seeing David setting up a deal to buy 10,000 pounds of marijuana and Vincent acting as a member of the mafia with money to infiltrate drug cartels.The two detectives divulged to us from the Groucho Club in London what it was like for them working undercover, when you have to go to dangerous places and the lines between right and wrong can get increasingly blurred.How did you first become a member of the Miami Vade Vice Squad?

David - I started law enforcement in 1973 and by the latter part of 1975, early 1976 I was transferred into the narcotics section. A couple of months after, Vince joined. I made sure he came with me, because when we were in uniform patrol together we worked as partners. We were a team and made a lot of arrests. We were predominantly known for a lot of the drugs arrests that we made whilst we were in uniform. Our sergeant wanted us in the narcotics squad because we were good and he took us. And Vince went in the same direction. But he started law enforcement training in 73 and then started in 1974.

David, I believe you appeared in the original Miami Vice series with Don Johnson. Can you tell us more about that?

David – I made it on the show three times, but I was always an extra. It was 37 dollars and 50 cents for the day. I waited there all day long just to be shot in the back as a group. One time I got an audition for a role to play a policeman. When I went in for the role, they asked to me to come through, and Mr Mann had a group set up in the room. He asked me to get in the room, arrest the guy and walk out. So I went into the room, arrested the guy and then walked out. The next actor – he was a bartender, he came in, arrested the guy and walked out. He got the job and I got the boot!