the Hardy Boys Saturday Mourning Cartoon

[Uncle Chuck]

Here's an obscure Filmation cartoon that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1971 based (rather loosely) on the Hardy Boys books. It's never been *officially* released on DVD or VHS, although 2 DVD's (one with 5 episodes, and another with 10) have popped up at toy conventions and online. Seems like this would make an interesting preservation project

The basic premise of the show turned the Hardy Boys into a rock band, which is used as a front to investigate crimes. The group consisted of Joe and Frank Hardy (Joe being the blond/brown haired one, Frank being the black haired guy), Pete Jones (the African American), Chet ("Chubby") Morton (guess), and Wanda-Kay (once again, take a wild guess). The show is notable for being the first cartoon to ever feature a regular Black character, but other than that it's just the bastard child of "Scooby Doo" (which ran in the same timeslot) and "The Archie Show". Each episode consisted of two mysteries based on the books, plus a music video that played in between.

View at your own risk. The "Mourning" part of the thread title isn't a typo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNS6HhtElLo (intro)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfJrB7IQmnM (a music video that played between the two mysteries)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA0mkvmEHsA (a clip of an episode as well as the outro)

[lordsmurf]

That's just crazy campy.

It reminds me of the Archies, mixed with Jabberjaw (instead of Scooby).
I'm guessing those clips came from 16mm reels.
Those Youtube clips actually don't look very rough. I wonder how it compares to the DVDs?

I've seen ads for this show in my late 60's Archie comics.

[Uncle Chuck]

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

That's just crazy campy.

It reminds me of the Archies, mixed with Jabberjaw (instead of Scooby).
I'm guessing those clips came from 16mm reels.
Those Youtube clips actually don't look very rough. I wonder how it compares to the DVDs?

I've seen ads for this show in my late 60's Archie comics.

Actually, the guy who uploaded the clips said that he bought a DVD of the show at a toy convention several years ago. They appear to be sourced from a VHS which was copied from a film reel (whether it was a telecine reel or some rare 16mm release I'm not sure ). He says he had to filter them quite a bit before he uploaded them.

I took a little stab at trying to clean up one of the clips myself. However, the audio/video quality was too low to really do much with it

Filtered version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erQss-3NlfI
Original version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfJrB7IQmnM

[Uncle Chuck]

Well, I took another stab at trying to filter a clip, and I think I did a way better job this time

Original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMNk3Sryz5c

Filtered video is in the attachment box.

[davidflecha17]

Pretty catchy song. Show looks interesting.

[lordsmurf]

I need to look at this when I get a bit more free time.
Audio isn't an issue for me, even when it's rough. It's generally fixable in some way.

[Uncle Chuck]

Found some!
http://shop.toonarific.com/product.php?productid=16283
It's probably from the same set as the YT videos, and probably super crap. I'd be willing to give this a shot sometime. Anyone else?

[lordsmurf]

@ shop.toonarific.com

I realize some of those shows/episodes/specials are rare, but given that it's low quality homemade bootlegs, that person is a real ***. Some of the DVDs are $99 each, which is ridiculous. He's not a collector, or trying to help other collectors, he's a profiteering opportunist. Those are the kind of people who really piss me off. He and his wife have been around for many years (mid/late 90s), and I remember complaints about them as far back as the newsgroup era.

[grillgoil43]

I really hope one or you will be able to pursue this venture and make some kind of a set of this show. Please keep us informed on the progress! I'd absolutely LOVE to work something out to get a copy of this! I recently met the guy who played Frank (well, more accurately, Frank when the band was singing/playing) and would love to give him a copy of this!

In case anyone is interested in a glimpse of what the members of the Hardy Boys BAND looked like...here ya go! (At least I hope I did this right...)

http://reedkailing.com/userfiles/ima...omophoto_a.JPG

Frank (Reed Kailing) is the good looking guy in the center. Reed was also a member of several other bands including my all time favorite The Grass Roots.