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 Post subject: The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.
PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:01 pm 
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Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:54 am
Posts: 34
Does anyone remember the American TV series The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries? BBC1 screened it in the late 70s. Based on the popular series of adventure/mystery novels for 'younger readers' that have been published in the U.S. since the 1930s, it starred Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson as amateur sleuths Joe and Frank Hardy, and Pamela Sue Martin as their equally inquisitive cousin Nancy Drew.

The show boasted a memorable title sequence: Nancy and the Hardy brothers were seen running through darkness, seemingly lost and looking apprehensive, accompanied by an eerie theme tune. The camera eventually pulled back to reveal that they were trapped in a huge maze on an otherwise barren landscape.

The show was actually two separate series in one: an episode featuring the Hardys would alternate each week with an episode starring Nancy. The brothers and their cousin met for the first time in a two-parter set in Transylvania, where (of course) they confronted Dracula.

However, apart from such occasional stories where the young detectives actually did encounter the supernatural, most of the time the series resembled a live-action version of Scooby Doo. In the majority of episodes the Hardys or Nancy would investigate a mystery that apparently involves ghosts, black magic, ancient curses, or UFOs, but they eventually discover that conventional criminals are to blame.

As far as I'm aware the BBC only screened the first season of the show, which is probably just as well, considering what happened next. Having decided it was teen heart-throbs Stevenson and (especially) Cassidy who were the big selling point of the show, the network decided in the second season to scrap the separate stories featuring Nancy and instead make her the Hardys' sidekick.
Miffed at being downgraded from being the star of her own show to a supporting cast member in someone else's, Pamela Sue Martin quit. The part of Nancy was recast, with Janet Louise Johnson getting the role.

Sure enough, in the second season Nancy was reduced to being the Hardys' bag-carrier, with a sideline of getting into dangerous situations and having to be rescued by the brothers. And by the third & final season Nancy had been written out altogether, and the show was retitled The Hardy Boys Mysteries.

Subsequently: Pamela Sue Martin starred as Fallon in mega-soap Dynasty, Cassidy has turned producer and given us American Gothic and Invasion, while Stevenson appeared in another genre show, Probe, before modelling red trunks on Baywatch.

There was another attempt at a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew series in the mid-Nineties. Apparently produced in Canada, this hour-long series consisted of separate half-hour segments featuring the Hardys and Nancy. Paul Popowich played Joe Hardy, Colin Gray was brother Frank, and Tracy Ryan starred as Nancy. Nope, I've not heard of any of them either.
I've not been able to find out much about the 90s series, but one source claims it lasted 13 episodes.


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:51 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:00 pm
Posts: 2870
Location: Liverpool, UK
I remember it. I used to enjoy it. In the summer holidays I think.


Bah bah black sheap April diamond spheres, Rigsby, Rigsby, Eight sided Pears.


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:44 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:31 pm
Posts: 3365
Location: N.Humberside.UK
uber Fenris
wrote:
a live-action version of Scooby Doo.

:lol: =D> A good description of the show.
My brother used to watch them but I couldn't stand them :a009:


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DldFBFJgWmw&feature=player_embedded


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