Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries

Follow the clues to mystery and excitement

This TV series which aired for three seasons on ABC, and starred Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy as amateur sleuth brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, respectively, and Pamela Sue Martin (later Janet Louise Johnson) as girl detective Nancy Drew.

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was unusual in that it often dealt with the characters individually, in an almost anthological style. That is, some episodes featured only the Hardy Boys and others only Nancy Drew.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were both successful book publishing franchises. Nancy Drew is the amateur sleuth - she prefers the term "part time investigator" - daughter of attorney Carson Drew. She lives with her father in the fictional River Heights which, by the nature of the cross-over element of the series, cannot be too distant from the Hardy Boys east coast United States home town of Bayport.

In addition to Nancy Drew and her father, Carson (William Schallert), her stories feature two other characters with some regularity: her close friend George (Georgina) Fayne (Jean Rasey and, later for two episodes, Susan Buckner) and Ned Nickerson (George O Hanlon Jr.) Another prominent character from the Nancy Drew books, Bess Marvin (Ruth Cox), made only two appearances.

In the novels on which the series was based, Nickerson is explicitly identified as Nancy's boyfriend; in the television series, their romance is more ambiguous. In the first series, Nickerson is a law student who does part-time work for Carson Drew.

In the second series, Nickerson is re-introduced - with no reference to his earlier appearances, and in a scene in which he is apparently introduced to Nancy Drew for the first time - as a young hotshot lawyer from the city District Attorney's office. In this second appearance he is played by Rick Springfield.

The Hardy Boys are brother amateur detectives. Frank Hardy is the elder of the two and has dark hair. Joe Hardy is the younger, has blond hair, and blue eyes. The two boys live in the fictional city of Bayport (on Barmet Bay) with their famous father, Fenton Hardy (Ed Gilbert), a private detective formerly with the New York Police Department.

In addition to the Hardy Boys, their stories feature two other characters with some regularity: Aunt Gertrude (Edith Atwater) and a platonic female friend of the boys, Callie Shaw (Lisa Eilbacher), who also does part-time work for their father, Fenton. Other characters which played a major part of the Hardy Boys books, such as Chet Morton (Gary Springer), appeared only briefly in the series.

The series was produced by Glen A Larson The original music was composed by Stu Phillips. The series was produced by Universal Studios and the series used many of the Universal backlot's locations as filming sites.

They include the two-part episode The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom, which is set on the studio lot, and numerous episodes which were filmed on parts of Colonial Street the backlot street which was later used in the Tom Hanks film The Burbs and is used as Wisteria Lane in the hit TV series Desperate Housewives.