The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (re-titled The Hardy Boys for season three) is an American television mystery series based on the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew juvenile novels. The series, which ran from January 30, 1977, to January 14, 1979, was produced by Glen A. Larson from Universal Television for ABC. Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy starred as amateur detective brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, respectively, while Pamela Sue Martin (later Janet Louise Johnson) starred as amateur sleuth Nancy Drew.
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was unusual in that it often dealt with the characters individually; the series alternated between episodes that featured the Hardys and episodes featuring Drew in its first season. As the series progressed, the two storylines crossed over, and the Nancy Drew character was drastically reduced, and then dropped, in favor of the Hardys.
Synopsis
Episodes
Episode #12, "The Mystery of the Ghostwriter's Cruise", is noteworthy because it contains a sequence in which a tsunami appears to approach a cruise ship, a deliberate homage to the 1972 disaster film, The Poseidon Adventure, in which Martin had also starred.
Season one (1977) The titular "Hardy Boys", Frank and Joe, are brothers and amateur detectives from the fictional city of Bayport, Massachusetts. The boys live with their famous father, Fenton Hardy, a private detective who spent two decades with the New York Police Department, and his sister, the boys' spinster aunt Gertrude. The boys are frequently assisted by their friend, Callie Shaw, who does part-time work for their father.
Nancy Drew is an amateur sleuth — although she prefers the term "part time investigator" — and daughter of defense attorney Carson Drew. The two live in the fictional town of River Heights, New Jersey. Nancy solves mysteries with her best friend, George Fayne, and her father's paralegal, Ned Nickerson, with whom she shares an ambiguous romantic connection.
The Hardy boys' friend Chet Morton only had a brief role in the series. The Callie Shaw character was changed drastically from the books, where she is Frank's girlfriend. For Nancy Drew, the Ned Nickerson character was also changed; in the books, he was Nancy's boyfriend, who attended college, and was the football quarterback.
Season two (1977–78) With the second season came some serious story and character changes. For the Hardy Boys episodes, all supporting characters except for Fenton Hardy were dropped, and unmentioned. For the Nancy Drew episodes, Ned Nickerson was erased at first, but then later came back for one episode as the Assistant District attorney from Boston. Played by a different actor, Ned was re-introduced to Nancy Drew as if they had not previously known each other. Bess Marvin is also introduced, but was only featured in the two-part season premiere and in a cameo in the first part of the second crossover.
In the first episode, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew meet in a European hotel room, and are at first at odds — Frank and Joe are tracking their missing father, who was working with Nancy at the time. The series then featured episodes which see the two teams work successfully together. Nancy and Frank are also constantly at odds with each other; they often bicker in many of the earlier crossover episodes. Although the relationship is mostly professional and platonic, Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy kiss in one episode; this is the furthest the romance goes.
While the first season had an even split of Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys episodes, in the first 13 second-season episodes, The Hardy Boys were the leads in six episodes, while Nancy was the lead in just three. Four other episodes featured all three characters, but The Hardy Boys were given more screen time in these 'crossover' episodes. Accordingly, midway through the season, Pamela Sue Martin departed the series over concerns regarding her reduced role. She was recast with Janet Louise Johnson.
For the nine remaining episodes produced for season 2, The Hardy Boys were featured in all of them. Four episodes also featured Johnson's Nancy Drew as a supporting character.
Season three (1978–79) Following the ending of the second season, the Nancy Drew character was dropped, and the series was re-titled The Hardy Boys.
Joe Hardy was engaged in the first episode, but his fiancée was killed in a hit-and-run, investigated by the FBI. After solving the case, Frank and Joe become government agents at the Justice Department. Their boss, Harry Hammond, became a regular cast member.
Midway through the season, the series was canceled by ABC.