Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2012 TV Club-The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries- Season 1-Ep. 9

[MacGyver]

Post your thoughts, comments and reviews of "The Mystery of the Flying Courier" (featuring The Hardy Boys) episode of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries here.

[MacGyver]

I finally rewatched this episode last night- it was great!

[MacGyver]

"The Mystery of the Flying Courier" was a fun episode that had a number of cool elements. For starters, we still have a mystery that is set near Bayport. (It mainly happens in a nearby town called Valley View, but the Hardys do go home to Bayport a couple of times.) And we have a number of characters from the books in this episode. And we see Shaun Cassidy sing a number of his classic songs in this episode, as Joe's singing career takes off in this episode.
     To start with though, I noticed that this episode on the DVD had a little preview of scenes before the episode actually started. It seems like they do this with some episodes, though not necessarily all of them. The episode starts with Frank, Callie and Chet and some other friends going to a club to see Joe sing with his band. It's great to see Gary Springer show up again as Chet Morton (he's listed in the credits right at the end.) This was his last appearance on the show, unfortunately- but at least we got to see Chet show up twice on the show. And he's true to character, asking Frank to bring back some pretzels when he gets up from the table they're sitting at at the club. I'm not sure who the others are that are sitting with Frank and Callie and Chet, but we can pretend they are some other chums from the books. (Iola? Biff? Tony? Phil? Jerry? ...... I'll assume the girl sitting by Chet was his sister Iola. And the guy was Phil and the girl with him was his date. Who knows...? )
         Anyway, Joe sings a number of Shaun Cassidy's hits, including Da Doo Ron Ron, Teen Dream and That's Rock 'N' Roll in this episode. (There is at least one other that he sings and I wish I could figure out the name of it because I really like that one.) And we have the start of the classic running gag on this show- whenever Joe starts singing, Frank gets up and leaves! To be fair, Frank does hear at least a few of the songs, but then he notices a girl who has been missing for the last three years. His dad was on the case three years ago and so Frank goes after her when she leaves the club. He think it's Suzy Wilkins, but when he talks to her, she insists that's not her name. After she talks to the club's DJ for a private conference, she leaves the club. At this point, Frank and Callie follow after her and see her arrested by the police. Later, after the show, Frank, Joe and Callie go to the junkyard where the girl's car has been taken. Frank goes in it to look for clues and nearly gets crushed to death when the car gets picked up by a crane and smashed! They go to the Hardy house and Frank shows Fenton the pay stub he found for Suzy- but Fenton finds out later that the employee number on the pay stub is for a Sandy Wofford- which is the name the girl Frank found says is her name.
        Suzy/Sandy meets with a record producer, who she apparently has been supplying with advance tapes from a DJ so that he can pirate the music. He apparently was responsible for crushing her car and he is demanding she bring him more tapes- she says she will bring them to him that night at the club. Meanwhile, the DJ from the club is ransacking her apartment as Frank and Joe are on the way in their van to talk with her. The DJ leaves when he hears and sees them approaching. Frank and Joe find the door to her apartment open and find advance tapes at her place as well as a picture of her and the DJ. Then it's back to the club to talk to Tailgunner the DJ. Before the Hardys get there, Tailgunner has a talk with the "cops" who arrested Suzy- but it turns out they certainly aren't cops. They were trying to get the tapes from her, just as Tailgunner apparently was when he broke into her room. Frank and Joe notice the "cops" car leaving the club and then they go inside to talk to Tailgunner. He says he doesn't really know Sandy that well and then he goes to take a phone call. He sets the alarm and leaves the club, but he doesn't realize Frank and Joe have hidden. They then go to look around the table where Sandy was sitting at the club and Joe accidentally sets off the alarm (which apparently simulates airplanes dropping bombs and explosions). He shuts it off and then Frank finds something. Then the police come in and Frank, Joe and Tailgunner all go to talk to the police. The DJ doesn't press charges and Frank and Joe let the police know about Sandy's car getting destroyed and her apartment getting ransacked. Then Frank gives the police captain what he found- a safe deposit box key. The DJ and "cops" figure the tapes are locked away there, but it turns out that Sandy got the box's contents before they got there because the box is empty when they get there. The police pick Sandy up at a movie theater and there she finally admits to being Suzy Wilkins. Suzy gets upset with Frank and Joe for pulling her in there and says their father made her life tough too by looking into her disappearance. Frank winds up giving Suzy a ride when the record producer comes after her in his car. Joe is left to get a ride by himself to the disco club.
         Suzy tells Frank about the record producer, who's named Quentin Miles- a record pirate. Suzy admits to being the go-between who gets the demo tapes from Tailgunner and takes them to Miles. But she's holding out the tapes for more money from Miles- but she's actually planning to doublecross him and sell the tapes back to Tailgunner. But the tapes were set up as a trap by the record company because the tracks are different on the tapes Suzy has rather than demos that other DJs around the country have. Suzy admits everything to Frank and says she just wants to get out of this business and avoid jail- she ran away from home because she felt like she was in jail there too. Suzy gets out at a red light and runs off.
       Suzy goes to a payphone and calls the DJ at the club. She tells him she will meet him with the tapes that night at the club. And then we're back at the club for Joe's next singing number, while Frank and Joe wait for Suzy to show up. Joe ends his Da Doo Ron Ron song performance a bit early as he jumps off to help Frank as he's trying to stop Miles, Tailgunner and the "cops", who have all descended on the club. The real police come along and arrest everyone. The next night, Frank, Joe, Fenton and Callie are all at the club wrapping up the details of the case. Suzy has talked to her parents and cooperated with the police and has gotten out of the piracy business and reconciled with her parents. Callie gets Fenton dancing to Joe singing That's Rock 'N' Roll, which he says he and the band worked out just that morning. This episode really showcased a lot of Shaun Cassidy's hits- it actually got my top three favorites in there- Da Doo Ron Ron, Teen Dream and That's Rock 'N' Roll. That last song plays for a while with some of the credits coming up and then ends and goes to the classic closing titles. I can see how Shaun Cassidy's popularity as a singing star was helped along with this show and how that in turn helped boost the popularity of the show- that certainly worked out pretty well for everyone around.
      We will get to see Joe sing in a couple of other episodes throughout the series as well. On a number of times, his singing actually helped them on cases. In any case, I find it a welcome addition as I enjoy Shaun Cassidy's music anyway. I also noticed that this episode also credited Edith Atwater, though Aunt Gertrude did not show up in this episode. Of course, by the time we get past the first season, we will cease to see supporting characters like Aunt Gertude, Callie Shaw, Chet Morton and Chief Collig altogether- though Fenton Hardy is still around for the duration. It's too bad the supporting characters show up less and less as the series progresses- but at least we got to see them on the show for a while. Overall, this is a pretty cool episode with a couple of things going on at once- including a question of identity, music piracy and double dealing. And we get to hear some cool music too.