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The Hardy Boys Mysteries and The Nancy Drew Mysteries began in 1977 as separate series alternating in the same time slot on ABC. Early the following year, the casts combined, and in the fall of 1978 the Nancy Drew thread was dropped and The Hardy Boys Mysteries continued on alone. This Season One boxed set captures the twin-series idea at its most ambitious, with adolescent brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, created by author Franklin W. Dixon, sleuthing for clues one week and Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew investigating crimes the next.

I remember enjoying "The Hardy Boys" when I was a kid, as here were two cool cats who were able to investigate some pretty fascinating cases (from a kid's perspective, anyway) and, in so doing, inspire us "Encyclopedia Brown" fans to go out and dig up our own mysteries to solve. Groovy, man.

Watching these shows now, I'm obviously struck by how dated they are, but I can still see the entertainment value of the ex Mr. Kirstie Alley (Parker Stevenson) and former Teen Beat heart throb Sean Cassidy solving some Scooby-Doo-esque capers.

I also faintly remember the "Nancy Drew" episodes, and I remember not watching them back then either. This time around, I kept my thumb pretty close to the fast-forward button for those episodes, as they were inevitably snoozers that usually involved Ms. Drew fawning over some young buck - not very interesting when you're a (male) kid, still not interesting today.

Nice trip down memory lane, nice teaser for the next set (of only "Hardy Boys" episodes).

Video: How's it look?
Overall, the video presentation isn't too shabby for these episodes. They do show their age, with some dust & video gremlins appearing throughout, but I have no doubts that these DVDs represent the highest quality possible for the nearly 30-year old video masters for these 2 series. Not great, but passable.

Audio: How's it sound?
Dolby Mono mixes are usually passable for older tv shows on DVD, but in the case of these episodes, there's actually some audible hissing noises popping up at various times throughout the episodes. Even more frustrating, there are times when the audio falls out of sync with the video -- did they do ADR dubbing for tv shows in the 70s? I'm not sure, but that annoyed me either way.

Extras: What all's on the DVD?

• mini poster

Closing Thoughts
Blast from the past + no real extras = fun trip down memory lane!