The Hardy Boys - S1E8 - What Happened in Bridgeport?

[SkyWarp]

Introducing a new girl into the Frank/Callie/Chet relationship intrigue: Stacey Baker.

All the various people are finally starting get included into the overall mystery.  You can feel that we are past the halfway point and things are starting to get interesting. 

A few more cities in close proximity to Bridgeport are mentioned: Franklin which is north of Grisham. 

We also find out that Chet's mom is an amazing baker, according to Callie. 

Who is Chris Morton?  A random name of a student mentioned in a High School roll call.  Has to be a relative to Chet I would assume. 

SPOILER WARNING

And now, Are Ezra and Gloria the bad guys?  I think there is a lot more than meets the eyes here. 

[MacGyver]

After viewing this episode, I wanted to make a few observations. The title itself is clearly a reference to the book What Happened at Midnight. It is interesting to have a new girl added to the mix in the person of Stacey Baker. I am wondering if she is supposed to be sort of based on any book character, like maybe Vanessa Bender?  I also thought it was interesting how Joe gets confrontational with Chief Collig at the start of the episode, even sort of taunting him about letting the tall man escape custody, which reminded me of the frankly rude attitude Frank and Joe had toward the police in the original series. (Though I know Joe did this here because he suspects Ezra Collig of wrongdoing.)
     Another reminder that the show is set in the '80s- Phil encourages Frank and Joe to join the A/V Club, saying that they just got a new projector. That is one of the first hints I've seen of Phil being true to his characterization in the Casefiles of being big into technology. We later see him making announcements at school, Bridgeport Public School.
I appreciated the very '80s speaker he was using. Speaking of '80s technology, Biff gives Joe a walkie talkie to use to stay in touch. I'm also amused that Phil is part of the Conspiracy Theory Club at school. It's also fun to see the '80s fashions as well.
   And '80s music freak out moment! When Frank and Joe were going to school for the first day back after summer break, Nena's hit song 99 Luftballoons was playing! (It was the English version, rather than the original German, so it's actually 99 Red Balloons. I was freaking out because that's one of my favourite songs! That was a great montage scene!)
   And I appreciated yet another reference to the books with the mention of Franklin as another town, which I assume is named after Franklin W. Dixon. Perhaps the town of Grisham is a reference to John Grisham?
   It was also neat to see Aunt Trudy has a top-loading VCR. It is apparently a VHS unit. I honestly would have liked to have seen a Betamax but both were around in the '80s. There is also a home video recording labelled "Joe's Birthday Party" on top of the machine. I can just briefly glimpse part of a year on the end of the label- just enough to see "198...."
Anyway, apparently Aunt Trudy owns a camcorder too.
    Joe also has a record player in his room, if I'm not mistaken. That's neat. I grew up using a record player as a kid in the '80s too. Of course, seeing the station wagons on the show takes me back too. My family had one for a while when I was a kid.
    As far as the storyline itself, things are really coming together now and it seems like we're finally about to start getting some answers. I am definitely psyched to see what happens next! 

   
   
   

[tomswift2002]

I guess in a way, record players are hip for kids nowadays in 2020 as well as in 198-.

[MacGyver]

Yes- record players have come back into vogue. Now when do cassette tapes and Walkmans become cool again?   

[tomswift2002]

Yes- record players have come back into vogue. Now when do cassette tapes and Walkmans become cool again?   

Apparently Dolly Patton's 2020 Christmas album, "A Holly Dolly Christmas" was released on digital, CD, Vinyl, cassette and 8-track!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08JF5JXPJ/ref=tmm_fbs_acs_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1608002449&sr=8-1

[MacGyver]

Way cool!

[SkyWarp]

I didn't go looking for any real world version of scenes in this episode. 

I do find it interesting that we have now heard about a boy named Hakeem twice now who seems to be just about as "nerdy" as Phil. 

We also got a whole list of students listed in a roll call scene with one of them named Chris Morton.  I wonder if it is any relation to the other Mortons?

And then there is the name drop of the town of Grisham.  Is this suppose to be the same as the other town named Grishem what was name dropped.  Both are simply referenced in the closed captioning with different spellings but beyond that there aren't a lot of details to tell if they are suppose to be the same town of different towns.

[MacGyver]

Some of the names could also be Easter eggs referencing cast and crew members.

[NZone]

We also got a whole list of students listed in a roll call scene with one of them named Chris Morton.  I wonder if it is any relation to the other Mortons?

I initially took this as stating that Chris was Chet's given name and Chet was a nickname, but now I am not so sure