STAR'S REMARKS MAKE HIM NO PALS HERE

Miami Herald, The (FL) - October 10, 1987

Author/Byline: RICHARD WALLACE Herald Staff Writer

Edition: FINAL
Section: LOCAL
Page: 1D
Readability: 11-12 grade level (Lexile: 1230)
Don Johnson, the gravel-voiced Miami Vice macho man, is taking some credit for improving the town's tourism and tarnished media
image. He's also taking some potshots at its civic establishment.
"One of the reasons I've decided not to live here is
because I'm a little disenchanted," Johnson was quoted in a wide-ranging, Miami-datelined interview with Monica Collins that appeared
Friday in USA Today.
Johnson said that there has not been sufficient acknowledgment in Miami for just how nice Vice has been.
"I think they have been less than appreciative of Miami Vice, and the amount of national publicity and attention that we've brought to
Miami. And they really have snubbed us, treated us more like a bastard child than the way I think we deserve to be treated," Johnson said.
Johnson's criticism seemed to have something less than bombshell impact with the media-conscious Beacon Council, a Dade economic
development organization.
"I read the article, and it just sounded to me like a big star with a dying show," said council president Tom Ferguson. "I don't understand
why he feels that way toward Miami.
"I think the county and the film office and everyone else has done everything they could do to accommodate Miami Vice," Ferguson said.
Ferguson emphasized that he believed Johnson's comments reflected only the star's opinion and not that of most crew members of the
show, which placed 27th in the most recent Nielsen ratings, for the week of Sept. 27.
In the interview, Johnson talked about his past, his celebrity, his personality ("I have a problem with authority") and what he sees as the
impact of the show that set a style and made him an international star.
"Since we came here, tourism has risen 12 to 15 percent. I think we are greatly responsible for giving a city that was in a great deal of
trouble an identity and an image that it didn't have before," he said. "For that, we've been maligned and abused in the press and misused
by politicians and other special interest groups."
Johnson's sharpest criticism was directed at The Miami Herald. He said the newspaper's handling of the Gary Hart sex scandal was one
of the reasons he chose to sell his 1.84-acre property on Star Island, which he bought for $800,000 and recently sold for $1.39 million.
"I decided right then that I didn't want to live in a town where there was a newspaper that irresponsible . . . . I just found its tactics to be
too tabloid-esque," Johnson said.
Friday night, Herald Managing Editor Pete Weitzel said the TV star's opinions are not alarming.
"I didn't know that Mr. Johnson was so politically aware and concerned," Weitzel said. "He's never given me any reason to take him
seriously."
Johnson was not available for comment Friday -- because he was working on an episode of Miami Vice, said his spokesman, Elliot Mintz.
"He is working as we speak," Mintz said.
Earlier, though, Johnson and Mintz had discussed the possibility "that there might be some reaction to the statement."
"He said he just wanted to stand by what he said. Those are his feelings," Mintz said.
Caption: photo: Don JOHNSON
Index terms: JOHNSON QUOTE
Record: 8703170576
Copyright: Copyright (c) 1987 The Miami Herald