I have been watching The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries from the 1970s on YouTube recently. (It is also streaming on Peacock but I have the cheap version of Peacock and hate the commercials). This goes along with my renewed interest in the original Nancy Drew Mysteries books.

The show was, of course, based on the serial mystery books of the same name.

My husband and I watched one of these episodes on Peacock a few months ago and we giggled through most of it. When it was suggested to me on YouTube one day I decided to watch it for a laugh, and there is definitely laughable material, but then I became addicted and have been working my way through each episode.

For the first two seasons, the series is split into one episode focusing on The Hardy Boys and the next one focused on The Nancy Drew Mysteries. In the third season it was only called The Hardy Boys after the Nancy Drew character was dropped. By then, Pamela Sue Martin (who my husband had a bit of a crush on) had left the show because they had reduced the role of Nancy Drew. She was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson.

The show was canceled halfway through season three.

I was disappointed when I read that they phased Nancy out of the series, but I suppose it was typical at the time to have shows that focused on male heartthrobs instead of female ones. I am glad to know the show totally failed and was canceled with just the men on it, though. *wink*

The young adult detectives didn’t solve mysteries together until the second season when they traveled to Transylvania to rescue Frank and Joe Hardy’s Dad Fenton Hardy.

(An aside here – what was the issue with books back then killing off the mothers? Both Frank and Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew didn’t have mothers, but instead had housekeepers who were like mothers to them. I think the creator of both Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys – Ed Stratemyer – had some mother issues.)

In the first season, Nancy does most of her sleuthing with her friends Ned Nickerson and George Fayne but in the joint episode, her friend Bess Martin joins her. I’ll write about that episode in the future, but for now, I’ll share about one of the first episodes I watched called The Mystery of Pirates Cove. It was definitely cringy but mainly because there was a professor who was probably in his 40s hitting on Nancy, who I think was supposed to be in her late teens or early 20s.

When that man said he was going to be heading back to the lighthouse later that night and he hoped he wouldn’t be alone – and then gave Nancy a “If you know what I mean, darling,” look – I literally shuddered. It was just gross.

When we go back to the house, Nancy’s dad, Carson Drew, keeps in character with who he is in the books because he is completely unbothered by his daughter being hit on by a man his own age. This is proven by how he shrugs Nancy’s friend Ned off with a, “Of course she can go spend the night with that man in his lighthouse in the middle of nowhere to see if they can record ghost activity.”

Ned is like, (in so many words) “I don’t think you get it, sir. That man doesn’t just want to capture ghosts. He’s got a thing for Nancy.”

Carson, played by William Schallert — a character actor who later portrayed every bad guy imaginable on various crime shows — laughs Ned off and the scene ends with him lighting his pipe, taking a puff and saying, “She’s going to have fun. Yes, she is.”

I’m sorry, but what in the ever-living-male-dominated-television-industry-of-the-1970s was that?

So very awkward.

The mystery was seriously contrived and see-through, of course, but something about the show keeps me watching. I can’t look away – the same way I can’t look away from a car accident when I drive by.

Nancy’s sidekick for the show is George and the actress who plays her (Jean Rasey) makes the most hilarious faces. She’s always looking disturbed or frightened and, to me, seems to be the voice of reason, urging Nancy to be careful or slow down or suggesting they leave a situation instead of getting deeper in.

For her part, Nancy seems slightly arrogant in this series, always rolling her eyes or brushing George off. She always seems to know best or more and wants George to know it. I suppose the idea is to show that Nancy is bold and determined to solve the case, no matter what, but sometimes I just find her dismissive. She dismisses everyone, though – from family to friends and especially to poor Ned Nickerson, who was her boyfriend in the books.

There were a lot of now big name actors on the show back in the day, I’ve noticed, including Marc Harmon and Melanie Griffith.

While researching for this post, I found an interview with Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson from last year when the show turned 46.

According to the article in Entertainment Weekly, “Stevenson went on to appear in a series of TV hits including Falcon Crest, Baywatch, Melrose Place, and most recently, Netflix’s Greenhouse Academy. Cassidy, meanwhile, has built a successful career as a TV writer and producer, creating several series (including American Gothic and Invasion) and serving as an executive producer on NBC’s hit medical drama New Amsterdam.”

Back in the day, though, Cassidy was a pop singer and his song Do-Ron-Ron-Ron debut on the show, where he frequently performed to help along the plot. It’s an absolutely pointless song, by the way. I saw the episode with it and was completely bewildered by how it became popular.

Here are the lyrics, in case you’d like to memorize them:

I met her on a Monday and my heart stood still
Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron
Someboy told me that her name was Jill
Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron

Yes, my heart stood still
Yes, her name was Jill
And when I walked her home
da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron

I knew what she was thinkin’ when she caught my eye
Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron
I looked so quiet but my oh my
Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron

Yes, she caught my eye
Yes, but my oh my
And when I walked her home
da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron

Well, I picked her up at seven and she looked so fine
Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron
Someday soon I’m gonna make her mine
Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron

Yes, she looked so fine
Yes, I’ll make her mine
And when I walked her home
da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron
Yeah, yeah, yeah
da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron
(repeat & fade)

(It was originally sung by a band called The Crystals and it was a woman talking about a man.)

And here is Shaun singing it on the show:

After leaving the show, Pamela Sue Martin, portrayed Fallon Carrington Colby on Dynasty from 1981 to 1984. She chose to leave Dynasty and her role was later recast. After that she did sporadic television appearances.

Did you ever watch the show – either back when it was on, if you’re old enough (for the record, I am not) or in reruns?

I have thoughts on some other episodes of the series that I’ll share in later posts.