Stingray (1985-87 NBC)...Remember This TV Series?

[Old School]

IMDB (Series Info) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090528/


Wikipedia (Series Info) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_(1985_TV_series)


Stingray Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/117801111581310


Stingray Playlist (Full Episodes) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...wAStgJYFjxF48-


Stingray is an American drama television series created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell that ran on NBC from July 14, 1985 to May 8, 1987. It starred Nick Mancuso, who plays the mysterious character known only as Ray, whose trademark is a black 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.

Ray resides in Southern California. 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 (555-7687). 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.

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, 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, but this is never conclusively proven. In "Abnormal Psych" an unnamed opponent with ties to the U.S. intelligence community claims to have "created" Ray, and in "Anytime, Anywhere" it is clear that he served in Vietnam 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) and the motor pool for the Governor of California.

Ray's other talents include a photographic memory, speed reading, 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, capable of accessing and altering data systems and coordinating information retrieval.


Notable Guest Stars

• Rachel Ticotin
• Ray Wise
• Mark-Paul Gosselaar
• Patricia Wettig
• Tom Atkins
• John Amos
• Kurtwood Smith
• Robert Vaughn
• Miguel A Núñez Jr
• Stuart Pankin
• Steven Williams
• Marcia Strassman
• Eugene Roche
• Gregg Henry
• John Fujioka
• Blu Mankuma
• Lori Petty
• Samantha Eggar
• Jeff Altman
• Shannon Tweed
• Dennis Christopher
• Doug Savant
• Thalmus Rasulala
• Jeff Conaway
• Gregory Sierra
• Joseph Ruskin
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Clyde Kusatsu

Episode Guide

Season One

0. Pilot Episode (July 14, 1985)

An attractive district attorney asks Ray for help in dealing with a Mexican crime lord responsible for kidnapping and brainwashing several prominent people. Ray manages to infiltrate the drug lord's operation by posing as a rich Texan. Unfortunately, his cover is blown and he is subjected to the same mental-retardation process as the drug lord's other victims; Ray manages to resist the technique by focusing on similar tortures he underwent as a POW in Vietnam. In the end, Ray uses the drug lord's own gold-plated car to crush him before he can make his escape to international waters, and then Ray disappears as mysteriously as he came, leaving D.A. Delgado to wonder who he really was.

1. Ancient Eyes (March 11, 1986)

On the trail of a missing fieldworker Ray discovers a marijuana farm whose owners kill the workers when the harvest is over.


2. Ether (March 25, 1986)

Ray goes undercover at a hospital as a surgeon to discover the cause of missing records for patients who are dying there under mysterious circumstances.


3. Below The Line (April 1, 1986)

When a woman's husband disappears and everyone at the oceanic research lab he worked at claims not to know him, she turns to Ray for help.


4. Sometimes You Gotta Sing The Blues (April 8, 1986)

Ray is brought in by the police, only to find out that Captain Nelson Riskin wants to "hire" him, favor for favor. Riskin is being framed for his wife's murder. Helped by Riskin's assistant Candace, Ray goes undercover in a variety of guises. He eventually finds out that Riskin had incriminating information on former police chief Donald Dixon, who is now running for governor; Dixon and his squad of policemen framed Riskin. Ray escapes an execution squad, and reveals the evidence to Dixon's political backer. Dixon and his head goon try to escape, only to be stopped by Ray. At the end, Riskin is cleared but is unaware that Candace is romantically interested in him.


5. Abnormal Psyche (April 15, 1986)

Ray is put on the defensive when an old enemy attacks him via college students who have been programmed to kill.


6. Orange Blossom (April 29, 1986)

In order to substantiate claims that a Soviet helicopter is taking patients away from a mental hospital, Ray has himself committed there.


7. Less Than The Eye Can See (May 6, 1986)

While relaxing at one of his favor-owers' homes, Ray finds himself drawn into a plan by an ailing doctor to let loose a highly virulent strain of smallpox when one victim literally pulls up in front of the house. Fighting against time and the possibility of his own contagious infection, Ray dodges corrupt government officials trying to cover up the incident as he tries to prevent the scientist from infecting the local water supply with the smallpox.


8. That Terrible Swift Sword (May 13, 1986)

When a series of brutal murders of prostitutes seem to follow a revival crusade around, Ray goes undercover as a minister and gets blamed for the latest murder.


Season Two

1. The Greeter (January 9, 1987)

After the head chemist at a pharmaceutical company hires Ray to look into lethal drugs being made for sale in Africa, he vanishes without a trace. While going undercover, Ray calls on the help of a PTSD-afflicted Vietnam vet to find the evidence he needs and escape the company's clutches.


2. Gemini (January 16, 1987)

Women are mysteriously being murdered by a serial killer. Each of them advertised for help using an ad for a black Stingray Corvette, and the murderer drives around in a Stingray. One of Ray's former clients, a councilwoman, helps to bring him in. Ray pulls in a favor or two to get out of jail, and begins to investigate. He eventually finds out that an old friend from his mysterious past, Edward Benton, is trying to get revenge on him. During a mission in East Germany, Benton was left behind and imprisoned and tortured as a spy. Now he is seeking to even the score. Ray tracks him down and rather than let himself be captured, Benton drives his car into a wall.


3. Playback (January 23, 1987)

Ray recreates a space isolation experiment to try and clear an old friend of murder charges which stem from the fact he was the sole survivor of the first experiment. The subjects of the second experiment become increasingly unstable and violent as it progresses, and Ray must unravel the mystery before history repeats itself.


4. Bring Me The Hand That Hit Me (January 30, 1987)

A rather dimwitted garage worker and his criminal buddy steal $700,000 from a Mafioso who launders his money through the garage which he owns. The garage worker's sister is concerned that her brother is going to blow it: he doesn't seem to realize that quitting the day after you rob your boss and going crazy spending the money on cool stuff is a bad thing. She contacts Ray, who pretends to be another dimwitted crook and tries to get the two criminals out of trouble. The brother's buddy tries to double-cross them, and eventually despite Ray's best efforts to work things out, the sister is killed by the Mafioso Godfather. Her brother is left to mourn, as Ray warns him that he'll have to repay the favor his sister owed him.


5. Echoes (February 6, 1987)

An artist, a former client of Ray's, is getting threatening calls from a stalker who Ray helped her out with, years before. In fact, the guy apparently died during his final encounter with Ray the last time around. The trail leads to a relative of the first stalker who is trying to get revenge.


6. The First Time Is Forever (February 20, 1987)

After a TV reporter whom Ray refused to help is killed, Ray decides to find out what the man was working on.


7. Autumn (February 27, 1987)

Ray ends up in real trouble when he gets involved in a fantasy case made up by an author who needed an idea for her book.


8. The Neniwa (March 6, 1987)

Ray attempts to resolve a dispute between a land developer and Indians who claim the proposed building site is on sacred ground.


9. The Second Finest Man Who Ever Lived (March 20, 1987)

Ray helps a ******** man by going undercover as a dock worker at the dock where his father was killed in a suspicious accident.


10. Night Maneuvers (March 27, 1987)

Ray goes undercover as an instructor at a military academy to help a student who witnessed his classmates commit murder.


11. Cry Wolf (April 3, 1987)

Ray gets drawn into a case of a drugged-up TV star, Ty Gardiner, who tries to hire him despite Ray's misgivings. Turns out Gardiner's name and celebrity were used by his unscrupulous partner to rip off both the Mafia and the Yakuza. Now that the partner has disappeared, Gardiner is left holding the bag with both sides trying to kill him, and the Feds looking for him as well.


12.Blood Money (April 10, 1987)

Ray helps the principal of an urban high school prevent a gang war from erupting.


13. Anytime, Anywhere (April 17, 1987)

Ray travels to Vietnam where an exploding bomb blinds him, hindering his search for a statue which can provide clues to the whereabouts of American MIAs.


14. Caper (May 1, 1987)

Ray must rescue the father of a Soviet defector who is being held captive by the Russians in the hold of an ocean liner.


15. One Way Ticket To The End Of The Line (May 8, 1987)

Ray comes to the aid of a crop duster pilot who gets caught in the middle when two rival marijuana growers insist that he poisoned the other's fields.




Video Description: Stingray Opening Theme/Closing Credits




Video Description: Pilot Episode Intro Clip

[Old School]

NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/08/a...-stingray.html



“Someday I’ll return, and I’ll ask you to perform a favor, and you must do it” (Ray’s terms of service)

STEPHEN J. CANNELL has looked at ''Miami Vice,'' obviously, and believes he has seen the future. The producer of such ''hard-hitting'' shows as ''The A-Team'' and ''Hunter'' has now expanded his action domain on the NBC schedule with ''Stingray.'' All three programs are broadcast on Tuesdays, giving Mr. Cannell an unusual straight flush on prime time. Complete with Nick Mancuso as a dark-haired Don Johnson, ''Stingray,'' offered at 10 P.M., is awash in tight close-ups, jumpy editing and pop/ rock recordings, all employed in the service of standard sex 'n' violence. In the new television action formula, the style is the substance.

''Stingray'' was first seen last summer as a two-hour television movie that, much to the surprise of NBC executives, ranked second in the weekly ratings. When the network decided in February to postpone giving the news show ''American Almanac'' a weekly prime-time slot, ''Stingray'' was quickly brought forward as an example of what Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC Entertainment, deems his ''quality bench'' of programs waiting for a broadcast slot. Brought back as the series premiere, the two-hour movie came in No. 47, out of 65, in the ratings.

Since then, the regular weekly episodes have adhered to an already rigid formula. The hero of ''Stingray'' is a mystery man who may or may not have ties with the United States Government. Like ''The Equalizer'' on CBS, he is a vigilante offering his services free to people confronted by some of the bigger machines specializing in crime - organized, corporate or whatever. In return, the benefactors must promise that, if necessary, they will do him a favor some day.

In the lead role, Mr. Mancuso's only unchanging item of identification from week to week is a 1965 Corvette Stingray car, which he keeps in gleaming mint condition. This leaves him free to drive up to any situation and, with some help from unnamed friends in top positions of power, to assume any identity, complete with an officially registered biography, in order to infiltrate the assorted strongholds of the villains. In the process, he invariably becomes involved with a beautiful woman who, realizing that she cannot possess him permanently, is often left weeping at episode's end. As our hero drives off into the distance, someone inevitably asks the equivalent of ''Who was that masked man?'' Gimmicks may change, but formulas are forever.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Mancuso turned up among a group of Mexican laborers working for the nastiest bunch of gringos this side of a spaghetti Western. It turned out the slave masters were growing crops of ''dope'' and were quite capable of killing any of the workers who complained. Recruiting an attractive Mexican-American woman who owed him a favor, Mr. Mancuso set out to pose as a migrant worker.

She, puzzled: ''What is this place?''

He: ''It ain't Disneyland, mi amor.''

The rest of the scenario included shootings, explosions, a near electrocution, karate displays and ordinary fistfights. After a final shootout with a Tommy gun, the hero got to say goodbye to the clearly disappointed heroine. ''You've paid your favor,'' he explained.

Last week, Mr. Mancuso managed to get behind the doors of a supposed ocean-environmental concern that was really siphoning millions of dollars in oil from a nearby exploring rig. The owner's way of getting rid of recalcitrant employees was to put the troublemaker in diver's' suit, submerge it in water and increase the suit's internal pressure until the victim's helmet and head blew off. The would-be heroine in this caper turned out to be working with the villains, enabling somebody to observe that ''sometimes beauty is the beast.'' Not surprisingly for this kind of macho fantasy, many of the more alluring women turn out to be treacherous bimbos.

Tonight, Stingray decides to help a policeman who insists he was framed for his wife's murder.

NBC is advertising ''Stingray'' as ''something different.'' Obviously, it's the same old nonsense done up in fashionable editing and electronic gear. Songs in the background cover a spectrum from the Rolling Stones to Jose Feliciano. Intense close-ups are devoted to such glitzy objects as details on a Rolls-Royce car and the shoes and socks worn by Mr. Mancuso. Ordinary movement, such as walking across a room, is edited into cubistic visuals, often for no apparent reason than to keep the viewer's eyeballs agitated. It can, admittedly, look good for a while. But then it becomes apparent that Mr. Cannell is simply repackaging already remaindered goods.

[Old School]

Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...511-story.html



STINGRAY: FROM VAPID TO VIOLENT

About the only thing you have to know about ''Stingray'' is that it was created by Stephen J. Cannell, who also created, or whatever, ''The A-Team.'' Sure enough, as evident from its premiere episode last week and the pilot movie before that, this dreadful series (9 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC-Ch. 5 but preempted this week by a two-hour ''Hunter'' episode) is all violence and vapidity, thumping music and tiresome chases.

Nick Mancuso stars as a mysterious, slam-bang Samaritan who wears shades and a leather jacket and tools around in a black `65 Corvette Stingray, spreading word of his do-gooding services in the newspaper classified ads by stating, rather enigmatically, that he hires out for ''barter'' only. Indeed, at one point he informs a lady friend, ''My hands don`t sweat, because I`m never at the pay window,'' and demonstrates his disdain for his own cash flow by tipping a waitress--what a guy--$3,000.

As to how he earns his gas-and-sparkplug money, no one seems to know...it's the old Ozzie Nelson syndrome--nor do people even know who he is. The pilot movie did establish that he fought in Vietnam, but the series opening segment dispelled the rumor that he was the most decorated soldier of that conflict. Other guesses are that he is a former CIA agent now doing ''bag jobs for South American countries'' and that he freelances for Pentagon special projects. All of which, predictably, leads to cryptic dialogue exchanges like, ''I don`t even know your name.'' ''You shouldn`t.''

Last week ''Ray,'' as he is known, and his former lover posed as an illegal-alien couple who signed on at a marijuana farm, where the sadistic overseer tried to rape the woman and then punched her macho-man playmate in the stomach after informing him, ''You`re history.'' And in the pilot, the lead-free Lone Ranger took on a Latin American mob chieftain who whisked his enemies to a laboratory, slapped electrodes on their heads and erased their memories, as they reverted to 6-year-olds whose main thrill in life was watching TV cartoons.

Stingray himself, of course, is the biggest cartoon of all, especially as played by Mancuso (currently appearing in the critically trashed feature film ''Death of an Angel'' as a phony, mountaintop miraclemaker), who, in this series, runs the gamut from feisty to cocky--a kind of stick-shift Robert Blake.

[Old School]

The Thrilling Detective https://thrillingdetective.com/2019/05/11/ray-stingray/



RAY (or whatever his name was), as played by Nick Mancuso in television’s short-lived Stingray (1985, NBC) was an enigmatic ex-Intelligence officer who helped people with their problems, and valued his privacy. As the shows credits reminded us each week, both his identity and his occupation were “unknown.” His reputation was apparently spread through word off mouth, and an occasional newspaper ad:

Stingray.

For Barter Only.

Some dubbed it “The Equalizer on wheels,” although Ray was far more hip than McCall could ever be. He wore stylish clothes, and often rocked the black leather jacket and jeans look, and he drove a classic black 1965 Corvette Stingray. (Naturally, there was a model car kit available for sale, as well. Molded in black plastic, of course, presumably to match his jacket).

Hell, he was so cool he even wore his sunglasses at night because, you know, you don’t mess around with a man in shades. Oh, no.

He wasn’t kidding about bartering, either. His fee was simply “a favor”, which could be any thing, any time. Of course, it would only be called in to help Ray help someone else out of a jam (a gimmick, incidentally, that resurfaced years later on Vengeance Unlimited).

The short-lived series aimed for class and style. One of the nice touches was that whenever anyone attempted to run Ray’s fingerprints, the match would come back either as someone he clearly was not, or as “Classified” by the D.O.D. When his plate was run, it would come back as registered to the White House or the Governor of the State.

Ray was a competent investigator, adopting disguises that went far beyond mere make-up — he could assume a complete personna instantly, complete with dialect, accent and mannerisms ranging from an effete European hair stylist to a poor, illiterate laborer. He could apparently do almost anything — he was highly skilled in martial arts and most weapons and was computer savvy at a time when home computers were rare. There seemed to be little he couldn’t tackle, from skydiving to scuba-diving. He even had a photographic memory.

Mancuso made for a slick action/adventure hero and several of the episodes were pretty gripping — if at times far-fetched. The show ran for 25 episodes, and did okay in the ratings, but NBC cancelled it, supposedly to make room for a new series by Michael Mann who was riding high at the time, due to his success with Miami Vice and Crime Story.

But through it all, we never learned if “Ray” was his real name or not.


UNDER OATH

“Stingray didn’t impress me. Even back then, I thought it was incredibly cheesy, although that might have been part of its charm for some of its devout fans. Or maybe I was already too old for it when it first aired. If I’d been twelve I might have loved it too: a bunch of James Bond-lite action scenes spritzed with Miami Vice sound’n’style, starring a smirky, too-cool-for-school stud as a one-man Mission Impossible. This from a guy, who only a few years earlier had given us The Rockford Files and City of Angels? definitely not Cannell’s best.” Kevin Burton Smith


THE EVIDENCE

Assistant DA (Robyn Douglass): “So, what do people call you? Stingray?”

Ray: “God, I hope not. (from the pilot)

Assistant DA: “What should I call you, then?”

Ray, exasperated: “Just call me ‘Ray’.”

Assistant DA: “Like, short for ‘Stingray’?”

Ray, giving her a disgusted look: “No, it’s short for ‘Raymond.'” (later on in the pilot)

[Old School]

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Stingray-Comp.../dp/B003XMKU3Y



TV Tropes https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...s/Stingray1985

"The world runs on money. Everybody walks around with this invisible number in their heads. You hit the figure close enough, the penny drops, you own the man. In Hong Kong you can buy a murder for five bucks. In New York City a sloppy job runs you five hundred. A neat, clean, professional hit, upwards of ten grand. On skid row they'll kill you for your shoes. I take money out of the equation. My hands don't sweat, because I'm never at the pay window." Ray

A television series created by Stephen J. Cannell that ran for two seasons from 1985 to 1987.

Ray (played by Nick Mancuso) a man with a mysterious past would help a client with their problem. They would approach him by answering an ad that ran every Friday in the New York Times offering a "'65 black Stingray for Barter Only". Ray would not take money from his clients but demand a favor that he would eventually collect.

No relation to the 1964 puppet show of the same name (about a special naval agency and evil fish-men) created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson of Thunderbirds fame (interestingly, the title was not changed when the series was screened on ITV in the UK - clearly no one could ever get the two confused!). Nor to the Corvette Summer clone from 1978. Nor to the creature that ended the life of Steve Irwin.

Tropes:

• Action Series
• Cool Car: Ray's '65 Corvette.
• Dark and Troubled Past/Mysterious Past: Although hints are dropped throughout the series, Ray's reasons for what he does, and what led him to it, are never explicitly revealed.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Robert Vaughn's unnamed character in "Abnormal Psych."
• Go Among Mad People
• Hero's Classic Car: The series is named after it.
• Magical Native American: "The Neniwa."
• A Simple Plan: The episode "Caper".
• The Unreveal: While Ray has worked for the government in some capacity, he has taken steps to obscure his real identity. His current is always Ray; last name, but the name always belongs to someone else. Once it was a black special forces officer.
• Vigilante Man: Ray only helps people who are good. He kills in self-defense or to help the innocent, but only as a last resort.
• You Owe Me: Ray barters for his services, a favor for a favor.

[Old School]

[Old School]

Video Description: Stingray Season 2/episode 07 (Autumn- originally aired February 27, 1987).

Song: Deep In The Dark, performed by Kenney Rankin (especially for the show).

[TMC]

Stingway sounds to me, like it was supposed to be NBC's answer to The Equalizer, which debuted on CBS at nearly the exact same time.

[rusty spike]

I was a fan of the show.