In 1984, after years of struggling to establish himself as a TV actor, Johnson landed a starring role as undercover police detective Sonny Crockett in the Michael Mann/Universal Television cop series, "Miami Vice". The show ran from 1984 to 1990. "Miami Vice" made Johnson "a major international star". According to "Rolling Stone", "No one had more swagger in the Reagan era than Don Johnson. As Miami Vice‘s Sonny Crockett, the undercover detective and professional stubble-cultivator who lived on a houseboat with his pet alligator Elvis, he embodied masculine cool in the era of coke binges and Lamborghinis". The Sonny Crockett character typically wore thousand-dollar Versace and Hugo Boss suits over pastel cotton T-shirts; drove a Ferrari; wore expensive timepieces by Rolex and Ebel; and lived on an Endeavour yacht. "Miami Vice" was noted for its revolutionary use of music, cinematography and imagery; and for its glitzy take on the police drama genre. In the show, Crockett's partner was Ricardo Tubbs, played by Philip Michael Thomas.