Miami Vice beats The A-Team by one vote in TV series tournament

Miami Vice eliminates The A-Team by one vote after eight ballots are voided

The tightest duel of the first round of the tournament seeking the best TV series in history was decided by a single vote. Miami Vice defeated The A-Team 88 to 87 after the organizers invalidated six votes cast for the mercenary series and two for the police procedural. The filter was clear: only votes from users with at least 36 messages in their history counted, a screening against suspicious multiple accounts that altered the final result. Without this purification, The A-Team would have won 93 to 90.

The elimination match, the last of the round, became a clash between two ways of understanding television in the eighties. On one side, the family-oriented action series, broadcast during daytime slots, with interchangeable episodes. On the other, the product by Michael Mann, with music video aesthetics, synthesizers, and a more adult view of crime and the city. The final count left the police fiction one step ahead, but the debate made it clear that the real distance between both was minimal.

Which series competed and how votes were counted

The A-Team arrived at the duel as an icon of childhood television: four fugitive ex-military men, a black and red van, and a phrase that stuck with an entire generation. Miami Vice represented something else: two vice squad detectives, sports cars, loose clothing, and a soundtrack that defined the decade. The voting was designed as nominal and unique, with the organization deciding in case of a tie.

The vote screening was the decisive element. Six ballots for The A-Team and two for Miami Vice were discarded because they came from accounts with fewer than 36 messages. The adjustment left the score at 87 versus 88. A single vote separated the two series and turned the elimination into the closest contest of the round.

Why Miami Vice is considered a superior series

The most repeated argument in favor of the police fiction was production quality. It is maintained that Miami Vice surpasses The A-Team in plots, characters, and staging, and that its aesthetic influence went further. The series was shot with a generous budget and antiestéticatured appearances by figures like Leonard Cohen, who was brought in when someone speaking French was needed.

Music was another trump card. The theme by Jan Hammer and Crockett's track are cited as examples of a soundtrack that transcended the screen. The mix of hedonism and fatalism is also highlighted: bright beaches, expensive cars, and underneath, a background sadness that the series did not hide.

The A-Team and the weight of nostalgia

Against that narrative, the defense of The A-Team relied on memory. The intro with the list of the four best men in the American army is recalled, along with the line about loving it when plans come together, and Saturday afternoons during holidays. The series was watched at ages where quality was not judged: children played being Murdock, M.A. Barracus, or Hannibal Smith.

The counterattack came from the structure side. It is described as a repetitive daytime series with interchangeable episodes: someone needs help, a rich villain extorts them, the team makes a plan, and everything ends in a shed. The absence of blood and deaths, with villains flying through the air after each explosion, is cited as proof of its status as a cartoon with flesh-and-blood actors.

Eighties style as a battlefield

Much of the confrontation took place on the aesthetic terrain. Sonny Crockett's loose clothes, his sunglasses, and the decision not to wear socks or a belt were analyzed as more than just wardrobe details: they were the image of an era. It is remembered that Ray-Bans commercially revived thanks to the series.

The other side of that shine was the internal contrast. The two main cops posed as drug dealers, drove Ferraris, and associated with incivil money, while colleagues listened to operations from a van. That distance between the showcase and the actual work was pointed out as the most accurate portrait of the eighties.

Final result and reaction to the count

The closing of the voting left a winner by a narrow margin and a cascade of reactions. Some demanded a reprieve for the highest-voted series that didn't advance, while others spoke directly of rigging, comparing the count to election polls. Others celebrated that the elimination had been so close.

The discussion did not end. There remained the feeling that two very different products had measured forces on equal terms and that the verdict depended more on each voter's memory than on any objective criterion. With the scoreboard at 88 to 87, the boundary between winning and losing was a single voided vote.