I notice on Amazon that there are season DVDs of "The Hardy Boys," and "The Hardy Boys /Nancy Drew Mysteries." Were these two separate series or just different packaging?

It's the same series, but for the final 3rd season, Nancy Drew left - so it was just The Hardy Boys.

Just to further note, in seasons 1 and 2 there were separate episodes for the Hardy Boys and separate episodes for Nancy Drew... they only did crossover episodes once or twice. But they were all part of the "Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries".

YAY!!!!!! So glad to see another fan of "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" on here. I'm a longtime fan of The Hardy Boys books and this late 1970s show is by far one of my favorite TV show versions of the books ever.:) :cool:
As robby76 said, the whole series is called "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries", but oftentimes it was marketed like two separate series- "The Hardy Boys" and "Nancy Drew". There is kind of a complicated history with this show, but here's the rundown. In the first season, the series ran with separate episodes for "The Hardy Boys" and "Nancy Drew". Every week, the series alternated between showing one or the other.
In the second season, I think presumably because The Hardy Boys episodes were doing better ratingswise than Nancy Drew episodes (I'm not totally sure on all the reasons for this), but anyway- the producers decided that Nancy Drew would mainly be showing up only in crossover stories.
So the second season premiere episode is a 2-parter that has Nancy Drew meeting The Hardy Boys. Then the alternating pattern is again in place, as a Hardy Boys episode airs next. They team up again in another 2-parter episode next- but after that, Nancy Drew's appearances in the second season got really sporadic. However, Nancy still got a few separate episodes where it was just her appearing- there were three solo Nancy Drew episodes for season 2. Pamela Sue Martin left the series in Season 2 after doing those episodes and Janet Louise Johnson was brought in to take over the role of Nancy Drew for the rest of Season 2. She appears as Nancy Drew in a 2-part episode and then 2 further episodes after that- all of these are crossover episodes with The Hardy Boys.
In the third season, Nancy Drew's character was dropped altogether and the series was retitled simply "The Hardy Boys". Frank and Joe were now working for The Justice Department in this season.
You may notice that there are two different listings for "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" Season 1 on DVD on Amazon.com
This one (http://www.amazon.com/Hardy-Boys-Nancy-Drew-Mysteries/dp/B0007CNY54/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1410276509&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Hardy+Boys) is the original 2005 release of Season 1 on DVD.
This one (http://www.amazon.com/Hardy-Boys-Nancy-Drew-Mysteries/dp/B00EIBO8PU/ref=sr_1_6?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1410276509&sr=1-6&keywords=The+Hardy+Boys) is a 2013 rerelease of Season 1 on DVD in a slimmer case.
Season 2 also had a rerelease on DVD around the same time, but it is not much different from the original release; just a slightly altered front cover.
And Season 3 is just listed as "The Hardy Boys: Season 3".
You can read more about the show and video release history at The Hardy Boys wiki page here-
http://hardyboys.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hardy_Boys_Nancy_Drew_Mysteries

Hope that helps you. If you're a fan of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, you may enjoy this great Web site and forum (http://www.hardyboyscasefiles.com)as well.

I don't know if I'm what one would call a hard-core fan or not. I remember watching some of the episodes during the original run, but I haven't seen any in re-runs since. I was browsing YouTube recently and stumbled upon the first episode, "The Haunted House." I watched and thought it was good, so I was contemplating ordering the DVD, but wanted to make sure about how it was packaged so i would get the right thing. Thanks.

You're welcome- glad I could help.:) :cool:
Post on this thread when you get a chance to watch more episodes and let me know what you think. I'm probably biased as a fan of the books long before ever seeing the show, but nonetheless- I LOVE the series! Though The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have actually had a number of different adaptations through the years, this show is by far the most famous and best remembered, I think. (Probably because it was around the longest of the various TV series and I'm pretty sure it generated the most merchandise. It helps that Shaun Cassidy was a huge singing star at the time. His acting career helped fuel his singing career and vice versa at the time. And Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin all became famous from this and other productions as well- they all did great work on this show, in my opinion.:) :cool:

Also, here's a fun thing to watch for with the series. Keep an eye out for the number of actors and actresses that guest star on "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries". There are a number of famous names- some of them in their earlier years before they really became famous. It's kinda neat to see so many stars- Richard Kiel, Roger Davis, Monte Markham, Joe Penny, Gordon Jump, Irene Tedrow, Mary Jo Catlett, Ricky Nelson, Rick Springfield, Jamie Lee Curtis, Victor Buono, Bob Crane, Dina Merill, Pippa Scott, Ken Swofford, Penny Peyser, Josh Taylor, Beverly Garland, Robert Englund, Shelly Novack, James Shigeta, David Wayne, Reb Brown, Herb Voland, Rosalind Chao, Bill Saito, Mark Harmon, Martin Kove, Michael Pataki, Howard Cosell, Paul Williams, Lorne Greene, Bernie Taupin, Elyssa Davalos, Clive Revill, Casey Kasem, J.D. Cannon, Dennis Weaver, James Wainwright, Robert Wagner, Jaclyn Smith, Anne Lockhart, June Lockhart, Harold Sylvester, Bonnie Ebsen, Tony Dow, Britt Leach, William Sylvester, Frank Parker, Elena Frank, Craig Stevens, Maureen McCormick, Jack Colvin, Roger C. Carmel, Larry Storch, Val Avery, John Dresden, Dan O'Herlihy, William Campbell, Missy Gold, John Karlen, Nicholas Hammond, Tony Burton, Simon Oakland, Guy Stockwell, Melanie Griffith, Jack Scalici, Royal Dano, Dorothy Malone, Valerie Bertinelli, Diana Muldaur, Robert Horton, James Hong, Michael Jackson (not the singer though;) ), Kim Cattrall, Linda Dano, James T. Callahan, Johnny Sekka, Howard Duff, Ray Milland, Julius Harris, Edd Byrnes, Vic Damone, Troy Donahue, Fabian, Tommy Sands, Deborah Walley, Shepherd Sanders, Maren Jensen, Nathan Jung, Jack Jones, Jack Hogan, Tara Buckman, Gary Wood, Joseph Cotton, Cathy Rigby, Pernell Roberts, Stepfanie Kramer, Anthony DeLongis, Kevin Tighe, Kevin Brophy, Mills Watson, Ian Abercrombie, Leon Ames, Patrick Macnee, Dana Andrews, Darleen Carr, John Colicos, Gino Conforti, Lloyd Nolan, Dane Clark, Robert Loggia, Rebecca York, Joseph Ruskin, Robin Mattson, Nina Axelrod, Don Diamond, Bobby Van, Pamela Franklin, David Gates (yes, the lead singer of Bread), Michael Botts, Eric Lawrence, Robert Feero, Nehemiah Persoff, Larry Knechtel, Mary Louise Weller, Nancy Morgan, Leon Askin, Dennis Holahan, Jim Raymond, Patch McKenzie, Karen Lamm, Adam Roarke, Ana Alicia .............and the list goes on and on..........................


And of course- there is also the supporting cast:
Besides Shaun Cassidy as Joe Hardy, Parker Stevenson as Frank Hardy and Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew, there were some others that helped add so much to the series and for book fans, it was great to see some of the supporting characters from the books come to life.

Of course, as already mentioned, Janet Louise Johnson (now known as Janet Julian) took over as Nancy Drew at the end of the 2nd. season for a few episodes.
For the Nancy Drew universe, we also got to see William Schallert do an excellent job of portraying Carson Drew, Nancy's dad, through the first two seasons. George O'Hanlon, Jr. portrayed Ned Nickerson (Nancy Drew's longtime boyfriend in the books) in the first season. This character was largely dropped in the second season, though Rick Springfield portrayed Ned in one episode in the second season, but the character was treated as meeting Nancy for the first time in that episode. [Since he never appeared again in the series, apparently that reintroduction of the character didn't quite work.]
Jean Rasey portrayed Nancy's constant companion who helped her on so many cases, George Fayne. Jean Rasey did a great job with the role in the first season and then in the second season Susan Buckner portrayed the character for a few episodes.
Ruth Cox also portrayed Bess Marvin, another close friend of Nancy's and frequent helper on cases as well, as well as George's cousin. She only appeared in a few episodes in the second season.

For The Hardy Boys universe, we got to see Lisa Eilbacher portray Callie Shaw (Frank's longtime girlfriend in the books) for most of the first season. The character was dropped after that, unfortunately. She did a great job with Callie.
Gary Springer portrayed longtime Hardy Boys chum Chet Morton for 2 episodes in the first season. He didn't show up past that, but at least we got to see him do a great job as Chet for the episodes he appeared in.
Herb Voland portrayed Chief Ezra Collig for two episodes and that was great to see this character come to life, as it's the only appearance of this character outside of the books and graphic novels thus far. He only appeared in the first season as well.
Edith Atwater portrayed Aunt Gertrude in the first season and did a fine job with the role. Again, this character was dropped after the first season.
And Jack Kelly appeared throughout the third season as Harry Hammond, Frank and Joe's contact and boss at The Justice Department.
And of course, I have to mention Edmund Gilbert, who appeared as Fenton Hardy, Frank and Joe's dad, throughout the series and did a wonderful job in the role! I particularly appreciated having him there as part of the series- that definitely helped maintain the feel of the classic books in the original Hardy Boys series.

It would have been great to see other book characters appear though- like Iola Morton (Chet's sister and Joe's longtime girlfriend in the books) and Laura Hardy! (Frank and Joe's mom, who, as far as I know, has yet to get an appearance in any media outside of the books and graphic novels.)
Other Hardy Boys chums like Phil Cohen, Biff Hooper, Tony Prito and Jerry Gilroy would have been nice to see too. Officer Con Riley, Detective Oscar Smuff and Private Investigator Sam Radley (an operative who worked for Fenton Hardy) would have been great to see too. And for Nancy Drew, it would have been nice to see Hannah Gruen, her housekeeper.
But I'm glad for the appearances that did happen and for the show that was made- it's a great series that I love watching over and over again periodically.:) :cool: