Stingray (1985 TV series)

Fandom
Name:	Stingray
Abbreviation(s):
Creator:	Stephen J. Cannell
Date(s):	1985-1987
Medium:	tv
Country of Origin:	USA
External Links:	wikipedia
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Stingray is a television series created by Stephen J. Cannell in 1985.

It is not related in any way to the Supermarionation series of the same name.

Short Canon Description

From For Those Who Came in Late #1:

Stingray is a modern Lone Ranger, a loner hero without even the Ranger's backstory. The facts known on Stingray are few—as the opening says "identity: unknown; origin: unknown." He is known as Stingray or Ray with whatever last name he is dodging under that week. He drives a 1965 black Corvette Stingray. He was born in Nebraska (or at least that's what we've all assumed — he revealed that under drugs in "Orange Blossom.") He accidentally killed a gang member while in his teens, the pilot revealed he fought in Vietnam. In the 1970s, he worked as a spy in Europe. His best friend at the time, Eddie Benton, was killed in 1974 in Paris, or so he thought; Benton and his wife Jennie returned in "Gemini," in which Benton committed a string of serial killings attributed to Ray (Benton died at the end of the episode). Ray's boss at the time, who claimed to have "created" him, is known only as "The Man" and was played by Robert Vaughn (see "Abnormal Psych"- - he is out to eliminate Ray and lots of zine stories revolve around this effort).

Stingray at some point dropped out of government service and buried his past. He cruises the country doing favors — he does the favor for someone in trouble and that someone must at some point do a return favor, no questions asked, when Ray calls on them.... The favor can be anything from anyone, including the Lieutenant Governor of California, who bailed Ray out of jail ("Cry Wolf"), an assistant d.a. in Los Angeles, who got him committed to an insane asylum ("Orange Blossom"), and a Los Angeles police captain who provides Ray with information and backup ("Abnormal Psych"). The last two were the only favors we saw repeated during the series.

Ray is a chameleon — he's been a Greek chemist ("The Greeter"), a psycho ("Orange Blossom"), an evangelist ("That Terrible Swift Sword"), both a college student ("Abnormal Psych") and teacher ("The Neniwa"). He can do just about anything or fake it (sometimes favor repayment can be to teach Ray a skill or or help him fake it.

Fanzines

Nonfiction

• Stingray: Man of Mystery

Gen

• ....Small Favors
• More Small Favors
• Another Small Favor
• Small Favors Repaid
• Last-Minute Favors
• Small Favors Owed...

Gen Multimedia

• Cops and Robbers and Spies...Oh, My!
• The Karenina Continuity Chronicles
• Prime Time
• Rerun
• Scorpion Files
• Syndicated Images

Fan Comments

1998

Ex-CIA? Ex-military intelligence? Ex-cop? Former assassin? Who is this guy. Stingray, anyway?

In a 1986 interview in "Corvette News," actor Nick Mancuso said, "You've got to watch the show and figure it out for yourself. I know who he is, but I'm not telling."

Unfortunately, the show isn't around anymore for us to watch, so the question remains unanswered. Yet in two abbreviated "seasons" of moving from timeslot to timeslot, the man in the black '65 Corvette Stingray managed to capture the imaginations of millions of viewers who were determined enough to find him on the schedule. And now "Stingray" lives on in fan fiction.

"Stingray" was the creation of Stephen Cannell Productions, the company responsible for some of the best and most successful programs in the last fifteen years, including "Greatest American Hero," "A-Team," "Tenspeed and Brownshoe," "Rockford Files," "Hardcastle & McCormick," "J.J. Starbuck," "Hunter," and the more recent "Wiseguy" and "Sonny Spoon."

"Stingray" was a noble experiment, in that the show used a visual narrative style that demanded the viewer's complete and undivided attention. If you didn't watch every second, you didn't know what was going on. The result was what some critics called "confusing" and "more style than substance." We think that it is a credit to the creators and producers that "Stingray" never insulted the intelligence of its viewers by showing, and then explaining, everything that happened in the story. The show always left you with some unanswered questions.