Stingray

For a few years in the late '80s, when I was just starting high school, "Stingray" was a regular fixture of my Friday nights. I used to stay home to tape it and "Crime Story" every week, so I got to see many episodes, and I think they still exist on ancient videocassettes somewhere in my brother's house. What can I say? This was easily one of the most stylish of the prime time dramas of the day, kind of Film Noir meets MTV, complete with quasi-music-video segments (all Post/Carpenter compositions, of course), disorientating quick-cuts in time with dramatic bursts of electronic drums, lots of shadows and glistening wet nighttime streets. Very moody and atmospheric at times, especially the episodes directed by David Hemmings (the same one who starred in Blow-Up and other movies). Being a sci-fi geek at the time, probably my favorite episode of all was the implausibly silly but neat-looking "Playback" (the "Desert Dome episode" as I call it, directed by Hemmings and co-starring Eugene Roche). Great series. Bring it back. Not that they ever will. Did I mention the '65 Vette?

"Stingray" was one of my favourite TV shows when I was a teenager. Ray was a cool guy, never taking money for his services, only asking favours. And of course he drove that fabulous Corvette Stingray, which still ranks as one of my favourite cars.

i remember being mesmerized by this show and of course the vintage 1965 Stingray driven by Nick Mancuso. He played his character quite well...he was very handsome, mysterious, yet there was also a vulnerability to him that i found extremely sexy -- not to mention those hypnotic dark eyes and the stealth in the way he carried himself. like i said...sexy...elusive and yet very masculine, with a chameleon-like existence...much like "The Pretender". unlike the other private eye characters, where they are paid for hire, "Ray" only provided favors for those he helped, and when the time came, for the favor to be given back. sounded fair enough for me. it's a shame this series was so short lived. i lived for those Friday nights before "Miami Vice" when "Stingray" came on...with its sexy, yet edgy musical score.

to be quite honest...they could've kept "MV" and continued with "Stingray"...perhaps one day the good folks of TV Land will show the short reruns of it...we can only hope.

One of the things I admired about the show was the quality of the scripts. Not only did the plots vary considerably as to genre (mystery, science fiction, crime drama, psychological drama) but there appeared to be a concerted effort to explore different writing styles and devices.

For example: I recall one episode that was a 'Mission Impossible'-style caper with a unique twist-- the first half of the show was how the caper was SUPPOSED to come off, while the second half was how disastrously wrong it (nearly) turned out. Another show featured a mystery writer who appeared to write what was happening to Ray as it was happening-- that Ray's actions and the plot were under the writer's control, not Ray's.

This was one of my favorite shows. I guess I like stories in which the good guy always makes the "clever" bad guys look like idiots and still make it believable. But then, I'm very easily fooled and was more so when I was 25 and this show was new. Nick Mancuso was convincing and the co-stars were always experienced actors such as Robert Vaughn.