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John Petersen
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Miami Vice Composer
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Season 4 (with Jan Hammer)
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Active
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1982-2008
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John Petersen is an American musician who composed the background score music for season 4 of Miami Vice (working on the episodes "Missing Hours" through to "A Bullet for Crockett") of the show, collaborating with and later replacing Jan Hammer.
Biography[]
Petersen first found work composing music for the popular children's animated television series Voltron: Defender Of The Universe originally broadcast (in America) from 1984-1985. Later, Petersen was hired to assist Jan Hammer on Miami Vice during the fourth season of the show. Initially the two composers worked together on the series' music, but eventually Petersen took over from Hammer completely (although many of Hammer's older cues were still used on the show in his absence, and he was still named in the show's opening credits). Petersen emulated Hammer's style well, to the point where it is almost impossible to tell which tracks were scored by Hammer and which by Petersen. Petersen's last work was in "A Bullet for Crockett", as producers requested Hammer exclusively return for the fourth season's final two episodes.
Petersen was not asked to return for the fifth and final season of Miami Vice, with composing duties instead going to Tim Truman. Following Vice, Petersen has worked intermittently, his only subsequent credits being the films The Keeper (featuring Giancarlo Esposito) and Childless, and a second animated children's series, Yu-Gi-Oh!.