Stingray

Stingray is a series created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell and aired on NBC from July 14, 1985 to May 8, 1987 (excluding the pilot episode) with 23 episodes.

The first season of eight episodes in 1986 was filmed in Southern California; however, due to lead actor Nick Mancuso's suggestion and the favorable exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars, the second season was decided to be filmed in Toronto.

Due to too many productions filming in Toronto at that time, suitable crew could not be found, so the first seven episodes of the second season were filmed in Calgary and the remaining eight episodes were filmed in Vancouver.

The series music was created by composers Mike Post, Pete Carpenter, and Walter Murphy, who had worked with Cannell for a long time; additionally, music video-style episodes containing original 'pop songs' specially written for the screenplay were added.

These special songs were written by Stephen Geyer and Mike Post and were performed by generally lesser-known pop and rock artists such as José Feliciano, Richie Havens, Taj Mahal, Timothy B. Schmit, and Jennifer Warnes.

As a unique feature of the series, photographs of the production crew working on that episode were shown in the opening credits.

The series won a Primetime Emmy Award in the 'Outstanding Graphic and Title Design' category in 1986 and received a nomination in the 'Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series' category for the 'Gemini' episode in 1987.

The 1998 series Vengeance Unlimited, starring Michael Madsen, was also influenced by Stingray in that it featured a mysterious character who does not charge money to help people but asks for favors in the future.