| Genre: | Cartoon series |
| Creator: | Based on the juvenile book series created by Edward Stratemeyer |
| Director: | Hal Sutherland |
| Voices: | Byron Kane Dallas McKennon Jane Webb |
| Country: | United States |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 17 |
| Producer: | Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer |
| Company: | Filmation Associates |
| Runtime: | 30 min. |
| Network: | ABC |
The Hardy Boys is an American animated series, produced by Filmation and aired Saturday mornings on ABC in 1969.[1] It features the Hardy Boys, Joe and Frank, along with their friends Chubby Morton, Wanda Kay Breckenridge, and Pete Jones (one of the first black characters to appear on Saturday morning television) touring as a rock band while solving mysteries.[2] The series is also notable for its opening and closing credits, in which the Hardys appeared in live action. The series debuted at the same time as Hanna-Barbera's similarly themed Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which aired on CBS. The series is noteworthy for including the producers' rotating wheel for the first time, which would make Filmation a household name.
Two 12-minute mysteries, based on the original book stories, made up one 24-minute television show. The 1969–1970 episodes were repeated for a second year in 1970–1971. Two live action songs were inserted in the middle of the mysteries and also used for the main and end titles, performed by a group calling themselves "The Hardy Boys".[3] These songs were sold at stores on records and audio tapes under the album titles Here Come The Hardy Boys (Billboard #199) and Wheels. Both albums have since been released on streaming platforms in 2011 & 2021, respectively, by Sony Music.
As of March 2021, ownership of the rights to the series is currently unknown. The last known rights holder (for broadcast distribution only) was 20th Century Fox in the 1980s. However, in the 1970s and 1980s most of its episodes were released on 16mm film, which have been uploaded by numerous users to YouTube.