Ray
Created by Stephen J. Cannell

RAY, as played by Nick Mancuso in television's Stingray, was an ex-Intelligence operative and enigmatic loner who helped people with their problems when they contacted him through a newspaper ad:

His fee was simply "a favor", which could be any thing, any time, and would be asked in order to help Ray help someone else (a gimmick, incidentally, that resurfaced years later on Vengeance Unlimited) Presumably, Ray got his name from his car, a classic black 1965 Corvette Stingray. Come to think of it, Ray tended to favor black in his wardrobe as well.

The short-lived series had 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 beyond 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 was highly skilled in martial arts and weapons use, and was computer savvy at a time well before the proliferation of PCs in Society.

Mancuso made a slick action/adventure hero and the plots were on the whole,gripping -- if at times far-fetched. The show ran for 25 episodes, and to the best of my knowledge, would have continued had Mancuso not become a "problem" for the production company -- supposedly because he couldn't hack the pressure of a weekly series. Too bad.

TELEVISION

• STINGRAY
  (1985, NBC)
  2-hour pilot
  Original airdate: July 14, 1985
  Written by Stephen J. Cannell
  Directed by Richard Colla
  Starring Nick Mancuso as RAY
  Also starring Robyn Douglass, Gregory Sierra, John Aprea, Susan Blakely, Michael Fairman, Joe Penternia, Joey Pento, Lee Richardson, Dick Stewart, Wendell Wright
  .
• STINGRAY
  (1986-87, NBC)
  Writers: Stephen J. Cannell, Herb Wright, Lawrence Hertzog, Tom Lazerus, Harold Apter, Carol Mendelsohn, Frank Lupo, Stephen L. Sears, Bert Perl, Randall Wallace, Tom Blomquist, Evan Lawrence, Judy Burns
  Directors: Charles Picerni, David Hemmings, Larry Shaw, Kim Manners, Michael Preece, Rob Stanton Bowman, Gary Winter, Don Chaffey, Les Sheldon, Larry Shaw, James Darren, Don Chaffey, Lyndon Chubbuck, Chuck Bowman, Larry Shaw
  Starring Nick Mancuso as RAY
  Guest stars: Rachel Ticotin, James Wainwright, Kathleen Lloyd, Tom Atkins, Robert Vaughn, Scott Paulin, James Handy, Robyn Douglass, John Walsh, Barbara Williams, David Hemmings, Marcia Strassman, Eugene Roche, Samantha Eggar, Bibi Osterwald, Jeff Conaway, Felton Perry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Blue Mankuma
  

• 1st season
• "Ancient Eyes" (March 11, 1986; AKA "Sea Grass")
• "Ether"(March 25, 1986)
• "Below the Line" (April 1, 1986)
• "Sometimes You Gotta Sing the Blues" (April 8, 1986)
• "Abnormal Psyche" (April 15, 1986)
• "Orange Blossom" (April 29, 1986)
• "Less Than the Eye Can See" (May 6, 1986)
• "That Terrible Swift Sword" (May 13, 1986)
  .
• 2nd season
• "The Greeter" (January 9, 1987)
• "Gemini" (January 16, 1987)
• "Playback" (January 23, 1987)
• "Bring Me the Hand That Hit Me" (January 30, 1987)
• "Echoes" (February 6, 1987)
• "The First Time is Forever" (February 20, 1987)
• "Autumn" (February 27, 1987)
• "The Neniwa" (March 6, 1987)
• "The Second Finest Man Who Ever Lived" (March 20, 1987)
• "Night Maneuvers" (March 27, 1987)
• "Cry Wolf" (April 3, 1987)
• "Blood Money" (April 10, 1987)
• "Anytime, Anywhere" (April 17, 1987)
• "Caper" (May 1, 1987)
• "One Way Ticket to the End of the Line"(May 8, 1987)

RELATED LINKS

• Get Yer Motor Runnin'...
  Some hot and not-so-hot wheels of some hot eyes.

Respectfully submitted by Mike Harris, with some additional info supplied by Kevin Burton Smith.