History Literature / TheHardyBoys

** In "Hits and Misses", one of the [=SuperMysteries=] with Nancy Drew, the sleuths meet a young woman with memory loss who jusst uses "Jane Doe" until they can help her remember her identity. Funny enough, her actual name really ''does'' turn out to be Jane [Orbach].

*** Joe, meanwhile, has his confidence and positive attitude dialed up to the point of sometimes being a braggart, even arrogant, and comes across as a downright ditz in a few books.

They seem a bit prone to a CrossOver with ''Literature/NancyDrew''.

** In "Hits and Misses", one of the [=SuperMysteries=] with Nancy Drew, the sleuths meet a young woman with memory loss who uses the standard "Jane Doe" until they can help her remember her identity. Funny enough, her actual name really ''does'' turn out to be Jane [Orbach].

** In "Hits and Misses", one of the [=SuperMysteries=] with Nancy Drew, the sleuths meet a young woman with memory loss who goes by the standard "Jane Doe" until they can help her remember her identity. Funny enough, her actual name really ''does'' turn out to be Jane [Orbach].

** In ''Undercover Brothers'', TheBully Brian Conrad hates pretty much everybody, but especially the Hardy Boys; however, he hates Frank the most of anyone because Brian's younger sister, Belinda, has a huge crush on Frank, even though he's mostly too shy to return her advances.

* DoNotGoGentle: One short story has Chief Collig's nephew Tom initially surviving being shot in the back and firing after the crooks who shot him.

* ExtrudedBookProduct: One of the worst and longest running examples of this trope ever recorded alongside sister series ''Nancy Drew''. Here's a timeline of just how bad it was:

** To a lesser extent, the ''Undercover Brothers'' series to the originals and Digests, which it directly replaces/succeeds as the main ''Hardy Boys'' canon (unlikes the ''Casefiles'', which is a spin-off series). Though ''Undercover Brothers'' isn't '''as''' graphic as the ''Casefiles'', almost every book still includes at least one death (occurring either before the story as the case that the brothers have to solve, during the plot itself, or both); in contrast, the originals and Digests, while certainly having many cases of the villains ''trying'' to kill the boys, contained very few actual deaths.

** Several Digests and ''Casefiles'' will have particular focus on one of the boys' four main "chums"--Chet Morton, Tony Prito, Phil Cohen, and Biff Hooper--which usually involves one of them being kidnapped, framed for a crime and needing the boys to [[ClearMyName clear them]], or if they have a friend/family member/love interest who needs help.

** Aunt Gertrude was initially written as a genuinely unpleasant and domineering woman whom none of the Hardy family particularly liked and only tolerated when she foisted herself on them for periodic visits, and who greatly intimidated the Hardy Boys. She was also implied to be an aunt of Laura's (and thus a great-aunt to the boys), since she referred to Fenton on a FullNameBasis. She was soon rewritten into her classic characterization as the TropeCodifier of the MaidenAunt, becoming Fenton's older sister who permanently lives with the family, and though she scolds the boys for getting into danger, she's also very protective and proud of them and frequently makes them delicious food, while they in turn are sincerely fond of her.

* GutturalGrowler: Croaker, TheDragon from the ''Casefiles'' book "The Number File", is described as having a grating voice which provides the source of his nickname.

** Both Fenton and Laura, but more often the former, have been captured many times by the bad guys to use as hostages against the brothers.

* SeriesContinuityError: Possibly. In the ''Undercover Brothers'' book "Operation: Survival", Frank and Joe make a reference to Literature/NancyDrew in a way that indicates either that they know her or that she's a fictional character in this timeline. A year and a half later, the first Super Mystery crossover book, "Terror on Tour" was released, wherein the boys meet Nancy for the first time in the ''Undercover Brothers''/''Girl Detective'' continuity (unlike in previous series where they'd already known each other for years at the time of the first crossover). Since they'd heard of her from stories about her cases, it's ''technically'' possible that they were referencing her based on what they'd read from the news, but it's a stretch.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** In the ''Undercover Brothers'' series (and a few ''Casefiles'' for some reason), Con Riley's last name is changed to be spelled "Reilly".
** In the one ''Adventures'' book in which he appears, Biff Hooper's real name is now spelled "Alan" instead of "Allen" the way it was before.

** In ''Undercover Brothers'', Chet is the ''only'' male friend of theirs from the original books who still appears; all the others are never name-dropped even once. Callie here as well; she makes one appearance in an earlier book before dropping out. Even Iola, who still appears, is no longer Joe's girlfriend; she's simply a friend of both brothers, as is Callie in her sole appearance.

** There are also a few names that get re-used a lot across certain series. For example, the ''Casefiles'' and spinoffs have no less than ''four'' different girls/women named "Gina" across various books, and ''Undercover Brothers'' has at least three different "Justin"s (and, weirdly enough, two of the three have [[AlwaysIdenticalTwins an identical twin brother]] who pretends to be him as a plot point). In the same series, there are also two different "Jenna"s who each acts as a LoveInterest to one of the boys (a LoveInterestTraitor, in Frank's case).

** Some of the Hardy's circle of friends have slowly faded away as time has gone by. Chet is still a regular; Biff Hooper, Tony Prito, and Phil Cohen appear reasonably frequently, though certainly not in every book; but Jerry Gilroy and Perry "Slim" Robinson completely disappear even before the end of the original 58 books, and don't show up even in the Digests.

** "Trouble in Warp Space", which came out in 2002 (nearly 80 years after the series first debuted), has this great line:

** Some of the ''Casefiles'' books play up Joe's impulsiveness, hot temper, and girl-crazy personality while downplaying his good instincts and sharp investigative skills, causing him to pretty much come off as a DumbMuscle JerkJock who gets easily distracted from the case by a pretty face while Frank is the one to make most of the important deductions. This could get especially bad in the crossovers with Nancy Drew; since these books tend to put more focus on Nancy overall, Joe is, in many of them, reduced primarily to his shallower character traits.

** The Network from the ''Casefiles'', a CIA/Interpol-like spy agency of the "so secret it doesn't officially exist" variety. Fenton Hardy has had dealings with them before, and the boys themselves begin working with them in the first book of the series and do so again many times, eventually to the point of being unofficial part-time freelance agents whom the Network sometimes contacts outright to assign them cases, though just as often, they end up getting involved in Network cases completely by accident. Their main contact at the Network is the Gray Man, or "Mr. Gray", who is essentially the second-in-command of the whole agency and acts as a cross between a mentor and handler for them.

** American Teens Against Crime, or ATAC (pronounced "attack"), in ''Undercover Brothers'' is a government agency co-founded by Fenton Hardy that solely employs teenagers from around the country as their field agents, with the premise that there are some places where kids would blend in much better while investigating undercover than adults would. Frank and Joe were the first two recruits (thus how this series got its name), and are investigating ATAC cases in almost every book; as such, unlike the other series in the franchise, they are not amateur detectives in this one, and instead are official agents. They receive high-tech spy gear related to their cases in most books, and often reference having received extensive field training in a wide variety of different subjects.

** The Frank/Callie relationship in the ''Casefiles'' is further enforced by the fact that, interestingly, nearly every single time that Frank ''is'' actually attracted to the other girl and seems like he might have a fling with her, she turns out to be one of the bad guys (minus Nancy Drew, of course). Even some of the girls he ''does'' turn down are bad guys. This sometimes happens to Joe, too, of course, but not nearly as much, proportionally, as it does to Frank.

*** The second "Super Mysteries" combines ''Undercover Brothers'' and Nancy Drew's ''Girl Detective'' series, and is also 6 books. This time around, the boys meet Nancy and her friends for the first time in the first book, wherein the girls become some of the very few people to learn about their work with ATAC and are [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]] for them for all subsequent volumes.

** Callie is one of the boys' few friends to show up in the cover illustrations of any of the series, making several appearances on the front of various ''Casefiles'' books. However, whenever she's shown clinging to one of the brothers in the picture, or them to her, it's almost always Joe, even though she's ''Frank'''s girlfriend (and many times was indeed actually clinging to Frank during the scene in question from the book). Conversely, if a GirlOfTheWeek who acts as Joe's LoveInterest in the story is shown on the cover, she's often paired up with Frank there.
** The ''Adventures'' books have at least two early offenders where the covers show Frank and Joe dangling from precarious places--hanging off a Ferris wheel in "The Vanishing Game" and a ship's mast in "The Battle of Bayport"--that, in the book proper, each turn out to just be from a [[AllJustADream nightmare]] Frank has that's mentioned in all of a few sentences and never brought up again. One really gets the feeling that the writers didn't feel like there was anything that happened during the plot that would make for an exciting cover image, or that they couldn't find a way to work the scene depicted in the illustrations into the book proper, and just threw in those "nightmare" sequences as weak justification.

** Bayport police officer Con Riley was initially portrayed similarly to Oscar Smuff: an utter idiot and a textbook example of PoliceAreUseless, who, despite regarding the Hardys with a NotNowKiddo attitude and acting like he knew better, was constantly upstaged by them. While this portrayal remained in place for Smuff--who was phased out after the original series--Riley evolves by the time of the Digests and ''Casefiles'' into a competent cop, ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and the boys' most trusted FriendOnTheForce (moreso even than Chief Collig, thanks to the latter butting heads with them often and dislikeing them solving cases before him). In many books where the boys are investigating cases outside of Bayport, they'll even call Con for information like background checks and running license plates.

** Bayport police officer Con Riley was initially portrayed similarly to Oscar Smuff: an utter idiot and a textbook example of PoliceAreUseless, who, despite regarding the Hardys with a NotNowKiddo attitude and acting like he knew better, was constantly upstaged by them. While this portrayal remained in place for Smuff--who was phased out after the original series--Riley evolves by the time of the Digests and ''Casefiles'' into a competent cop, ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and the boys' most trusted FriendOnTheForce (moreso even than Chief Collig, thanks to the latter becoming a GrumpyBear who butts heads with them often and dislikes them solving cases before him). In many books where the boys are investigating cases outside of Bayport, they'll even call Con for information like background checks and running license plates.

** The original version of "The Secret of the Caves" has the boys looking for someone named Todham Todd. During their investigation, they encounter a violent and highly insane man who goes by "Captain Royal" living in the caves off the coast, who holds them prisoner and attempts to kill them multiple times. It turns out that Captain Royal is actually an amnesiac Todd, and after being knocked unconscious and left comatose, he gets his original memories back when he wakes up, and turns out to be a perfectly nice, harmless person who has no recollection of the violent alternate life he lived as Royal.

A LongRunningBookSeries of mysteries for kids and teens, published under the [[PenName pseudonym]] of Franklin W. Dixon. They follow the adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, a [[SiblingTeam pair of brother detectives]]. Frank is the logical, calm one, and Joe is the more impulsive, instinctual one. The series (alongside their DistaffCounterpart and frequent {{crossover}} partner Literature/NancyDrew) invented or popularized most of the KidDetective tropes. It's also prominent by the abundance of {{Tom Swiftie}}s.

A LongRunningBookSeries of mysteries for kids and teens, published under the [[PenName pseudonym]] of Franklin W. Dixon. They follow the adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, a [[SiblingTeam pair of brother detectives]]. Frank is the logical, calm one, and Joe is the more impulsive, instinctual one. The series (alongside their DistaffCounterpart and frequent {{crossover}} partner Literature/NancyDrew) invented or popularized most of the KidDetective tropes.

They seem a bit prone to a CrossOver with Literature/NancyDrew.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''