Apart from their book series written in the early 1900's under the pseudonym "Franklin W. Dixon," the Hardy Boys are best known for two television appearances-as a short-lived serial(which starred Tim Considine of My Three Sons fame) on The Mickey Mouse Club(q.v),and as an short-lived ABC prime-time series based on the novels by Franklin W. Dixon that starred Shaun Cassidy as Joe and Parker Stevenson as his brother Frank that ran two seasons from January 30,1977-August 26,1979 and was produced by TV mogul Glen A. Larson. Often forgotten was another adaption of The Hardy Boys that aired also in prime-time and also was short-lived that ran on NBC from September 8,1967 until November 29,1967. That version had Rick Gates and Tim Matheson in the leads. Another version was the live-action syndicated(and Canadian produced)series that came out in 1995;and this animated version produced by Filmation Associates that produced 34 episodes,all in color and ran for two seasons on the network from September 6,1969 until September 4,1971. This was under the direction of Hal Sutherland and executive produced by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott. And it ran only on Saturday Mornings for the ABC-TV network.
"The Adventures of The Hardy Boys" premiered the same year of another successful show as well,"Scooby Doo,Where Are You?"(which was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions,but was shown on CBS)which also featured a group of teens solving mysteries and unexplained crimes. In this version,the producers took a cue from their most successful show at the time "The Archies"(also produced by Filmation Associates but was on CBS)but this time around the show was in tune to the groovy fashion statements and psychedelic colors of the time..very stable for the time this cartoon came out in the fall of 1969. Here they become rock stars touring the world in concerts with the opportunity to solve crimes and other baffling mysteries along with their sidekick-a female hippie-chick named Wanda Kay,who was a total ditz. Other friends who were their pals are Pete Jones and Chubby Morton. Fenton was there detective father while Gertrude Hardy was the boys dearest aunt. While most of the episodes were based on the novels by the way,the opening and closing credits of the show consisted of Frank and Joe singing bubble gum tunes in the foray of the psychedelic sounds that exploded onto Saturday Mornings.