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in: Season 1 episodes

"Little Prince"

Revision as of 09:18, 15 August 2016 by 209.188.48.186 (contribs) (→‎Jan Hammer Music)
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Little Prince

Littleprincetitle

Season
1
Episode
11 (11th overall)
Airdate
December 14, 1984
Repeat Airdate
April 26, 1985
TV Rating
TV-14 D
Writer(s)
Director
Guest Stars
Previous Episode
Next Episode

"Little Prince" is the eleventh episode of Miami Vice's first season. The episode premiered on December 14, 1984 and repeated on April 26, 1985.

Summary

A wealthy businessman's son may be the key to stopping his father's other investment - drug dealing.

Plot

In a rundown section of Miami, Gina and Trudy are posing as drug addicts looking for a fix when they meet Luther, a dealer and a pimp who will "take care of" them, and they are led to the location of the drugs. Switek and Zito are staking out and monitoring when their van stalls and cannot follow the Vice women. Crockett and Tubbs are called in to help and they track down Royco, "Miami's favorite junkie", who tells them where Luther is. The bust goes down, and a shootout ensues, but most of the people there are so high they aren't aware of what went down. One of them got away through a non-existent fire escape, and falls to his death.

At OCB, they find one of the junkies arrested is Mark Jorgenson, Jr. (Mitchell Lichtenstein), son of Mark, Sr. (Paul Roebling), a very wealthy Miami stock dealer. This is his second offense in eight months, and they ask him who the dealer and supplier is. Just as he was about to provide the information, his father's lawyers come in with a court order for Mark Jr's release. Tubbs describes "uptown junkies" of New York and how Mark Jr. is only into drugs because he's hurting inside. Crockett and Tubbs, with Castillo's blessing, start rattling the kid's cage to see what's going on.

Crockett (as Burnett ) checks out the upper-class scene, watching Mark Jr. playing polo. He meets Mary McDermott (Maryann Plunkett), Mark Sr.'s current love interest. Back at the Jorgenson home, Mary stops by and sees Mark Jr. strung out on drugs in the bathroom, when Mark Sr. comes in, dismisses Mark Jr's drug use, and goes to his lawn to conduct his business. Mark Sr. tells Mark Jr. that if he agrees to a six month drug rehab stint, Mark Sr can get his sentence suspended, finish school and the polo season. Mark Jr. refuses to attend the drug rehab.

Trudy pulls the info on Mark Sr. and finds both US and foreign governments (Swiss Banking, IRS, FTC, SEC) have had him under surveillance, that he beat the SEC on an insider trading rap, despite having him under wiretap and video surveillance, and Mark Sr. has been keeping some rather shady company (including cocaine financiers). Tubbs goes to review the SEC wiretap tapes to determine the location of a warehouse for keeping the "inventory" mentioned in the files. Tubbs finds the warehouse, sneaks in, and locates a huge stash of cocaine, approximately $75 million in street value. He calls Crockett and Castillo. Castillo has Zito, Switek, Trudy and Gina set up a stakeout to see who the stash belongs to. Meanwhile, Crockett does a records search to see who owns the warehouse (to see if it ties into Mark Sr.) but gets nothing but a bunch of fake holding companies. Finally, several suited men and one woman (Mary) show up at the warehouse, when they leave the police arrest all of them.

Tubbs tries talking Mary into giving up Jorgensen while he drives to OCB but she lawyers up. Mark Sr. tells Mark Jr. about Mary's arrest and how he has to sever any of her ties to his businesses. Mark Jr. volunteers to go see Mary. Castillo has enough to do surveillance and wiretaps on Mark Sr, and compliments Crockett and Tubbs on their bust. Crockett gets a call on his car phone that Mark Jr. is at OCB and he asks them to hold him until he gets there. Crockett explains to Mark Jr. that Mary is doing all of his father's drug deals for him to keep him out of it, and that Mark Sr. is not there to help Mary. Mark Jr. takes Mary out of jail and back to her apartment. But after the limo driver drops Mark Jr. off at his home, he locks the doors and Mary takes her last ride while Mark Sr. watches from his mansion window.

They find Mary's body under a bridge, and Mark Jr. is finally made to realize the truth. He agrees to see his father again, wearing a wire. Mark Sr. is upset and guilt-ridden about what happened with Mary, and he tells Mark Jr. why he's been so tough on him, that his father was tough, that all Jorgenson men should be above the law, tough as nails, that he always admired the fact he was sensitive, like his late mother, and he rebelled against the Jorgensen way. Then Mark Sr. admits having Mary killed, after which Mark Jr. rips open his shirt and reveals the wire, and the police take Mark Sr. to jail, despite Mark Jr.'s pleas not to. Mark Jr. then runs away and disappears for good, hitchhiking his way out of Miami.

Cast

Guest Stars

Co-Starring

Uncredited

  • Ken Ceresne as Polo Game Spectator
  • Jody Wilson as Researcher

Notes

  • This is the third of three consecutive episodes (along with "Glades" and "Give a Little, Take a Little") that open with establishing shots of the seedy areas of Miami, many of which are located in the South Beach area before the revitalization that took place there during and after Miami Vice was on the air.
  • Tubbs refers to Mark, Sr. as "voted most likely to be Robert Vesco in high school". Vesco (1935-2007) allegedly committed securities fraud and escaped prosecution by fleeing to countries that refused extradition (Costa Rica, Cuba etc.). He was never put on trial in the US for his crimes, but Cuba did sentence him to 13 years in jail in 1996 for similar offenses. He died in prison in November, 2007.
  • This is one of several episodes that does not end on a freeze frame.

Goofs

  • When Trudy is talking to Castillo in his office while wiping the junkie makeup off her face, the movement of her lips do match what she is saying.

Production Notes

  • Working Title: "White Bread"
  • Filmed: November 7, 1984 - November 16, 1984
  • Production Number: 59515
  • Production Order: 12

Filming Locations

  • Bars 20th St./Collins Ave (Gina/Trudy walking on street)
  • 42 Star Island Drive, Star Island (Jorgenson mansion) - also known as the Scarface's mansion where the movie Scarface as been filmed. (House has since been demolished)
  • 716 North Miami Avenue, Downtown Miami (Warehouse and stakeout)

Music

Jan Hammer Music

  • "Runaround" (Mark Jr. playing polo)
  • "Little Prince" (throughout episode; never commercially released)
  • "Payback" (Mark and Mary talk in limo)

Quotes

  • "They're gonna pay this guy a million dollars NOT to play football next year" -- Crockett reading sports article on stakeout
  • "I want to see a lawyer! You're gonna need a coroner!". -- Crockett to Royco trying to find out where Luther is
  • "I've seen guys in the Bronx, Lower East Side, strung out, slammed down. They got a thousand and one reasons to want to escape and a thousand and one nights of learnin the ropes. But the saddest thing is an uptown junkie. They're only into it because they hurt so much inside." -- Tubbs to Crockett describing seeing rich kids like Mark Jr. doing drugs in New York
  • "Just because he's money doesn't mean he's not dirty!" -- Tubbs to Trudy about going after Mark Sr.
Season 1 Episodes:

"Brother's Keeper" (Pilot) • "Heart of Darkness" • "Cool Runnin'" • "Calderone's Return (Part I)" • "Calderone's Return (Part II)" • "One Eyed Jack" • "No Exit" • "The Great McCarthy" • "Glades" • "Give a Little, Take a Little" • "Little Prince" • "Milk Run" • "Golden Triangle (Part I)" • "Golden Triangle (Part II)" • "Smuggler's Blues" • Rites of Passage • "The Maze" • "Made for Each Other" • "The Home Invaders" • "Nobody Lives Forever" • "Evan" • "Lombard"

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