Vintage '80s television...

shows, when viewed with the critical eye of one who has witnessed the evolution of special effects over the past two decades, are really pretty cheesy.  Even when they are written and produced by the late, great Stephen Cannell.  Did you ever watch Stingray?  It's the show with the guy who helps people and the only payment he asks for is a favor - which can be anything at all - to be redeemed at a later date when he is helping someone else in trouble.  Sort of like Robert McCall in The Equalizer, only as I recall, people did pay Mr. McCall for his services - or how would he have paid Mickey?  Both series came out in 1985 and I've always found it odd that both shows had virtually the same premise: a mysterious guy with no discernible means of support who goes around helping people who have somehow gotten themselves into some serious trouble - usually through no fault of their own.  Maybe that sort of stuff happens in New York - where Mr. McCall and his classified ads could be found - and in Los Angeles, where Ray seemed to hang out in any number of bars just waiting for potential clients to buy him a drink and pour out their tale of woe.  I happened upon the DVDs of the entire two seasons of Stingray at WalMart a while back for a mere ten bucks.  How could any lover of eighties television pass up that kind of bargain?  I am sorry to say that I didn't even make it through the first half of the pilot episode before I was bored and wondering why I ever sat in front of the television wasting an hour the first time I saw it.  Maybe because that was the eighties and my twenty-something self still thought I had all the time in the world.  I don't know - but unless the second half of the pilot improves drastically the next time I feel like planting myself in front of the TV, the disc is going back into the case and into the drawer.

Or in the Goodwill box...