History Series / TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries

** Both of the Hardys in the show are more easily scared and intimidated than their book counterparts, but Joe even moreso, while Book!Joe tends to be a bit quicker to get into a fight than Frank. Furthermore, Joe is usually portrayed as the bigger {{Determinator}} of the two, and Frank is the bigger science geek, while here, those traits are swapped.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: Averted in "Mystery of Witches Hollow", where a trained panther is guarding a missing man (Callie Shaw's uncle) that the Hardys are trying to find. A '''very''' nervous Joe Hardy tries to trap it (the cat decidedly NOT cooperating) by working a broom under its collar, but only succeeds in making it angry and attacking until the uncle distracts it with a piece of meat -- and the uncle warns both Frank and Joe the whole time to keep away and that it's not a house cat. Joe (ie, the actor [[TeenIdol Shaun Cassidy]]) looks far too relieved when he finally succeeds: EnforcedMethodActing, perhaps?

* CreepyDoll: the episode "House on Possessed Hill" has Joe Hardy walking into a room of a cursed house...with a [[UncannyValley creepy-as-hell animated toy doll nodding its head in time to tinkly music box chimes.]]

* {{Adorkable}}: The show ''tried'' to do this to Joe Hardy in 1st season: nerdy argyle sweater, check. Heavily into forensics and fingerprints and likely to start expounding on fingerprints at the drop of a hat, check. Thinks that showing off the brothers' crime lab is a good first date, check. Portrayed as socially-awkward-but-cute younger brother, check. But then the writers realized they were up against [[TeenIdol Shaun Cassidy]] and gave it up as a lost cause.

* TechnoBabble: "Search for Atlantis" has a really painful example, when the Hardys are introduced to university archeologists on a dig to find Atlantis. At one point, the site manager asks Frank and Joe how much they know about archeology. Frank starts off innocently enough with a reference to "Petrie's system of excavation", a reference to William Petrie, who set exacting standards for archeological work in the 1900s, but has no specific system attached to his name. Then Frank goes on to babble about the lack of "pulse induction readings" and "flux gates", with the site manager commenting that the "volcanic activity" in the area has ruled them out. Considering that "pulse induction" is a metal detector and a "flux gate" a magnetometer (used to measure magnetism on objects), nothing volcanic would prevent the use of that equipment. The site manager also babbles about "plate activity" jumbling the readings...which wouldn't stop any decent archeological team, who would know how to read soil & rock levels. About the only thing Frank gets right is a reference to "Fiorelli's technique", used at Pompeii to make molds of corpses under the volcanic rock.

** The episode does have one point in its favor, in an small aversion: Baron Samedi is not mentioned at all, and during a fake Voodoo ceremony, the practitioners summon "Papa Legba" instead. Point taken away, though: [[ArtisticLicenseReligion Papa Legba is the guardian of the crossroads]], and would hardly be the one invoked for the apparent death curse that the villains are trying to lay on the Hardys.

-->'''Bad Guy:''' ''(flashing open wallet)'' '''''The Government.''''' This is Agent Thomas. I'm Agent Stone...

** "Mystery of Witches Hollow" also uses painfully obvious stock footage of a panther charging in a field...to show a panther attacking Callie, who's in heavy forest, at night.

** "Assault on the Tower" had a very cool appearance by Patrick Macnee, recreating his [[Series/TheAvengers John Steed]] role to help Joe rescue his father and brother.

** "The Strange Fate of Flight 608": Frank and Joe, as well as their friend Beverly, are on a sabotaged airplane that ends up crashing into the ocean--though, luckily, thanks to them, they're able to land it safely enough to get everyone off the plane and onto a nearby island safely. Fenton and Beverly's father are nonetheless very stressed out about the crash in the meantime before they learn that their kids are okay.

** "Acapulco Spies": Fenton actually gets this the most despite being the kidnap victim. His captor is an old friend who betrayed him and went bad. Said BigBadFriend then targets Fenton's sons when they come searching for him and gloats about it (such as having his henchman sabotage Joe's hang glider, which Joe only narrowly survives, and then telling Fenton later that one of his sons almost died) while Fenton can't do anything to stop him. The BigBad later kidnaps a GirlOfTheWeek who'd befriended the brothers to use her as leverage. Finally, after the boys rescue their father and the girl, Joe uses himself as bait for TheDragon so the other three can escape, and Fenton is clearly scared for him but is too weakened to do anything more than feebly protest.

** "Sole Survivor" has Fenton being told his son Joe is missing and likely dead in a car wreck, with his body believed to have been washed out to sea.

** "Last Kiss of Summer": after finding out that Joe is attempting a reckless sting on a pair of ruthless thieves who have already killed two people, Fenton tries to order his son to stop, to the point of trumping up charges so the feds will pick Joe up, as Fenton is scared that Joe will be killed, too.

* BadGuysPlayPool: in the "Campus Terror" episode -- how do we know that Wendy [[spoiler: aka "Gwen", who turns out to be a multiple personality,]] is actually a bad girl? She hangs out in pool halls with unwashed biker dudes and women who play pinball.

* BeneathSuspicion: "Campus Terror": Joe Hardy's old flame Wendy calls the brothers in to help solve a series of kidnappings and disappearances taking place in an East Coast women's college, as she's the next targeted victim. She barely escapes an attack as the Hardys rush in moments after the attacker has fled & both the Hardys & the police treat her as just another victim. While suspicion falls on various men around campus (a young man who's stalking one of the female students, a professor with a history of evil experiments, the school's male self-defense teacher), it turns out that [[spoiler: Wendy herself is the kidnapper, suffering from delusional split-personality episodes. Her "other personality" faked the attack to throw the police off and was staging the attacks in an attempt to get Joe back with her.]]
* BermudaTriangle: The episode "The Mysterious Fate of Flight 608" initially appears to play it straight, but then subverts it. The Hardys board a plane that will be flying over the infamous area; Joe finds out about the flight path from a scared passenger and freaks out, though Frank scoffs at the idea, saying science has debunked the whole thing. But then the plane runs into trouble: a hurricane hits, the pilots collapse, Frank ends up crash-landing the plane into the ocean, and the passengers take refuge on a deserted island, with the scared passenger saying they're now in another dimension and lost for good. Nothing mysterious about it -- [[spoiler: the pilots were drugged by a diamond smuggler, and the island is within spitting-distance of Bermuda, with rescue crews heading their way.]]

* TheButlerDidIt: Played with in "Dangerous Waters" -- the kidnap victim doesn't recognize her mother's supposed "butler" when he greets Frank and Joe at the door, and said butler turns out to not be a butler at all, but [[spoiler: married to a woman pretending to be the victim's mother and the instigator of another plot to get the victim.]]

** Subverted in "The Mystery of King Tut's Tomb", where the brothers are trying to get ''out'' of helping the stranger-girl, but are finally forced into it because the Egyptian police hold their passports. Frank even threatens to kick said girl's teeth in, at one point. Subverted even further when it turns out that the girls don't want the Hardys' help at all, as [[spoiler: they're the ones who set up the initial con & purse-snatching to begin with.]]

* FakedRipVanWinkle: "Sole Survivor". Joe Hardy comes to in a hospital and is told that he's been in a coma for over a year due to a bad car accident and that his brother and father are dead. TheVillains are naturally pulling a major MindScrew, faking Joe's coma with drugs and [[spoiler: lying about the deaths, in order to get Joe to spill his guts about a defection attempt.]]

** Tarot cards are called "Voodoo cards" [[spoiler: though their accuracy is actually a MindScrew used by the villain to psych the Hardys out]]. Voodoo-themed Tarot did not exist at that point & no tarot uses the symbology or images shown; modern "Voodoo Tarot" is a CanonImmigrant incorporated from European-based Neo-Paganism.

* IdentityAmnesia: "The Mystery of the Haunted House" has a government agent who went missing for a few days before being found with total amnesia. [[spoiler:Turns out he witnessed his commander selling government secrets and lost his memory from the shock.]]

** Subverted in Season Three's "Defection to Paradise", with Harry Hammond apparently giving Frank and Joe a stupid-easy assignment to find a missing amplifier and playing up an image of a bumbling, old-fogey Fed who can't manage such a "hip" assignment. Of course, [[spoiler: Harry's really set up the whole thing as a smokescreen to hide the defection of a young Russian woman, and the Hardys are his unwitting fall-guys.]]

** In "The Mystery of Pirate's Cove," a man buys an abandoned lighthouse from Ned Nickerson's father, supposedly so he can investigate a local legend about a ghost. It turns out that he was really looking for treasure in a cave under the lighthouse, and only said he was looking for ghosts so he could buy it cheaply. [[spoiler:Then it turns out ''that'' was a hoax, too. He buried the treasure himself as part of an elaborate money-laundering scheme.]]

* YouWakeUpInARoom: "Sole Survivor", where Joe wakes up in a hospital room with no clue where he is or how he got there, only to be told that he's not only been in a coma for a year, but that his father and brother are dead. [[FakedRipVanWinkle Cue fake newspapers, fake newscasts, and forged letters from all his surviving relatives and friends.]] Of course, [[spoiler: Frank and Fenton are very much alive, and the whole thing is a MindScrew to get Joe to reveal information on a defection attempt.]]

* VirtualRealityInterrogation: "Sole Survivor". The villains use the situation detailed below under YouWakeUpInARoom to get information from Joe about the meetup location where Frank and Fenton will be pick up a defector from China.

* ArtisticLicenseCars:
** "Silent Scream" has Joe Hardy calling the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for information on a license number, and the BMV tells him that the owners are staying in the same hotel as the Hardys. Aside from the fact that no BMV in the world could possible know that, they also would not release information over the phone to regular civilians, and there are strict paperwork procedures that the cops have to follow to get the information.

* BeneathSuspicion:
** "Campus Terror": Joe Hardy's old flame Wendy calls the brothers in to help solve a series of kidnappings and disappearances taking place in an East Coast women's college, as she's the next targeted victim. She barely escapes an attack as the Hardys rush in moments after the attacker has fled & both the Hardys & the police treat her as just another victim. While suspicion falls on various men around campus (a young man who's stalking one of the female students, a professor with a history of evil experiments, the school's male self-defense teacher), it turns out that [[spoiler: Wendy herself is the kidnapper, suffering from delusional split-personality episodes. Her "other personality" faked the attack to throw the police off and was staging the attacks in an attempt to get Joe back with her.]]

* FixingTheGame: In "The Mystery of the Silent Scream," bombers threaten to blow up casinos if their accomplice isn't allowed to win hundreds of thousands of dollars.

** George in the books is a fearless tomboy who often handles the fighting if she, Nancy, and Bess end up in danger. The show's George is essentially a CompositeCharacter with the book's Bess; she has the original George's name and is closer to her in appearance than the Bess, but takes on Bess's [[LovableCoward Lovable]] CowardlyLion traits.

* {{Chickification}}: This happens to Nancy Drew once Janet Louise Johnson replaces Pamela Sue Martin as her actress. While Martin's Nancy still frequently ends up in danger and is sometimes captured by bad guys, she's still just as bold, determined, and brave as the Hardys, and even knows judo. Johnson's Nancy, meanwhile, is near-constantly a DamselInDistress (see below), doesn't show any kind of martial arts skills, and is just generally much more meek and passive.

* TwoGirlsAndAGuy: Nancy, George, and Ned in the first season. Unlike many examples, the guy, Ned, ''does'' have feelings for one of the girls, Nancy, who later becomes his girlfriend.

* AdaptationDistillation: The show cuts most of ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'' books' supporting cast. The Hardys' mother, Laura, is dead, and the boys live with their widowed father and Aunt Gertrude, and the only friends from the books that show up are Callie Shaw and Chet Morton -- and Chet, only in two episodes. For the ''Literature/NancyDrew'' side, it cuts out the Drews' ubiquitous housekeeper Hannah and Nancy's two gal pals, George and Bess, are never seen in the same episode together.

* AdaptationalBadass: In "The Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew Meet Dracula," Nancy is depicted as being skilled in judo. She flips Frank to the floor when he attempts to remove her luggage from a hotel room they're fighting over. (Much to Nancy's surprise, however, this fails to intimidate Frank into backing off, because the hotel room was Frank and Joe's only lead to finding their missing father.) Whatever skills Nancy possessed in the books, a proficiency in any martial art was ''not'' one of them. There were far too many stories in which Nancy was overpowered, kidnapped, and tied up by the villains for that to be the case.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Frank Hardy and Nancy Drew. The first time the Hardys and Nancy Drew met, Nancy throws Frank to the floor. All episodes featuring the trio inevitably have Nancy and Frank getting ''seriously'' on each others' nerves -- until they finally share a kiss in "Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom".
-->'''Nancy:''' ARGH!!! Frank Hardy is the most exasperating... annoying... frustrating...
-->'''Bess:''' ...cute.
-->'''Nancy:''' ''NO!'' (pause) Well, maybe a little...

-->'''Joe:''' ''(gesturing Frank ahead)'' Well...you're the oldest.

* ChekhovsSkill:
** "Acapulco Spies": Joe discovers a technique for planting fingerprints at the scene of the crime. Guess what the Hardys use to trick the BigBad into revealing where Fenton's being held prisoner?

* DamselInDistress: Nancy Drew was reduced to this in second season, once Janet Louise Johnson took over the character, in cross-over episodes with the Hardys. Nancy was constantly being placed in situations that required Frank Hardy to rescue her:

-->''(Joe's getting hit on by another woman)''

* DistressBall: Nancy Drew. Dear GODS, Nancy Drew in 2nd Season.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Frank Hardy and Nancy Drew, in all the eps that featured all three detectives. The show's take on this predates all the current books.
%%* VirtualRealityInterrogation: "Sole Survivor". See entry for YouWakeUpInARoom below. (do not uncomment this entry until more context is added)

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** "Voodoo Doll": even though the [[BigBad Big Bads]] have already killed several people who've gotten in the way, they tread very lightly with the Hardy Boys. The villains lure the brothers to a [[HollywoodVoodoo fake Voodoo ceremony]] and chloroform them, yet the Hardys only wake up the next morning in coffins next to the bayou. Untouched, unhurt, and definitely un-dead (though confused and freaked-out). Y'know, Mr. Villains, coffins work so much better if the heroes are '''dead''' when you put them in.

** Joe also pulls this in "The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom**. After managing to escape being BoundAndGagged, Joe gets grabbed again and put in a cell with his dad and the other missing detectives, who are sitting around waiting for the villain to kill them. Joe then pulls a hairpin from his socks and tries to pick the cell lock, succeeding just in time for the villain to catch him again.

* ToBeContinued: The first parts of "The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula" and "The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom" end this way.

* CallBack: "The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom" references the climax of "Wipe Out."

* ThrowingTheDistraction: Joe does this in "The Mystery of the Silent Scream" so he can get a kidnapper out of the room where his victim is being held.

** "Sole Survivor": [[PrettyBoy Joe Hardy]] spends most of the episode in a sweat-jacket unzipped halfway down.

** "The Creatures Who Came On Sunday" has mob assassins flashing fake ID and impersonating "the government" to get information out of the DistressedDamsel and to intimidate the Hardys.

** Ditto "Voodoo Doll". Nancy goes off on her own to investigate TheVillain. Yup, gets caught. Yup, is held captive, still not tied-up, with two other women who are similarly untied, in an open, public, unguarded warehouse with tons of crates and tools. The only door INTO the warehouse area is locked. On Nancy's side of the door. With the hinges on HER side, too. Her one attempt to escape involves her climbing UP crates to go through a window and is promptly caught. It takes the Hardys breaking into the warehouse through said door before Nancy can escape. *sigh*

* FruitCart: In "The Mystery of King Tut's Tomb," a thief Frank and Joe are chasing through a marketplace keeps knocking over displays, like a table full of watermelons and a stack of chairs, to slow them down.

** "Defection To Paradise" had the daughter of a top Russian Official being chased down by Russian assassins, and Frank and Joe trying to help her escape both the Russian ''and'' US agents.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: Averted in "Mystery of Witches Hollow", where a trained panther is guarding a missing man (Callie Shaw's uncle) that the Hardys are trying to find. A'''very''' nervous Joe Hardy tries to trap it (the cat decidedly NOT cooperating) by working a broom under its collar, but only succeeds in making it angry and attacking until the uncle distracts it with a piece of meat -- and the uncle warns both Frank and Joe the whole time to keep away and that it's not a house cat. Joe (ie, the actor [[TeenIdol Shaun Cassidy]]) looks far too relieved when he finally succeeds: EnforcedMethodActing, perhaps?

** "Arson & Old Lace": Nancy gets kidnapped by the villain's mooks and is held captive for months. By an old man in his 70s. In a penthouse. With a phone and an intercom to a secretary who's not in on the plot. With an elevator that doesn't require any special code to operate, that leads right down to a very public and open office area. No, she's not tied up. She's not held under lock and key. And somehow the elderly gent is able to force her into an elaborate dress and hairstyle, too. She just passively waits for Frank Hardy to rescue her as the building is burning down.
** Ditto "Voodoo Doll". Nancy goes off on her own to investigate TheVillain. Yup, gets caught. Yup, is held captive (again, untied up) with two other women, similarly untied, in an open warehouse with tons of crates. The only door INTO the warehouse area is locked. On Nancy's side of the door. With the hinges on HER side, too. Her one attempt to escape involves her climbing UP crates to go through a window, and is promptly caught. It takes the Hardys breaking into the warehouse through said door before Nancy can escape. *sigh*

* HairpinLockpick: In "The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula," Frank is locked into a cell in Dracula's castle. When Nancy finds him, she picks the lock with her hairpin.

* HealthcareMotivation: In "The Strange Fate of Flight 608," a stewardess starts smuggling diamonds because of her brother's rare blood disease, whose treatments can cost thousands of dollars a month.
* HeroicBSOD: "Last Kiss of Summer". Joe Hardy's fiance is killed in a car wreck; she dies in his arms. Next scene is Joe sitting in a police waiting area, staring into space, fighting not to cry, trying to process what just happened, and not snapping out of it until Frank comes in and very, very gently talks his brother down.

** "Mystery of the Flickering Torch" has Frank & Joe trapped in a small closet while fire rages outside; the only sign they have that the fire even exists is a bit of smoke under the door. When they finally break out, the fire has completely engulfed the office in lots & lots of flames, though not the closet, and the brothers dive heroically through the now-smokeless fire to the next room...where there's absolutely no sign of any fire at all, save for the firefighters coming into the building.

** An old white English professor is somehow a Voodoo High Priest, with the Haitian (Black) Voodoo Priest stated to be his "protege".

* {{Hologram}}: In "The Disappearing Floor," government experiments create a holographic flying saucer, as well as a house full of furniture that appears to grow and shrink and a fake floor that Frank almost falls through.

* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: "Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom". The Hardy Boys see Nancy Drew unsuccessfully trying to talk her way out of trouble at an airport, and go over to help. On the spur of the moment, Joe pretends to be undercover airport security, and the brothers "apprehend" Nancy:

* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: The hotel burglars in "Wipe Out" pretend to be cleaners.

* {{Adorkable}}: The show ''tried'' to do this to Joe Hardy in 1st season: nerdy argyle sweater, check. Heavily into forensics and fingerprints and likely to start expounding on fingerprints at the drop of a hat, check. Portrayed as socially-awkward-but-cute younger brother, check. But then the writers realized they were up against [[TeenIdol Shaun Cassidy]] and gave it up as a lost cause.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: Averted in "Mystery of Witches Hollow", where a trained panther is guarding a missing man (Callie Shaw's uncle) that the Hardys are trying to find. A very, '''very''' nervous Joe Hardy tries to trap it (the cat decidedly NOT cooperating) by working a broom under its collar, but only succeeds in making it angry and attacking until the uncle distracts it with a piece of meat -- and the uncle warns both Frank and Joe the whole time to keep away and that it's not a house cat. Joe (ie, the actor [[TeenIdol Shaun Cassidy]]) looks far too relieved when he finally succeeds: EnforcedMethodActing, perhaps?

* CrashCourseLanding: "The Strange Fate of Flight 608" has all three pilots knocked out by some weird drug...leaving Frank and Joe to fly the plane. In a hurricane. In the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Without any radio help, and the one semi-conscious pilot falls asleep mid-instruction. Guess who manages to crash-land in the middle of the ocean? Of course, they do make it to a deserted island and find themselves all alone with an ex-plane full of of young stewardesses, so I guess it wasn't too hard on them.

** "Arson & Old Lace": Nancy gets kidnapped (see DistressBall entry below), can't figure out how to escape despite a handy unsecured elevator that goes right into a public lobby, and needs Frank to rescue her.
** "Voodoo Doll": Nancy wanders into TheVillain's lair, gets caught, and needs Frank and Joe to rescue her.

** "Sole Survivor" revolved around East Germans trying to stop the defection of a Chinese scientist, using a MindScrew to get Joe Hardy to spill his guts.

** "Defection To Paradise" had the daughter of a top Russian Official being chased down by Russian assassins, and Frank and Joe trying to help her escape.

*** "Mystery of the Flying Courier": Frank spots a woman who looks like a former schoolmate, who had run away and whom his father, Fenton, could not find). The woman denies being the runaway several times, tells Frank to leave her alone and that she neither wants nor needs his help, yet Frank continues to butt into her life and hound her until she finally confesses -- in a police station, in front of the chief -- that yes, she is that girl, and she still wants nothing to do with the Hardys, especially Frank. It doesn't matter that she's a legal adult, with a job and is shown as being fully self-supported, and had a good reason to run away (the show implies controlling, abusive parents); Frank is going to hunt her down.

** "Last Kiss of Summer": See the entry for StuffedIntoTheFridge below for full description. Jamie is introduced, only to be killed in the first 10 minutes, and is never mentioned in any other episode, despite supposedly being the love of Joe's life.

** "Arson & Old Lace": Nancy goes off to solve an embezzlement case on her own, without the Hardys, and gets grabbed...then is held captive for six months. By an old man in his 70s. In a penthouse. With a phone and an intercom to a secretary who's not in on the plot. With an elevator that doesn't require any special code to operate, that leads right down to a very public and open office area. No, she's not tied up. She's not held under lock and key. And somehow the elderly gent is able to force her into an elaborate dress and hairstyle, too. She just passively waits for Frank Hardy to rescue her as the building is burning down.

* CharacterNarrator: Frank voices over the beginning of "The Strange Fate of Flight 608."

* FlashbackEffects: In "The Lady on Thursday at Ten," Nancy accidentally hits a man with her car. Later, she flashes back to the incident in black and white.