Aired: 1977-79
DAD: Fenton Hardy (Edmund Gilbert) / widower
DAD’S JOB: Private Investigator
KIDS: Joe Hardy (Shaun Cassidy), Frank Hardy (Parker Stevenson) (teens)
WHERE’S MOM?: Dead for some time
STAND-IN “MOM”: Aunt Gertrude (Edith Atwater) / Aunt
Just as Xena has Hercules, so Nancy Drew had The Hardy Boys. Like Nancy Drew, the boys had a father deeply involved in police work. The boys seemed to have little to no supervision, though, as they always seemed to be jetting off to Peru or Paris or Timbuktu to solve a case.
Apparently these two shows didn’t support enough of an audience by themselves, so the shows were blended into one big show at the end of 1978 as The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.