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The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew characters were created by Edward Stratemeyer.
Arlene and Joyce discovered the rights toNancy Drewwerent available, but the rights toThe Hardy Boyswere.
They first tried to sellThe Hardy Boysas a feature to Paramount, then Arlene and Joyce went to Universal.
The Stratemeyer Corporation was still run by Harriet Adams, who was then in her eighties.
Arlene and Joyce contacted her, and secured theNancy Drewrights by convincing Adams her characters would keep their innocence.
Nancy Drew was smart, inventive, and resourceful, so the sex thing just didnt have a place.
Then Price contacted veteran writer-producer Glen A. Larson, who immediately jumped onboard.
My interests are extraordinarily varied, he says.
I had taken a failed pilot calledCyborg, and wrote a new project calledThe Six Million Dollar Man.
That climate seems to have changed!
He was just the cutest thing, and such a nice young man, says Sidaris.
I was glad to have something that moved me out to California to stay for a while.
Parker was an Eastern, preppy kind of guy, and Shaun was the Southern California kid.
But when we found Pamela, everyone was happy.
Larson recalls, I couldnt figure out what I would show the networks.
Larson was always very prolific, and could crank out scripts pretty quickly.
Glen was such a machine, cranking out shows, says Stevenson.
He had it so down.
One day, Parker went to lunch at the Universal commissary and sat next to Alfred Hitchcock.
There was one episode with Ray Milland, who I liked right away, he says.
It was like, No, no, youre makin a mistake!
it’s crucial that you be looking at this, it wont be here again!'
We pulled up to the hotel, and there were a hundred girls there screaming, she says.
Parker and Shaun were like, Oh my God, what are we gonna do?
I told the driver, Keep going.
We sped through the front entrance of the hotel, and there was a side door.
All these girls took off running after the car, we all jumped out and ran into the hotel.
Im screaming over my shoulder, Run, you guys!
Pam was so convincing, she really became Nancy Drew.
WhenThe Hardy Boyscame back for the third season, the show took a darker turn.
As the show progressed, we toughened it up, says Andrew Mirisch.
We dirtied them up a bit.
The acting caliber was right where it should be, you really believed this was a marriage.
Remember we used Patrick inBattlestar Galactica, Larson says.
BattlestarfollowedThe Hardy Boysat one point, and it was awfully expensive.
Our numbers were really strong compared to now, Sidaris says.
Shaun studied Glen Larson, says Stevenson.
He was off doing interesting work so quickly afterThe Hardy Boys.
He wasnt looking to milk the teen idol thing.
He wasnt making easy choices.
Who wants to see the Hardy Boys old?, she asks.
What worked about them was they were innocent, young, smart kids.
Thats what worked when the books were written in the 30s and 40s.
