Stingray (NBC TV Series)
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''Stingray'' is an American
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
television series created and produced by
Stephen J. Cannell Stephen Joseph Cannell (; February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010) was an American television producer, writer, novelist, actor, and founder of Cannell Entertainment (formerly Stephen J. Cannell Productions) and The Cannell Studios. After start ...
that ran in 23 episodes (not counting the pilot) on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
from July 14, 1985, to May 8, 1987. It starred
Nick Mancuso Nicodemo Antonio Massimo Mancuso (born May 29, 1948) is an Italian-Canadian actor, artist, playwright, and director. Beginning his career as a stage actor, he had his breakthrough role in the 1981 drama ''Ticket to Heaven'', for which he won th ...
, who plays the mysterious character known only as Ray, whose trademark is a black 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.


Plot

Ray resides in
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
. He devotes his time to helping those who are in trouble. His background is shadowy; all that is known about him is that he advertises surreptitiously in newspapers, ostensibly offering a 65 black Stingray, for Barter Only To Right Party" and including a telephone number (
555 Year 555 ( DLV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 555 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...
-7687). Those wishing to enlist his services, presumably having learned the ad's real meaning by word of mouth, can call him for help. It is not clear if "Ray" is even his real name, or simply a nickname he has taken on based on the car he drives, the same one described in the advertisement. In the pilot, he does say that it is short for "Raymond", but it never becomes clear if he is being honest or using a cover. In the episode "Sometimes You Gotta Sing the Blues" he identifies himself to police as Charles D. Stroke and invites identification by fingerprint. However, it is not made clear if this is his real name or part of an elaborate cover. In subsequent episodes, the name Charles D. Stroke is not used. In the stills during the end credits of the episode "Orange Blossom", a trailer is shown with the name Ray Simpson. Ray does not charge money for his help. Instead, he requests a favor from his client in advance: the client will repay Ray in the future by performing one service—perhaps easy, perhaps difficult—upon Ray's request, and the request may not be refused. As the series begins, Ray has apparently collected favors from many previous clients. This allows him to call in a variety of favors during the series to help his current clients. For instance, when he poses as a doctor and is called upon to perform surgery, he calls in a favor from a physician client who secretly takes Ray's place in the operating room. Ray is a skilled driver and accomplished
martial artist Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the pres ...
, and is excellent at covering his tracks and hiding his real identity. On several occasions, clients and government authorities believe that they have discovered who he really is, but in the end they always find that they are mistaken. Often it seems that Ray either is or was affiliated with a secret government agency, perhaps the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
, but this is never conclusively proven. In "Abnormal Psych" an unnamed opponent with ties to the U.S.
intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...
community claims to have "created" Ray, and in "Anytime, Anywhere" it is clear that he served in
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
in some capacity. Whenever the license plate for his Stingray is run through a computer, it lists many different addresses and owners. Two of the most notable were "1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC" (the address of the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
) and the motor pool for the Governor of California. Ray's other talents include a
photographic memory Eidetic memory ( ), also known as photographic memory and total recall, is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''photogr ...
,
speed reading Speed reading is any of many techniques claiming to improve one's ability to read quickly. Speed-reading methods include chunking and minimizing subvocalization. The many available speed-reading training programs may utilize books, videos, ...
, the ability to slow down his heart to barely perceptible levels, and a knack for adopting personas including an arrogant surgeon, a tent-revival preacher, a crippled Vietnam veteran, and a grieving husband. He is a skilled computer
hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...
, capable of accessing and altering data systems and coordinating information retrieval.


Production

The 1986 eight-episode first season of Stingray was filmed in Southern California. Later that year, with a favorable exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars being a win/win for US producers, series creator, Stephen J. Cannell, upon advice from series leading man Nick Mancuso, decided to shoot the second season of the series in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. However, so many producers were shooting in Toronto that no crews were available to man any additional productions. Consequently, Cannell shot the first seven episodes of Stingray's second season in
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
instead with the remaining eight episodes being shot in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
.


Music

Music, by veteran TV composers
Mike Post Mike Post (born Leland Michael Postil; September 29, 1944) is an American composer, best known for his television theme music for various shows, including '' The White Shadow''; ''Law & Order''; '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''; ''The A-Tea ...
,
Pete Carpenter Clarence Edward "Pete" Carpenter (April 1, 1914 – October 18, 1987) was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and veteran of television theme music sheet music. After a long career playing the trombone in bands and as a studio musician, Carp ...
, and
Walter Murphy Walter Anthony Murphy Jr. (born December 19, 1952) is an American composer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for the instrumental " A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which topp ...
, long-time collaborators with Cannell, played a large part in the series. In addition to frequent quick-cutting of visuals in time with the incidental music, the show also inserted
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
style interludes, complete with original, script-specific "pop songs" written by Stephen Geyer (co-writer "Theme for ''The Greatest American Hero''", "Theme for ''Hardcastle & McCormick''", "Theme for ''Blossom''", etc.) and Post, and sung by (usually) semi-obscure pop and rock vocalists (for example,
David Pack David Robert Pack (born July 15, 1952) is an American singer and musician best known as co-founder, lead vocalist, and guitarist of the rock band Ambrosia (band), Ambrosia in the 1970s and 80s. Pack wrote and sang most of Ambrosia’s biggest h ...
singing "Signs of Human Error" in the episode "Playback"). Notable vocalists include
José Feliciano José Montserrate Feliciano García (; born September 10, 1945) is a Puerto Rican musician. He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors' " Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song "". Music genres he explo ...
,
Richie Havens Richard Pierce Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements of folk music, folk, soul music, soul (both of which he frequently cover song, covered), and rhythm and b ...
,
Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...
, Timothy B. Schmit,
Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter who has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet " Up Where We Belong", and in 1987 fo ...
. Uniquely, the end credits featured still photos of the production crew working on the episode. In the episode "Sometimes You Gotta' Sing The Blues", a song of the same title was sung by Lois Blaisch, but the song was never released publicly.


Guest stars

Notable guest stars included
Rachel Ticotin Rachel Ticotin Strauss (born November 1, 1958) is an American actress. She has appeared in films such as '' Fort Apache, The Bronx'', '' Total Recall'', ''Falling Down'', and ''Con Air''. She has appeared in the NBC legal drama '' Law & Order: L ...
,
Ray Wise Raymond Herbert Wise (born August 29, 1947) is an American actor best known for his role as Leland Palmer in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, Twin Peaks (season 3), 2017) and its prequel film ''Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992). He has appeared ...
,
Mark-Paul Gosselaar Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar (; born March 1, 1974) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Zack Morris in the NBC series ''Saved by the Bell'' and both its sequel series, '' Saved by the Bell: The College Years'' and the 2020 Peacock o ...
,
Patricia Wettig Patricia Anne Wettig (born December 4, 1951) is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Nancy Weston in the television series '' Thirtysomething'' (1987–1991), for which she received a Golden Globe Award and three ...
, Tom Atkins,
Kurtwood Smith Kurtwood Larson Smith (born July 3, 1943) is an American actor. He is known for playing Clarence Boddicker in ''RoboCop'' (1987), Robert Griggs in '' Rambo III'' (1988), and Red Forman in ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) and '' That '90s Show' ...
,
Robert Vaughn Robert Francis Vaughn (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) was an American actor and political activist, whose career in film, television and theater spanned nearly six decades and who was best known for his role as secret agent Nap ...
,
Stuart Pankin Stuart Pankin (born April 8, 1946) is an American actor. He is known for his role as anchor Bob Charles in ''Not Necessarily the News'' and as the voice of Earl Sinclair in ''Dinosaurs (TV series), Dinosaurs''. Pankin is also known for his portray ...
,
Steven Williams Steven Williams (born January 7, 1949) is an American actor in films and television. He is known for his roles as Captain Adam Fuller on ''21 Jump Street'', NYPD Detective Lt. Jefferson Burnett on '' The Equalizer'', Det. August Brooks on '' L.A ...
,
Marcia Strassman Marcia Ann Strassman (April 28, 1948 – October 24, 2014) was an American actress and singer. She had roles on the TV programs ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' and ''M*A*S*H'', as well as in the film ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids''. Life and career S ...
,
Eugene Roche Eugene Harrison Roche (September 22, 1928 – July 28, 2004) was an American actor and the original " Ajax Man" in 1970s television commercials. Personal life Roche was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Mary M. (née Finnegan ...
,
Gregg Henry Gregg Lee Henry (born May 6, 1952) is an American actor. He is best known for his performance as serial killer Dennis Rader in the television film '' The Hunt for the BTK Killer'' and for playing various "heavies" in various films, such as in ' ...
,
Lori Petty Lori Petty (born October 14, 1963) is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She made her big screen debut appearing in the 1990 comedy film '' Cadillac Man'' and later starred in films ''Point Break'' (1991), '' A League of Their Own ...
,
Samantha Eggar Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar (born 5 March 1939) is a retired English actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller ''The Collector'' (196 ...
,
Jeff Altman Jeff Altman (born August 13, 1951) is an American stand-up comedian and actor who has appeared as a guest on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and ''Late Show with David Letterman'' a combined 45 times. Altman mesmerized contemporaries like Davi ...
,
Shannon Tweed Shannon Lee Tweed Simmons (born March 10, 1957) is a Canadian model and actress. One of the most successful actresses of mainstream erotica, she is identified with the genre of the erotic thriller cinema. Tweed has appeared in more than 60 film ...
,
Dennis Christopher Dennis Christopher Carrelli (born December 2, 1950) is a retired American actor whose film credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' Fade to Black'' (1980), ''Chariots of Fire'' (1981), '' It'' (1990), and '' Django Unchained'' (2012). Ear ...
,
Doug Savant Douglas Peter Savant (born June 21, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Matt Fielding in the Fox prime time soap opera '' Melrose Place'' (1992–97), Tom Scavo in ABC comedy-drama '' Desperate Housewives'' (2004–12), and ...
,
Jeff Conaway Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway (October 5, 1950 – May 27, 2011) was an American actor. He portrayed Kenickie in the film ''Grease (film), Grease'' and had roles in three television series: struggling actor Bobby Wheeler in ''Taxi (TV ...
,
Gregory Sierra Gregory Joseph Sierra (January 25, 1937 – January 4, 2021) was an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amengual on ''Barney Miller''; Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor of Fred G. Sanford on '' Sanford and Son ...
,
Joseph Ruskin Joseph Ruskin (born Joseph Richard Schlafman; April 14, 1924 – December 28, 2013) was an American character actor. Early life Ruskin was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. After graduating high school in Cleveland, he served in the U.S. Navy and ...
,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ( ; born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. , April 16, 1947) is an American former basketball player. He played professionally for 20 seasons for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Associatio ...
,
John Amos John Allen Amos Jr. (December 27, 1939 – August 21, 2024) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as James Evans Sr. on the CBS television series ''Good Times''. His other well known roles were as the adult Kunta Kinte in the l ...
, and
Clyde Kusatsu Clyde Kusatsu (born September 13, 1948) is an American actor. A prolific character actor, he has appeared in over 300 film and television productions since his debut in 1970. He is the Secretary of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, after previously se ...
.


Awards and nominations

The series won the ''
Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...
'' in 1986 in category "Outstanding Graphic and Title Design" (Betty Green, graphic design) and was nominated in 1987 in the category "Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series" for the episode "Gemini".


Influence

The 1998 TV series '' Vengeance Unlimited'', also featured a mysterious individual, played by
Michael Madsen Michael Madsen (born September 25, 1957) is an American actor. Alongside his frequent collaborations with Quentin Tarantino—''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992), ''Kill Bill: Volume 2'' (2004), ''The Hateful Eight'' (2015), and ''Once Upon a Time in Hol ...
, who does not charge money to help people extricate themselves from criminal victimization - his payment coming in the form of favors to be performed in helping future clients.


Episodes


Pilot (1985)


Season 1 (1986)


Season 2 (1987)


Home media

On April 1, 2008, Visual Entertainment released the complete series of ''Stingray'' on DVD in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. On January 18, 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 in a five-disc set.


References


External links

* * {{StephenJCannellshows 1980s American drama television series 1985 American television series debuts 1987 American television series endings Fictional vigilantes Television series by Stephen J. Cannell Productions Television series by Universal Television Television shows filmed in Vancouver Television shows filmed in Calgary Television series created by Stephen J. Cannell Vigilante television series NBC television dramas