21st Century Nancy Drew

TV is once again attempting to bring legendary "girl detective" Nancy Drew to life. We dust off our very first episode for a look at past attempts to put the hugely popular Nancy Drew mysteries on the small screen. The book series' backstory is a fascinating look at ego & the evolution of publishing. Excerpts are included from Melanie Rehak's 2005 "Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her."

We explore why the Sunday night series that paired actress Pamela Sue Martin's Nancy Drew with The Hardy Boys failed in 1977-1979 and how the books have impacted TV herstory.


Here are links for further reading:

"The Not So Hidden Racism of Nancy Drew" https://electricliterature.com/the-not-so-hidden-racism-of-nancy-drew/
"How does Nancy Drew connect to the books? Almost everything is different" https://www.bustle.com/p/how-does-nancy-drew-connect-to-the-books-almost-everything-is-different-19199448

"Why does it matter who wrote Nancy Drew anyway?" https://crimereads.com/why-does-it-matter-who-wrote-nancy-drew-anyway/   "Mildred Benson is dead at 96; wrote 23 Nancy Drew books" https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/books/mildred-benson-is-dead-at-96-wrote-23-nancy-drew-books.html   "The Mystery of Carolyn Keene" https://www.lib.umd.edu/nancy/influential-authors/carolyn-keene   "The adventurous writer who brought Nancy Drew to life" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/adventurous-writer-who-brought-Nancy-Drew-to-life-180969479/   "The Stratemeyer Syndicate" https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/collections/12/the-stratemeyer-syndicate/  
Clips and Music:

Nancy Drew (The CW) Trailer HD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYOK1K_04Gc   "Uniq - Art of Silence" is under a Royalty Free music license.
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/er--pnwFDgU   'Moody Swing' by Oshóva is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0)
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/CPhnejWBYtc   'Malibu' by Scandinavianz is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0)
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/iusKLrpij2w

TV is once again attempting to bring legendary "girl detective" Nancy Drew to life. We dust off our very first episode for a look at past attempts to put the hugely popular Nancy Drew mysteries on the small screen. The book series' backstory is a fascinating look at ego & the evolution of publishing. Excerpts are included from Melanie Rehak's 2005 "Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her."

We explore why the Sunday night series that paired actress Pamela Sue Martin's Nancy Drew with The Hardy Boys failed in 1977-1979 and how the books have impacted TV herstory. Here are links for further reading:

"The Not So Hidden Racism of Nancy Drew" https://electricliterature.com/the-not-so-hidden-racism-of-nancy-drew/ "How does Nancy Drew connect to the books? Almost everything is different" https://www.bustle.com/p/how-does-nancy-drew-connect-to-the-books-almost-everything-is-different-19199448 "Why does it matter who wrote Nancy Drew anyway?" https://crimereads.com/why-does-it-matter-who-wrote-nancy-drew-anyway/   "Mildred Benson is dead at 96; wrote 23 Nancy Drew books" https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/books/mildred-benson-is-dead-at-96-wrote-23-nancy-drew-books.html   "The Mystery of Carolyn Keene" https://www.lib.umd.edu/nancy/influential-authors/carolyn-keene   "The adventurous writer who brought Nancy Drew to life" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/adventurous-writer-who-brought-Nancy-Drew-to-life-180969479/   "The Stratemeyer Syndicate" https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/collections/12/the-stratemeyer-syndicate/   Clips and Music: Nancy Drew (The CW) Trailer HD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYOK1K_04Gc   "Uniq - Art of Silence" is under a Royalty Free music license. Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/er--pnwFDgU   'Moody Swing' by Oshóva is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0) Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/CPhnejWBYtc   'Malibu' by Scandinavianz is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0) Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: https://youtu.be/iusKLrpij2w