A few months ago, I wrote about the first Nancy Drew-centered episode of the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries show from the 1970s — The Mystery of Pirate’s Cove.

The show featured 46 episodes from 1977 to 1979 on ABC.

For those who aren’t familiar with the source material for this show, it was based on The Hardy Boys books by Franklin W.  Dixon and the Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene. Both series were ghostwritten by a number of different authors and created by Edward Stratemeyer in the 1930s.

For the first season of the show, the episodes switched back and forth each week with one week featuring The Hardy Boys and the next week featuring Nancy Drew. During the next season they began combining the two so that The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were in the same episode. This had to do with falling ratings – especially when it came to the Nancy Drew episodes. Somewhere in there the original actress —  Pamela Sue Martin — also left and was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson.

Overall, this series is a bit cheesy and cringy, but I do have to say I don’t think they did too bad for the first episode. I mean – it isn’t award winning and the special effects are bizarre, but it is an interesting plot and the acting isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen.

The show starts with the brothers — Jo and Frank Hardy — in town and spotting their father walking out of a hotel. We aren’t told if the brothers were just driving by or why they are outside the hotel when their dad walks out but through conversation between them, we learn that their dad said he was going fishing. They can’t figure out why he would lie to them.

They plan to ask him but then a car pulls out behind their dad’s car. This makes them realize that their dad is being followed so they rev up their trusty little motorcycles (helmets firmly in place first, of course) and decide they are going to follow whoever is following their dad and find out what is going on.

We are then at a cemetery and the boys’ dad is shining a flashlight on a tombstone with the name Will Bronson engraved on it. Bronson has a death date of the year 1974.

The boys don’t see this part with the tombstone, but we the viewers do. What the boys see is that their dad Fenton Hardy, is being followed.

They go back to their dad’s office the next morning and ask their dad’s secretary what she knows. She says she booked a hotel for their dad for  his fishing trip. They, however, find out their dad checked out that day. The secretary shrugs and assures them their dad will be home later in the day then and he will fill them in.

The problem is that Fenton has been cornered and essentially kidnapped by two men. These same men want to know who hired him on his latest case but won’t tell him who they are. We still don’t know who they are when they break into Fenton’s home late that night looking for his client’s name.

They are also very loud for two men who are trying to secretly break into a home, but let’s not quibble with such minor ridiculousness. It’s just TV and there are many more ridiculous moments to come.

Eventually we learn that Fenton’s client was a government agent suspected of stealing government secrets and selling them to a foreign entity. It’s not as cut and dry as it seems because he may have also suffered some sort of amnesia and he’s wandering around the countryside, trying to get away or hide or something or other.

This mystery will have the boys looking for clues in some pretty strange places, including a “haunted” mansion that isn’t what it seems.

As always when I watch an episode with the actors who play The Hardy Boys — Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy – I am fascinated by their fluffy hair. It’s so luscious and soft looking. Ah, the ‘70s, a time when both men and women had impeccable hair.

Anyhow, I digress… during this episode poor Aunt Gertrude, Fenton’s sister (I believe), is beside herself with worry. No one will tell her what is going on and she must be the go between the boys and their dad as they both chase each other all over the place. She keeps asking all three “boys” to be careful and they just scoff and say things like, “Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Aunt Gert,” like she’s the most annoying thing ever. They might as well say, “Whatever you crazy old bat.”

I just think these “boys” should be grateful they have someone to look after them and who cares enough to be worried.

What was with all these books killing off the mothers and having live in housekeepers or aunts anyhow? Nancy Drew’s mom was also dead, and she and her dad had a live in housekeeper named Hannah. Yes, I know I mentioned this in my last post about the show. Yes, I will probably mention it again because I am becoming an lady who forgets what I already wrote about and tells the same stories over and over again.

Also, Fenton’s secretary is about the boy’s age and seems to be a minor character but at the end of the episode, we get the idea she and Frank are dating when she gives Frank a kiss on the cheek. For whatever that tidbit is worth.

I won’t go into too much detail about the episode’s plot because I know so many of you are just dying to go look this series up and binge watch it, *wink* but I will say that you should brace yourself for the creepy scenes in the haunted house and the scary “monsters.”

Someone put the whole series up for free on YouTube and you can find the playlist here:

In my next post on this topic (not necessarily my next post on the blog), I will be writing about The Mystery of The Diamond Triangle, which was an episode that featured Nancy Drew.

Do you remember this old series or have you heard of it at least? It was not something I ever heard of before last year and now I’m a bit hooked.