The Stingray: Lethal Tactics of the Sole Survivor : The Inside Story of How the Castaways Were Controlled on the Island and Beyond

by Peter Lance

Provides a day-by-day narrative of the summer televison series, analyzes Richard Hatch's Machiavellian tactics to survive, and indicates the CBS network's manipulation of the series and its contestants.

Genres: Nonfiction

278 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Peter Lance is a five-time Emmy-winning investigative reporter now working as a screenwriter and novelist. With a Masters Degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, Lance spent the first 15 years of his career as a print reporter and network correspondent.

He began his career as a reporter for his hometown paper, The Newport, R.I. Daily News. There, while a student at Northeastern University in Boston, he won the coveted Sevellon Brown Award from the A.P. Managing Editors Association. Lance next moved to WNET, the PBS flagship in New York, where he won his first New York area Emmy and the Ohio State Award as a producer- reporter for Channel 13′s news magazine THE 51ST STATE.

Later, while working as a writer and producer for WABC-TV Lance won his second Emmy along with the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism prize for WILLOWBROOK: THE PEOPLE VS. THE STATE OF NEW YORK, an exposé on a notorious institution for the mentally retarded. He also was awarded The National Community Service Emmy for that same documentary.

While getting his law degree, Lance worked as a Trial Preparation Assistant in the office of the District Attorney for New York County. Moving to ABC News as a field producer, Lance won his fourth Emmy for his investigation of an arson-for-profit ring in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago: “Arson and Profit.”

In 1981 Lance became Investigative Correspondent for ABC News. For his very first investigative piece on 20/20 Lance won his fifth Emmy for “Unnecessary Surgery,” an exposé of unnecessary surgery in an Arkansas hospital. He won two more Emmy nominations in 1982 for 20/20 investigative pieces on Formaldehyde “The Danger Within” and toxic waste: “Deadly Chemicals, Deadly Oil;” a piece that also won the National Headliner Award.

Over the next five years he covered hundreds of stories worldwide for ABC NEWS 20/20, NIGHTLINE, and WORLD NEWS TONIGHT.

He was a member of the first American crew into Indochina after the end of the Vietnam War. He chased rebel insurgents through the Plaine Des Jarres in Laos and members of the Gambino Family through the toxic wastelands of New Jersey. He tracked knife-happy surgeons in the Deep South and nuclear terrorists through the twisted streets of Antwerp. Then, in 1987, he took a break from non-fiction.

Lance came to L.A. and began working as a writer and story editor for Michael Mann on two of his acclaimed NBC series: CRIME STORY and MIAMI VICE.
In 1989 Lance became the co-executive producer and “show runner” on the fourth season of WISEGUY for CBS and in 1993 he co-created MISSING PERSONS, for ABC. In recent years, he has served as a writer and consulting producer on such series as JAG (NBC) and THE SENTINEL (UPN).

In 1997 Lance’s first novel FIRST DEGREE BURN became a national best seller, ranking No. 24 on The Ingram A-List The Top 50 Requested Titles in Mystery- Detective Fiction. The film-noir mystery features FDNY Fire Marshal Eddie Burke.

Following the 9/11 attacks Lance began investigating the origins of the FBI’s original probe of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. He authored 4 books on counter terrorism and org. crime for HarperCollins between 2003-2013.

In 2020 his investigation of the murder of Eduardo Tirella killed in 1966 by Doris Duke was the lead piece in Vanity Fair's July/Aug. issue. During sequestration Lance expanded into a 438 page book HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT published in 3 editions on 2.23.21 with the Audible edition which he narrated published on 3.10.21

Email: pl@peterlance.com

Reviews

[ambimb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently rewatched the first season of "Survivor" with my kids and I was struck by how different it seemed to me today than it did in 2000 when I watched the first time. I remember loathing Richard Hatch when I first watched the show, but this time my thought was: He played a great game, wasn't really mean or evil, didn't even lie that much, and deserved to win. I didn't really understand what had changed in the last 24 years to make my reaction so different — was it me, the world we live in, or was it just that, compared to the villains in later seasons, Hatch just wasn't that bad?

So I went in search of accounts of why we all hated Hatch so much back then. It's amazing how much of the internet from 2000 has disappeared — complete websites are just gone. Some of it is still available on the Internet Archive, but not all of it and even what's there is hard to sift through to find what you're looking for. So I found this book in my local library and it was pretty helpful in taking me back to that time and what people were thinking.

Hatch’s “treachery offended the American sense of fairness,” Lance writes (p.91). "In deciding that the only way to win was by eliminating the best tand the brightest, he was behaving like every hateful bad guy in every movie we’d ever watched. . . . The TV analogy was J.R. Ewing in Dallas: a figure of ruthless villainy.”

Lance later quotes an online poster who is baffled by people who can’t understand why people hated Richard: “Why everyone hates Richard? How can you even ask that question? Did you root for Darth Vader? Did you pray that Indiana Jones would get burned by the Nazis? That Jaws would eat the little kids on the boat?” (p.116)

So, yeah, that's what people thought in 2000, and I was pretty much right there. That still doesn't really answer the question about why it hits so differently now, but it's almost certainly a combination of things. It's definitely true that later Survivor contestants got way more evil and manipulative than Hatch. It's also seems true that our society has gotten more coarse, violent, and basically less civilized, in many ways, than it was then. I still don't have a good explanation for it beyond that, but it was an interesting little diversion, nonetheless.

[andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had quite a bit of good behind the scenes info on filming and production of the very 1st season of Survivor. Told mainly through the perspective of Hatch, whom the author originally had a book deal with, it ends up with a pretty snarky critique of Richard. The problem is, as a reader, I am unsure if thats because its true or because the book deal ended up falling thru due to what the author claims is shady behavior by Hatch. This book definitely paints him as a villain, not only on the show, but in reality as well.
One...as the many future seasons of Survivor prove, Hatch can barely be considered evil/villainous or even accused of unethical gameplay, compared to future winners. (who btw are PRAISED for their ingenious plays...that are all based on moves of Richard, who was the first and arguably ONLY Survivor to first grasp was what was necessary to win).
Two...alot of what he focuses on in Richard's real life is based on alot of hearsay and biased opinion that is formed from the fallout of their unsuccessful book deal. Yes, I know that years later Hatch would deal with tax evasion issues and yes there's plenty of evidence out there that he isn't a heroic person IRL. But the fact that Lance did indeed have a personal negative experience with Hatch has to be taken into consideration when reading the psychological analysis and character deduction that Lance gives.
However, when read as backstage gossip and info of the show as a whole, rather than as a definitive biography of its first winner, one can enjoy this bood and think it a fun read.