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THE SMALL SCREEN: Never having encountered either The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew in my youthful mystery browsing, I have nothing with which to compare the present video hours bearing their respective names. On that basis, I must say that if the books were conceived with the same quality, I missed something.
For the shows are good, or at least maintain a respectable average. They alternate on Sunday evenings, thrown into the breach by ABC when the Bill Cosby variety hour failed to hold up, and the competing Disney program on another network proved too strong. From such an unpromising beginning, with no inkling given as to what might transpire, the results have been surprisingly pleasing.
Actually, there have been filmic precedents for the both Drew girl and the Hardys, The Disney factory presented a bunch of Hardy episodes as part of the Mickey Mouse Club decades ago, unrepentantly missed by this viewer. Harkening even farther back in time, Warners filmed a series of four low-budget features based on the Nancy Drew character in 1938-39, and they were delights, But as theatrical features, they remain a part of another era, far removed from TV scheduling except as part of some dim Late Show. However, the quality matters little for the purposes at hand-yarns about youthful sleuths are surefire for young audiences, particularly the preand earlyteenage groups, It's an extra treat then, when the entries turn out to be not only suitably entertaining for their own audiences but for grownups as well-there are any number of shows produced with less finesse, and far more juvenile even though palmed off as adult fare.
This is not to overpraise the series, After all, their scope is limited, the goals moderate, But within their framework, it’s a workmanlike job in every respect, Though two separate sets of characters, presumably one for the lads and the other for the distaff side, the plots could probably be interchanged, and no doubt will should the series go on to a lengthy run, The Hardy Boys, well played by Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy, have an understanding father, nicely etched by Edmund Gilbert, and a girl aide, the trim Lisa Eilbacher. Nancy Drew, played by a slightly mature Pamela Sue Martin, also has an understanding dad, the alwayscompetent William Schallert, and two young aides, The plots are similarly devised, both leaning heavily upon the “impossible” gimmicks such as disappearing rooms, alleged ghosts and other spooky contrivances, all explained logically by solution time.
There has been no stinting on the production values, Sets are sturdy, the technical end excellent, and some rather prestigious names continually appear in the credits, including writers like Robert Pirosh (Battleground) and directors like Noel Black (Pretty Poison), There‘s a small army of producers receiving credit, but the man who seems worthy of deepest bows is Glen Larson, formerly of the McCloud series, He guides the whole shebang and even composed the catchy theme music,