April 2013 Book Club: Casefiles #39 Flesh And Blood

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

The Hardy's used CB radio's quite a bit in the original series continuity (not to mention, if you watch the first episode of the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries you can see the boys, Fenton Hardy and Aunt Gertrude using a CB), plus the story "The Short-Wave Mystery" is all about stolen CB radio parts.  Airplanes and boats still use the CB today because of fears over cell phones fouling up instrumentation, and when you are in the middle of the ocean, there is no cellphone reception.

But with older technology, yeah,  lot of people still have it or have pieces of it.  With my business, I'm still surprised at how many people want BETAMAX transferred to DVD.

There's not? I thought there was. TV shows do it all the time.

Some people are enthusiasts and some are just older and still have some of the technology they used to record family memories at the time when that medium was popular- probably in the late '70s and early '80s. But yeah- a lot of the old technology has come back and is now like, retro cool. For instance, despite rumors to the contrary, VHS isn't dead.

http://twitchfilm.com/2011/07/things...ture-corp.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/mo...tape.html?_r=0
http://www.vhscollector.com/
http://www.lunchmeatvhs.com/

And of course, vinyl records- LPs, 45s, 33 1/3s, etc. have definitely made a comeback too- in fact, tomorrow is National Record Store Day (nationalrecordstoreday.com)

People still use those? Interesting...

[tomswift2002]

There's not? I thought there was.

I don't quite get what you mean.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I don't quite get what you mean.

They're always on their mobiles in the middle of the ocean on Hawaii Five-0.

[MacGyver]

Clark Kent sure can't change in that booth!

Lol- nice! Superman still finds a way. But yeah- the glory days of the actual payphone booth are long gone, sadly.
As I'm sure you probably know, Superman: The Movie made a joke about this when Clark Kent was looking for a place to change into his Superman uniform.

[tomswift2002]

They're always on their mobiles in the middle of the ocean on Hawaii Five-0.

I haven't seen an episode of Hawaii Five-O in about a decade, but from what I remember they used CB's in that series whenever they were on the water.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I haven't seen an episode of Hawaii Five-O in about a decade, but from what I remember they used CB's in that series whenever they were on the water.

The new Hawaii Five 0, I mean. But yeah, I guess when you didn't know any different it was fine.

[tomswift2002]

I was just reading chapters six and seven, and while in some parts the book is still upto to technological standards of today (scanning photo.s into computers and sending them over the Internet via a phone or cable modem) other parts are clearly remnants of 1990, and 23 years later (for the most part, since some people who live in the country still have dial-up)you have to laugh.  On page 68 the Callie's dad mentions how Callie went to WBAY, the TV station in Bayport, and she had tried to call the Hardy home, but got a busy signal, and Frank assumes that she was trying when the modem was receiving the email with the picture, and the line was busy because of it.  (In my area, some of the people who live in the country still have dial-up and I think sometimes when you try to call them and they're line is busy, it is not because they are talking on the phone, but they are checking their email---but I remember back around 1999/2000 a lot of people still had dial-up and you'd try calling them and they wouldn't answer, but later you'd find out that one of the kids has been on the Internet doing research for a school project and had tied up the line-----this was years before Internet by cable).

[MacGyver]

Even before the popularity of the Internet at home, you still had a similar issue with telephones when on the party line system.

[tomswift2002]

I just read the part at work today where Chet bring's Callie's camera to them and Frank just pops the tape into the VCR (I don't think WBAY would be shooting on VHS, or even allow a co-op student shoot on VHS, as that's not broadcast quality; WBAY probably had a VHS VCR around so that they could review people's resume reels, or sample tapes of shows that they might want to air, but I don't think you'd find a VHS Camera on the property).  Obviously the author had very limited knowledge of what videotapes formats are used professionally, so either the Hardy's have a ton of professional video equipment sitting in their living room, or WBAY and Callie just happened to use one of four formats that both broadcast and consumer's used in the past: Hi8 (there were VCR's released for this format, but they were scarce), S-VHS (uses same tape as VHS, and after 2001 all VHS VCR's made could playback S-VHS at VHS quality, but prior to 2001 there were a couple of VHS VCR's released, but if you wanted to play S-VHS you really needed a S-VHS player, and S-VHS players were all backwards compatible), U-Matic 3/4 (released in early 70's to both consumer and broadcast/pro markets, but it was quickly discontinued on the consumer level), Extended Definition (ED) Betamax (released in very late 80's to consumer market, but many broadcast and professionals bought these up as they provided quality that was equal to Betacam SP, one professional variant of the BETA format that cost more---Sony shot themselves in the foot twice with ED Beta, as consumers found the $3,000 USD price tag too expensive, but on the Pro level, that was cheap, compared to a Betacam SP VCR that would cost anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 depending on the deck.  Sony quickly discontinued ED Beta by 1990.)

[MacGyver]

Well, while good research is always encouraged for any book being written, there are some times where you just have to overlook some technical inaccuracies in order to enjoy the overall story.

[MacGyver]

Well, while we're speaking on Flesh and Blood, I just ran across a random interesting trivia fact. Parker Stevenson (Frank Hardy on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries) played a role in an episode of a 1991 TV series called Flesh 'n' Blood- of course, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the book, but still a fun and random bit of trivia.

[MacGyver]

I also just discovered that there was also a 1985 movie called Flesh+Blood that Anne Lockhart appeared in. (And she of course played two different roles on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries- Sarah Masters in "The Mystery of the African Safari" and Jess in "The Last Kiss of Summer" (Parts 1 and 2).)
And her mother, June Lockhart, made an appearance in the "Dangerous Waters" episode as Mrs. Migley, as well.

[tomswift2002]

In the book you can tell by 1990's standards Fenton Hady's Detctive business is still doing well, considering that the Hardy's have a 52" Stereo TV in their living room!