The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 147

Another Cassidy singing career launched Joe of the Hardy Boys launched his singing career in the television series at the most popular teenybopper discotheque in fictional Bayport. Mass. And Shaun Cassidy. who plays Joe and was already a rock celebrity among teens and subteens overseas, was able to launch his own American singing career at the same time. "It was the first time I ever sang on the show." says the 18-year-old actor who co-stars as the younger brother on "The Hardy Boys Mystery Hour." "The Mystery of the Flying Courier" was first seen on April 10 and featured Joe Hardy's debut at the local disco.

The rugby-shirted amateur detective opened talent night second season. And Cassidy. who had a European tour under his belt before he got the television part last spring, conceded the obvious: The almost-weekly tube exposure hasn't hurt his musical aspiration. "The show has made my career to a great extent" via the exposure, he said. CASSIDY, besides his actress-mother Shirley Jones, has some pretty impressive show business relatives to emulate his actor father, the late Jack Cassidy.

and an older half-brother. David Cassidy. 26. a rock and television series star when he was about Shaun's age. David "obviously was a big influence on me as my mother and father were." Shaun said.

Unlike David, ho aspired to be an actor and wound up on a musical show. Shaun said his ambition was and still is music-either as a performer' or maybe someday as a record producer or riter. Cassidy said he tried out for the "Hardy Boys" part thinking it was a one-shot television movie. He said he sought the role after his manager suggested "it might be a good idea for me to get some acting experience if along the long and winding road I'd want to act some more. I'd have some experience under my belt." "I thought the show might get in the way of the music but I've found the two have worked together beautifully." said Shaun.

"Creatively it (the show) doesn't help, but it doesn't hurt either. I've thought about putting a piano in my dressing room so I can write sonas while I'm waitina around." 1 "Hi with the 1963 rock hit by the Crystals "Da Doo Ron Ron." "I REALLY TRY to keep the two careers separate." said Cassidy. "When I sing on the show. I'm Joe Hardy singing on the show. I'm never Shaun Cassidy singing on the show.

What I do in concert is totally different than hat 1 do as Joe Hardy." In the live performances "it's not as vouns. a little more so Shaun Cassidy phisticated, the theatricals, the album cuts which I write myself." said Shaun. whose first U.S. hit is a remake of the early '60s rock classic. The Hardy Boys family mystery show is now filming its ycclcrdau'c cizrc today Funnyman Sweeney now producer Bv NANCY ANDERSON Copley News Service HOLLYWOOD-Nobody- enjoys a good laugh more than Bob Sweeney, who.

after all. used to be part of a comdy team. A part of three comedy teams, in fact. While he still was living in his home town, attending San Francisco State College. Sweeney and a classmate.

George Fenneman (later to win fame as a TV emcee) put together a stand-up comedy act and entertained troops at military bases during the early months of World War II. LATER, he teamed with the late Hal March to co-star on the CBS radio network in "The Bob Sweeney-Hal earlv television variety didn relish tne laughter arising in a screening room where "The Andros Targets." was being previewed for the press. Because Sweeney is executive producer of "The Andros Targets" and it's not supposed to be funny. "This isn't a documentary about how a newspaper is published. It's a drama about an investigative reporter." Sw eeney's progress from comedy player to producer was by way of directing, a field he entered at the insistence of another actor-turned-producer.

Sheldon Leonard. He directed Leonard's sh6w. "Love and Marriage." and then, for three vears. directed "The Andv Griffith Show." HE PRODUCED "Hawaii Five-O" for four years while-directing selected segments, and. most recently, he pro-.

duced "Spencer's Pilots" which (or should one say never quite took off. "We think New York can give us the same thing San Francisco has given 'The Streets of San Francisco' and that Hawaii has given "Hawaii Five-O'." To guarantee "The Andros Targets" a New York personality. Sweeney has even avoided use of Hollywood actors. "I'm casting only from the New York theater and from the New York talent pool." Sweeney said. "I worked with five actors and actresses who'd never been in front pf a camera before.

"They were afraid they couldn't understand the lanauaae on the set. but. ftov. thev sure could act!" Cincinnati Enquirer Week of August 28 Sptmbtr 3-Pagt It March Show" and in various shows. Later still, he teamed with Gale Gordon in a television comedy series called "The Brothers." And after that, he was a comic character on "The Burns and Allen Show" and in "Our Miss Brooks." SO SWEENEY, as much as anybody living, appreciates a real rib-tickler.

It's possible, though, that he Bob Sweeney.