Solving mysteries, the nostalgic way...

All this talk about a new Nancy Drew movie takes me back to childhood.

I didn't care too much for Nancy, but I loved The Hardy Boys. Neighbor Marilyn Johnson gave me my first "Hardy Boys" mystery. It was an old copy of "While the Clock Ticked" that had belonged to her son Ben.

The Hardys were cool. They had motorcycles. They had a boat. They solved crimes. It was the ultimate.

I read and re-read that book 10 times. Then I had to have all the other "Hardy Boys" books. They were my constant companions until I got old enough to read other stuff.

Somewhere along the way I found out that ABC had aired a TV series. I dragged my mom all over town trying to find the show on home video. We finally found a few copies.

Universal has released two seasons of the original series on DVD. It's a hoot after all these years watching Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy solving crimes. It's fun and innocent and feels a lot like a live-action version of "Scooby Doo."

The show was the brain child of the amazing Glen A. Larson, who must have been the hardest working guy in TV for years. It originally ran Sunday nights on ABC, alternating weeks between The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

That Nancy, Pamela Sue Martin, will always be my favorite. I was in love with that girl. I wanted to marry a woman just like her when I grew up. Ahh, the innocent bliss of childhood.

And for all you classic movie buffs, TCM is airing the late 1930s/early 1940s Nancy Drew movies starring Bonita Granville tonight beginning at 8 p.m. (EDT). I haven't seen them in years, so I can't remember enough to review them for ya.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but the ABC series will always be my favorite. Course, nothing can ever top those children's novels.

I can promise you that the pictures I formed in my head of the Hardys and of Nancy are better than anything Hollywood could ever dream up.