ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:Some episodes ofThe Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteriesare currently streaming on Peacock.
Have you gone back and watched it?
SHAUN CASSIDY:I have not.
Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson on ‘The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries’.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
I think my children might have seen an episode or two, much to their horror.
I’m thrilled for the people that love the show that it’s there.
He even brought home the 24-year-old director,Steven Spielberg, from the first one for dinner one night.
Parker Stevenson, Shaun Cassidy, and Frankenstein in ‘The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries’.ABC/Universal
AndRian JohnsonandNatasha Lyonnehave just done a brilliant job recently of reinvigorating that genre withPoker Face.
The show premiered 46 years ago this year.
And here we are still talking about it today.
Shaun Cassidy, Melanie Griffith, and Parker Stevenson in ‘The House on Possessed Hill’.ABC
How do you explainThe Hardy Boys' long-lasting appeal?
PARKER STEVENSON:You know, I’ve wondered about that for a long time.
And even though I’ve done a few other things over 55 years those things didn’t shift anything.
Pamela Sue Martin, Parker Stevenson, and Casey Kasem in ‘The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom’.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
There were really only three major networks, and that Sunday night show was sort of unusual.
It wasn’t60 Minutes it was a kind of a sweet, fun entertaining show that was straightforward.
So, it’s a connection to childhood in a lot of ways.
Parker Stevenson, Paul Williams, and Shaun Cassidy in ‘The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew meet Dracula’.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
I thought, “He’s not going to know who I am.”
But then then his mother came over and said, “Are you Parker Stevenson?”
Which made me feel really old.
[Laughs]
There was something really sweet aboutHardy Boys.
And the adults are standing around looking confused.
“Where are you boys going?”
[Laughs] There was kind of inherent rebelliousness in all of that, which kids liked.
CASSIDY:Well, it transcends the show, obviously, because the books came out in the ’20s.
I think the key is brothers.
I love Parker, and Parker was, and remains like a real brother to me.
He was a bit older than I was.
That chemistry was real.
And also, it was [about] bucking authority.
There would always be some law enforcement official who had no humor, who we’d be interfacing with.
The same was true with Nancy Drew.
Every kid wants to think they’re smarter than their parents, or smarter than the authority figures.
And we were given the opportunity to illustrate that.
Though Bali, or Hawaii, or Egypt was always the Sheridan Universal Hotel.
Might it have something to do with the incredible hair?
You both were truly blessed in the follicular department.
STEVENSON:Oh, um… [Laughs] Thank you, I think.
Speaking of your glorious hair, what did they use on it to make it look so gorgeous?
And how long did it take to style each day?
STEVENSON:I don’t remember anything being used on my hair.
It was a ’70s thing.
CASSIDY:Wigs, it was all wigs.
[Laughs] I think they VO5-ed it.
I think they Final Netted it.
Again, 18 years old a lot of hair.
And we could be in a windstorm, and it wouldn’t move.
CASSIDY:It’s funny, I was at my manager’s office who was my family’s manager.
She’s an amazing person.
She had shepherded the careers of my mom and dad and David, and she inherited me.
At 16, I’d signed a deal with Warner Brothers records to record.
I just graduated from high school.
I was like, “Should I go to college?
Should I put all my chips on this recording career that hadn’t quite happened yet?”
I needed a job, honestly.
And Ruth said, “Why don’t you go on some acting auditions?
I’d done a little acting in school, and I’d made a couple little independent films.
My second audition was theHardy Boys.
I knew it was at Universal, and I knew it was a mystery show.
So, I just felt there was something in this for me.
I screen tested, and then finally with Parker, got the job, and that was at Universal.
And lo and behold, I have an office at Universal right now.
I’ve been there on and off for most of my career.
But Universal is like home.
Parker, you were about to enter the business program at NYU when you auditioned for the show.
STEVENSON:Yeah, I didn’t think it was going to go.
That’s just what was happening in the construction industry at the time.
When theHardy Boysthing came along, Shaun was cast first.
And they saw lots and lots of people [for Frank Hardy], and they were desperate.
[Laughs] This is where the luck part comes in.
Shaun and I couldn’t have been more different, but we have the same sense of humor.
But I came out and did a screen test with him and got cast right away.
I was like, “Oh.
Why did the shoot run so long?
So, he ended up with the third of his pilot shot in that one day.
CASSIDY:It was more.
I think it was like 36 hours.
The first day of work, I’m still living at home, like with my parents.
And I go to work at 5 in the morning, like everybody does.
I meet Parker, who I hadn’t really met, and we start working.
And I’m thinking, “Is this what my parents have been doing all these years?”
How did you stay awake?
CASSIDY:“Have some more coffee, kid.”
STEVENSON:We were falling asleep all over the place.
We were trying to stay awake, but the last shot we did was in a graveyard.
That’s how far he pushed it.
But it was a pretty smart move, you know?
It made everyone else’s little pilot presentations look pretty thin compared to what he shot and provided.
Even though you guys were teen heartthrobs, the show was generally very wholesome and tame.
Do you remember, were there thingsFrank and Joe were simply not allowed to do?
PARKER:It was just sort of relentlessly sweet.
That’s just what the show was.
CASSIDY:The early episodes tried to model the books.
So, they notched us up to Starsky and Hutch by season 2.
We had to be very gentle with violence.
STEVENSON:He was a big part of what happened with the show.
We worked really long hours, often 18-hour days.
So we always worked past midnight, until 2 or 3 on Friday night.
Shaun would leave and go off on tour for the weekend.
And he’d jump into work [on the show].
All of that helped the show hold enough ratings to stay on it.
I wasn’t out singing I’d go home and collapse and do laundry.
[Laughs]
CASSIDY:How I survived all of it remains a mystery to me.
But I’m grateful I did.
[Laughs] Being 18 helped a lot.
My band would be there.
Both things kind of blew up at the same time.
I’d fallen in love with writing, even onThe Hardy Boys.
I was really invested in the writing staff.
Very early on, I realized that I wanted to write and produce.
Were you constantly running into fellow TV stars of that era?
There were like 30 shows filming, and the Universal Studios Tour had just started.
You’d walk around the corner andAlfred Hitchcockwas walking into the commissary.
CASSIDY:We were the babies on the lot.
So, I parked in that space idiot me didn’t know who Billy Wilder was yet.
“That is Mr. Wilder’s space.
You will never park there again.”
I remember bumping into Lee Majors' limousine once with my car.
Parker and I had lunch with Alfred Hitchcock, which was extraordinary.
And there’s Parker and I, who were clearly invited to entertain Joe Califano’s children.
I was parked between a young kid, and at the end of the table was Hitchcock.
I knew who Hitchcock was.
He had just finishedFamily Plot, which may have been his last film there.
He was quite old and spokeverrrry slowly, but he was Alfred Hitchcock.
I was completely engaged.
How did you both feel about the scripts and the show’s stories in general?
The pages hadn’t come in.
So that was the frustration.
It’s also why the hours were so long because it took forever sorting out scenes.
It was not running like a well-oiled machine, let’s just put it that way.
The other thing that used to happen, we were shooting scripts that had not really been thought through.
Then with [ADR], they’d cut to the shrubbery, and we’d explain the plot.
Like, “The jewels are buried in the thing!”
But again, I’m very grateful for that experience and I learned a lot.
They’re two very different skill sets, and showrunners need both.
And in season 3, the show’s name was changed toThe Hardy Boys.
What did you think of all these developments?
STEVENSON:I think the show was hanging by a thread at that point.
It doesn’t usually happen that way.
But when she left, she just was ready for something else.
Janet was really sweet when she came in, but those were hard shoes to fill.
Then we started doing crossover shows, where they were combining both shows and that was odd.
They were really scrambling to venture to find ways to keep the show going.
When the show was finally canceled, how did you find out?
STEVENSON:I don’t think the show ever got picked up more than six episodes at a time.
We never had a full season pickup.
It was always on the bubble, as they say.
Even until the very end.
We were shooting at the end of that third season, and they canceled us.
But then there was a dispute between the online grid and Universal.
So, they brought us back after they made us pack up on the set and leave the studio.
And then the next day we were back!
[Laughs] We did one last episode knowing we were canceled…
I don’t know what would have happened to the show if we had kept making it.
At what point are we getting too old to be running around with flashlights?
[Laughs] In that sense, it was probably time.
Also, I was tired.
CASSIDY:I just remember it was sudden.
And I also remember not being terribly disappointed.
I’ve been very fortunate that way.
Big movies are waiting for you!”
That certainly happened to me.
It’s all driven by money because there’s more money to be made elsewhere.
The smart ones stayed.
[When the show was canceled], I thought, “Oh, this is great.”
But as it turns out, there weren’t 100 movies waiting to cast me when I finished.
[Laughs] I’m not even sure I would’ve wanted to do that.
Have you watched any mystery shows recently that you’ve liked?
STEVENSON:Actually, my wife is obsessed with them.
[Calls to wife] Hey, Liz.
Basically, I watch what she watches.
CASSIDY:White Lotusis really good.
Very much my kind of thing.Poker Face, too.
It felt like a marriage ofColumboandBig Lebowskior something.
It was so frustrating, because I liked shows that felt like novels, and I still do.
And now that is au courant, which is great.
Are you working on anything now that you might tell us about?
STEVENSON:I’m working on a couple of things.
Probably the only thing I can talk about is my photography, which really matters to me.
you’re able to see it atparkerstevensonshadowworks.com.
The truth is, if someone wants to know me, look at my photography.
But my photography is just me beginning, middle, and end.
CASSIDY:I’m still at Universal and happy to be there.
Select episodes ofThe Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteriesare streaming on Peacock.
