The Hardy Boys - S1E1 - Welcome to Your Life

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Is this set in the Casefile era, or in the original books era?

[SkyWarp]

Is this set in the Casefile era, or in the original books era?

Neither.  This is its own era.   It is set in the 1980's as best we can tell, and probably early 1980's, but not for sure. 

It pulls ideas from all of the different series though.  One can see influences from the originals, casefiles, and the more recent series as well. 

[MacGyver]

I decided to get the free month trial of Hulu so I could watch this 2020 version of The Hardy Boys. And after watching the first episode, I have this to say as my general assessment: I was pleasantly surprised!
   To be honest, after seeing how things had gone with the CW's Nancy Drew show, I had braced myself to be disappointed by things in this Hardy Boys show. (I just don't much trust modern versions of classic shows to do the source material justice.) And there are some things I still don't like with this show. I don't really get the point of changing the name of The Hardy Boys' iconic hometown. Is there a reason why Bayport couldn't have been used instead of a close facsimile? I am not a big fan of changing established characters. I see that Biff is now reimagined as a girl and Chet is evidently African-American. Callie also seems like perhaps she is of Middle Eastern descent? To be clear, these issues are not a huge deal as long as the characters are still true to their characterizations in the books. (So for instance, I hope Biff will prove to be a tomboy who's into boxing and can take people out and that Chet is still an eating machine, hobby enthusiast hypochondriac.) Oh yeah- it was great to see Chet's yellow vehicle named "The Queen". (I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "jalopy" or not- but that was great!)
    Another huge thing that must be mentioned is the obvious age difference between Frank and Joe. There is only supposed to be a year between them, with them aged at 18 and 17, respectively. (I'm going with the revised text books here and most all further series.) I suppose having Frank only 16 is a nice harkening to the original text though. Joe at 12 is harder to take. At least they got the hair colour right. And the camaraderie between the boys seems to be well done. It seems to be more or less the right tone.
    There are a number of other variations that are interesting. This series seems to draw inspiration from multiple Hardy Boys book series.

Neither.  This is its own era.   It is set in the 1980's as best we can tell, and probably early 1980's, but not for sure. 

It pulls ideas from all of the different series though.  One can see influences from the originals, casefiles, and the more recent series as well. 

Yes! I totally agree. The logo is taken straight from the Casefiles and the death of someone close to Frank and Joe from the first episode is quite similar to Dead on Target. The original and revised text books are referenced too. Some of the episode titles are inspired by the book titles or use the title itself. (Example: "A Figure in Hiding", "What Happened at Bridgeport", and "While the Clock Ticked". "The Secret Room" is also reminiscent of The Secret Panel. In Plane Sight is also the title of The Hardy Boys #176.)
There is a scene in the pilot that is quite similar to the iconic cover image of The Secret of the Old Mill.
Of course, Aunt Gertrude is called Aunt Trudy, so there is some influence from the Undercover Brothers and Adventures books too.
     The setting is also quite intriguing. Just from the first episode it seems obvious this is set in the 1980s. I feel like it might be a loosely defined setting to where we just know it's somewhere in that decade. There are some things that seem to be anachronistic just as The Goldbergs tends to do. (I don't really watch that show but I know it's set in the 1980s and I also know from what I've read that sometimes the '80s things referenced are not really presented accurately in their historical time frame.) I wondered about that with this show as we see Frank and Joe playing an Atari 2600 at the start of the episode. Now, it could be the late '80s or even early '90s and maybe they just only have an older video game system or just like to play it still. We also see Fenton Hardy using a payphone to make a telephone call though. Callie wears a Walkman at one point in the show. The real kicker to me though is when Frank and Joe watch video tapes from when Joe was a baby. Keep in mind that Joe is apparently 12 at this point in the show. Thus, say if the show was set in the early '80s, like 1984 perhaps- Joe would have then been born in 1972 and the tape would have likely been made in 1975 or 1976, perhaps? It seems more likely they would have had Betamax tapes rather than VHS, yet those are clearly VHS tapes they are watching. Nonetheless, it is possible they could have had Beta tapes converted to VHS. I also love Joe's classic '80s style skateboard! Totally rad!
    I will have to see if there are more clues on this as the series progresses. It seems likely the show is set no later than 1985, as the Nintendo Entertainment System was released that year and I feel like Frank and Joe would probably have been playing a NES by the late 1980s.
    I feel like the show draws inspiration from Stranger Things on that front but that is fine by me! I love the '80s! It was great hearing Sister Christian by Night Ranger in the episode.
   I did find it interesting that we finally get to have a film appearance of Laura Hardy as well as Frank and Joe's heretofore unmentioned maternal grandmother. (As far as I know their grandparents haven't been mentioned in the books anyway.) It was interesting to hear Joe's full name given as Joseph and Frank's as Francis. I am fairly sure the books have stated Frank to be short for Franklin.
   It is also neat to hear references to the books in city names as well, like Dixon City. (As in Franklin W. Dixon) The theme song is lacking nut that's just an unfortunate trend with TV shows today. I do like the mysterious tone of the music that is there though.
    I will also say this about the setting. I LOVE that it is set in the 1980s before the advent of the Internet and cellular phones (at least on a widespread level for public consumption. Yes, I'm aware that technically those things existed even then). It was way cool to see Frank and Joe ride their bicycles to get groceries from the store. I love that aspect of them still being just kids in this show. I also love how quickly they make friends with the chums on this show. I honestly am looking forward to seeing more from them. I love too that The Hardy Boys will be forced to rely on older technology in this show. I think something is lost when map skills are replaced with a GPS, encyclopedias in the library replaced with Google, etc. It's nice to have a bit of a nostalgic throw back here.
   Most importantly, despite all the changes and the weird mishmash of a show this is, Frank and Joe seem to be true to their core characters in the books and thus this show is genuinely pretty good so far. There is an interesting mystery that has time to build up on an hour long episode. (45-48 minutes without commercials.) The concept of having one ongoing mystery through the whole season is great too. That just makes it all the more interesting to see unfold. I can already see the glimmer of an Indiana Jones-vibe as others have mentioned in later episodes. As a huge Indiana Jones fan, that's great to me!
   Overall, while I don't necessarily care for all the changes, I am really extremely thankful that this show seems to be quite family friendly overall, as the books most always have been. I haven't seen any foul language or sexual immorality or excessive violence or occultism thus far and I am very glad for that!
      I am also glad for the range of characters that have appeared. This is now the sixth TV version of Frank and Joe Hardy and Fenton Hardy. It's the fifth TV version of Aunt Gertrude and Chet Morton. It's the third TV version of Callie Shaw. It's only the second TV version of both Biff Hooper and Chief Ezra Collig.
   And it's the first ever film version of Phil Cohen and Laura Hardy! I am really glad to see that! I hope Tony Proto and Jerry Gilroy and Iola Morton might all make appearances too. For that matter, it would be great to see Jack Wayne and Sam Radley too and maybe even newer characters like Jamal Hawkins. I have heard from some of the reviews that Samuel Peterson appears, who is a Casefiles-specific character. If we're doing Casefiles characters, hopefully Liz Webling and Vanessa Bender and her mom might apoear too.
   I am not as up on characters from newer book series but I wouldn't mind if UB/Adventures or even Secret Files characters were brought in. (Belinda Conrad, for example or Mimi Morton.)
    And if the show expanded to include other Stratemeyer Syndicate characters, I would be ecstatic to see The Bobbsey Twins show up, as I think they could fit well with this show. Tom Swift would be great to see too and maybe even The Dana Girls and Nancy Drew. (Though it would have to be a Nancy Drew specific to the Hulu Hardy Boys universe, not a crossover with the CW Nancy Drew).
    In any case. I am really happy to see what seems to be a well done show for the most part. I hope this gets a DVD release because I would love to have this one alongside the rest of my Hardy Boys collection.
   

[tomswift2002]

Betamax hit the market in 1975, while VHS hit the US market in 77 (of course in the UK both were launched around the same time).  Of course there had been some consumer formats launched as far back as 1969, such as the Akai 1/4-inch format (https://obsoletemedia.org/video/) and the EIAJ-1. The U-Matic format that was used for decades in broadcasting was originally launched as a machine for consumers—-but it's high price (from what I've seen, might have been about $3000 US—-in 2020 that's about $20,000) killed that market.

[MacGyver]

I also meant to note another 1980s connection. The first three episode titles are lines from Tears for Fears' classic 1985 hit song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

https://youtu.be/U4zA0xnBEJU

[Raven]

I also meant to note another 1980s connection. The first three episode titles are lines from Tears for Fears' classic 1985 hit song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

https://youtu.be/U4zA0xnBEJU

Good catch! I remember Tears for Fears were constantly on the airwaves back in the 80s. 

[MacGyver]

Thanks.

"And my favourite band will always be Tears for Fears and I'm going to wear a pink tux to the prom..." - Relient K In Love with the '80s 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HdeqNoMJJpw

[SkyWarp]

I've added the people, places, and things from this first episode to the Encyclopedia.  Although I try to keep all characters across various series/canons combined into one entry, I had to create a separate entry for Biff. 

Just an FYI - The main description is always based on the Casefiles series, unless there is no Casefile entry for that entry.  You can always look below in the Details section on each entries page to see the notes on which book/episode the various information came from. 

[MacGyver]

Cool! Good to know.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Late to the party, but I got Hulu and am watching the first ep. Will someone please tell why they're using video tapes in a show that was made in 2020? The ages are what's throwing me off, and why use Bridgeport?


Tell me it get's better from here?

[tomswift2002]

Late to the party, but I got Hulu and am watching the first ep. Will someone please tell why they're using video tapes in a show that was made in 2020? The ages are what's throwing me off, and why use Bridgeport?


Tell me it get's better from here?

Even though the show was made in 2020, it's set in the 1980's, the era of VHS & Betamax!  Also, I have no idea why they changed Joe's age.  It kind of gives the show a mixture of the 1950's Disney show and the 70's show..

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Even though the show was made in 2020, it's set in the 1980's, the era of VHS & Betamax!  Also, I have no idea why they changed Joe's age.  It kind of gives the show a mixture of the 1950's Disney show and the 70's show..

If they'd made Joe 15 I'd be okay with it, wasn't that the age of the boys way back before the books were rewritten?

[tomswift2002]

If they'd made Joe 15 I'd be okay with it, wasn't that the age of the boys way back before the books were rewritten?

Back in the books from the 1920's Joe started off as 15, and then by #9 had aged to 17, while Frank had similarly aged from 16 to 18.  But in the revisions from 1959-1973, the Hardy's were 17 & 18 from book 1 so that they could legally drive anywhere in the US.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Back in the books from the 1920's Joe started off as 15, and then by #9 had aged to 17, while Frank had similarly aged from 16 to 18.  But in the revisions from 1959-1973, the Hardy's were 17 & 18 from book 1 so that they could legally drive anywhere in the US.

Aunt Turdy is totally throwing me, Does anyone else have this feeling? She's like in her 30's, not how I thought she'd be.

[MacGyver]

Even if you don't like her, that's a pretty rude nickname for the character.