An actual still from the episode. For real. It’s that kind of episode.
 
Honestly, I didn’t think there was a television rock star guest spot weirder than Iggy Pop on Star Trek: Deep Space 9, but the surreal incongruity of James Brown on Miami Vice has my head spinning.

First of all, by this time, James Brown had already been dealing with a nasty little PCP problem, and had been arrested multiple times for domestic abuse while cranked to the gills. This episode aired in November of 1987. Less than a year later, Brown would be involved in a high speed car chase, and subsequently arrested again with drugs and an unlicensed gun (but not until after the cops shot out his tires). A weird choice for a part in crime show about vice cops? You be the judge!

Second, this is just a trippy damn piece of television (with cameo from a young, Jheri-curled Chris Rock, no less!). I don’t want to give anything away (come on, you know you want to watch the whole thing), but six minutes into it, Brown appears as a psychedelic vision, and the rest of the plot is spent trying to unravel his leadership in an extraterrestrial-obsessed cult (I’m not kidding). Honestly, a shyster peacher talking about aliens is kind of a perfect role for “the hardest working man in show business.”

All irony aside, the script is laughable, the “acting” is sporadic, the production values are terrible, and Don Johnson’s hair is a violent assault on your eyeballs. But James Brown? James Brown is always a good show!