Nancy Drew: The Detective Teen, Onscreen

A few years back, I wrote a post celebrating the enduring legacy of teen detective queen, Nancy Drew. For that post, I stuck to the literary version of Nancy, but I did promise to revisit Nancy and her legacy in other forms of media. Well, with the recent news of a new Nancy Drew series coming this fall, now seems to be the perfect time to make good on that promise. So let’s dig in and take a stroll through Nancy’s film and television portrayal history.

The Mystery of the Multiple Nancys (see the entries below for a key to who’s who)

Nancy Drew (1930s) film series (Bonita Granville, top row, left)

• Nancy Drew: Detective (1938)
• Nancy Drew: Reporter (1939)
• Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter (1939)
• Nancy Drew: and the Hidden Staircase (1939)

Bonita Granville, a minor film star who had been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1936 played the first screen version of Nancy Drew in a series of films for Warner Bros. The films took a lot of liberties with their source material, but apparently Warner Bros. was pleased with the results. The studio quickly and (no doubt cheaply) churned out all four films in the series in less than a year.

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-78) ABC TV series (Pamela Sue Martin, top row, 2nd from left, Janet Louise Johnson, top row, 2nd from right)

It would be nearly 40 years before Nancy Drew would return to the screen (a pilot, Nancy Drew: Detective, was filmed in 1957, but never picked up) and even though this time it was the small screen of television, it would end up becoming the most enduring onscreen portrayal of the teen detective to this day.

Pamela Sue Martin, who had been mostly known for playing one of the only survivors of The Poseidon Adventure took on the role of Nancy in this co-headlining series (with one of my most fave opening credits, ever). The original format had episodes of The Nancy Drew Mysteries alternating each week with episodes of The Hardy Boys Mysteries, starring Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy. However, bolstered by Cassidy’s skyrocketing “teen idol” popularity, The Hardy Boys episodes consistently pulled in higher ratings than the Nancy Drew episodes. As a result, Season Two significantly cut back on Nancy’s solo episodes and instead had her team up with the Hardys for a number of crossover episodes. Upset with her dwindling role in the series, Martin left the show midway through the season and was replaced by Johnson, who appeared in four episodes. Nancy Drew was then written out of the show completely and it returned for its third and final season as just The Hardy Boys.

Nancy Drew (1995) Syndicated TV series (Tracy Ryan, top row, right)

This Canadian/French production featured Tracy Ryan as a 21 year-old Nancy Drew, attending college in New York and solving mysteries on the side, with help from her roommates and besties George and Bess. 13 ½ hour episodes of Nancy Drew were produced for syndication by Nelvana and it was usually packaged with another 13-episode Nelvana series, The Hardy Boys.

Nancy Drew (2002) ABC TV movie (Maggie Lawson, bottom row, left)

This TV movie, aired as an episode of the Wonderful World of Disney, featured a college co-ed Nancy navigating the sorority life while trying to solve a mystery involving a comatose football player. It was apparently intended to be a pilot for a new series, but nothing came of it.

Nancy Drew (2007) film (Emma Roberts, bottom row, 2nd from left)

After almost 70 years, Nancy Drew finally returned to the big screen in the form of Emma Roberts. Here, Nancy is a spunky 16 year-old who has recently relocated with her father, Carson Drew, from her hometown of River Heights to Los Angeles, where her quaint retro sensibility and style clash with the trendy out-there-ness of L.A.  It was only a modest hit at the box office, pulling in $30 million (worldwide) against an approximate production budget of $20 million.

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019) film (Sophia Lillis, bottom row, 2nd from right)

Made primarily for video-on-demand/Blu-ray, and starring IT girl Sophia Lillas, this film did get a limited roll-out in theatres earlier this year. A contemporary take that brings us Nancy Drew: skateboarding sleuth, this is also the second cinematic go ‘round for one of Nancy’s classic tales, The Hidden Staircase.

Nancy Drew (2019) CW TV series (Kennedy McMann, bottom row, right)

Which brings us to the present and CW’s upcoming Nancy Drew starring Kennedy McMann. Not much is known about the show, but if the trailers are any indication, we’ve got a sassy Nancy, spooky secrets, and a whole gaggle of cool cohorts to help Nancy sneak, snoop, and solve her way through the mysteries of River Heights.

 

And before we cap off this little Nancy retrospective, we have one “honourable mention”.

For all of Nancy’s varied onscreen appearances, they more or less stayed true to the core character, portraying her as a young (16-21) amateur detective. However, had it not been for a cruel twist of fate, there would have been one more Nancy on this list – one that would’ve offered very different take on our detective queen:

Nancy Drew and Daughter (1990) USA unaired series (Margot Kidder)

The USA network greenlit this series, starring Margot Kidder as an adult Nancy Drew running her own detective agency, for 13 episodes. However, during the filming of the first episode, Kidder was injured when the seat of the car she was driving wasn’t locked into position and thrust her into the steering wheel when she braked. Production on the show was halted and once legal battles began between Kidder and the production company, the series was shut down for good.

 

 

Resurgence Requested: TV Opening Credits

I’ve decided to add another semi-regular feature to Pop Culture Problems. With “Resurgence Requested” I’ll look in to something that has been sorely missing from the pop culture landscape and deserves resurgence. First up: Television Show Opening Credits.

Once a staple of practically every tv show, prime-time network television opening credits have become an endangered species. This has most likely stemmed from the big 4  (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) fearing that any supposed downtime between the ending of one show and the beginning of the next on their schedule will result in viewers instantly grabbing their remotes to check out what’s on any of the other bajillion channels at that time. So instead of a catchy theme song and cast member clips n’ credits, what we’re seeing more and more of these days is a quick title card accompanied by a musical “sting” and then actor credits discreetly displayed over the opening scene. Bleh.

While they may think it’s smart to economize their running time, doing away with opening credits not only does a disservice to viewers who enjoy them, but also a disservice to the show itself. Here’s why:

1. TV themes and/or songs can help set the tone of the series as well as be a convenient way to provide pertinent backstory. Shows like Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch, Charlie’s Angels and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air gave viewers all the info they needed to know about their show’s premises right in their opening songs or voice-overs.
2. Opening credits instantly give name-to-face recognition, especially useful for creating a viewer-actor connection, especially in shows with large and/or unknown casts. Take Beverly Hills, 90210 – its opening made certain that their target teen demographic knew exactly who was who in their largely unknown cast – and their popularity instantly skyrocketed when the show became a hit.
3. TV themes and songs help build brand recognition (and the catchiest ones can become just as – if not more – popular and iconic as the shows themselves). The theme from The Twilight Zone is instantly recognizable – even to people who have never even seen the original series – while lines such as  “Who can turn the world on with a smile”, “Come and knock on our door”, “You take the good, you take the bad”, “Where everybody knows your name”, “Thank you for being a friend” and “I’ll be there for you” are all many viewers need to hear to quickly connect them with Mary Tyler Moore, Three’s Company, The Facts of Life, Cheers, The Golden Girls and Friends.
4. Opening credits are the perfect opportunity to sell your show to new viewers – essentially turning it into a “greatest clips” montage that will engage and excite. Set perfectly to The Who’s “Who Are You”, the quick-cut opening credits of CSI still manage to get me excited for an upcoming episode, even after 14 years.

And just for kicks, here are a few of my favourite opening credits, the last one is a classic, the others are what I consider to be “hidden gems”:

The Colbys – the theme for this Dynasty spinoff about the rich and powerful Colby clan of California is sweeping, thrilling and majestic. While I could go with never seeing another episode of The Colbys for the rest of my life, this theme will always be my go-to instrumental quick-fix.

Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries – the theme music evokes the feel of eerie mystery and adventure and in a brilliant stroke of branding genius, the likenesses of stars Pamela Sue Martin, Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy were superimposed onto actual covers of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, making it so that to a generation of young viewers, they were those famous teen sleuths.  (Below is a clip from a season two, Nancy Drew-specific episode, followed by the lesser-quality -but spookier!- combined credits used for season one).

Batman (1966) – Classic theme, classic look – nails the fun and campy comic book vibe of the series perfectly.

Like CSI, though, these days most of the network shows with opening credits are veteran series. But, I was pleasantly surprised when I tuned into what became my favourite new series last season – Elementary – and was greeted with honest-to-goodness opening credits. And apparently others were to, since it was nominated for an Emmy in the Best Main Title Design category (not surprisingly, it was the only “big network” show nominated). And imagine my delight when my favourite new show of this season – Sleepy Hollow – also came complete with great opening credits! And funny thing about that – Sleepy Hollow is also one of  the highest rated new shows this season and was the first one to be renewed for a second season. Looks like opening credits aren’t going to give people an excuse to channel surf if they’re actually watching something that’s grabbed their attention. Now there’s a thought – if the networks just focus on creating shows that people will be interested in, then opening credits can be brought back without any worry of viewer migration…right?

One last thing – without opening credits, we would never get rare treats like the one The Simpsons offers us around this time every year – their Halloween “Treehouse Of Horror” Special Edition opening credits. So in the spirit of the season, here is this year’s mini-masterpiece, brought to you by Guillermo Del Toro: