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The Weekenders

The Weekenders, also known as Disney's The Weekenders, is an American animated television series created by Doug Langdale that premiered on February 26, 2000, with the last episode airing on February 29, 2004, spanning four seasons. It centers on the weekend life of four 12-year-old 7th graders: Tino, Lor, Carver, and Tish. The series originally aired on ABC (Disney's One Saturday Morning) and UPN (Disney's One Too), but was later moved to Toon Disney.

Premise

The Weekenders details the weekends of four best friends: Tino Tonitini, Lorraine "Lor" MacQuarrie, Carver René Descartes, and Petratishkovna "Tish" Katsufrakis. Every episode is set over the course of a weekend, with little to no mentions of school life. Friday sets up the adventure of the episode, Saturday escalates or develops it, and the climatic third act happens on Sunday. The implied "ticking clock" is used to signify the characters running out of time and the problem must be solved before going back to school on Monday. The characters frequent a pizzeria that changes its theme each weekend.

Characters

Main

  • Tino Tonitini (voiced by Jason Marsden, singing voice provided by Charlie Skanker) is a friendly and ambitious Italian-American boy. Tino serves as a narrator of each episode, providing his own insight into what he's experiencing as well as his friends, and will sum up the moral of the story at the end, always ending with a sign off of, "Later days". Tino is also a fan of the comic book series Captain Dreadnought and has a fear of clowns.
  • Lorraine "Lor" MacQuarrie (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a hyperactive Scottish-American girl who is a tomboy, an avid sports player, and has an inability to understand things making her the "dumb jock" of the group. A running gag is that she can't keep track on how many brothers she has.
  • Carver René Descartes (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is a vain and materialistic African-American boy who is of Haitian descent. He is also shown to have a shoe fetish as seen when he shows interests in the different types of them.
  • Petratishkovna "Tish" Katsufrakis (voiced by Kath Soucie) is a highly intelligent and bibliophilic Jewish-American girl of Eastern European descent who is Lor's best friend and next door neighbor. The fictional country where she was born is identified throughout the series simply as "the Old Country". In addition, Tish is also a vegetarian and a perfectionist.

Recurring

  • Mrs. Tonitini (voiced by Lisa Kaplan) is the unnamed mother of Tino. While she does make unusual meals that are disliked by Tino's friends, she does offer Tino advice on how to get through the problems he encounters.
  • Mr. McQuarrie (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is the unnamed father of Lor.
  • Kirk McQuarrie (voiced by Jason Marsden) is Lor's older brother. Like Lor, he is an avid sports player.
  • Mrs. Descartes (voiced by Cree Summer) is the unnamed mother of Carver.
  • Mr. Descartes (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is the unnamed father of Carver.
  • Penny Descartes (voiced by Cree Summer) is Carver's beautiful but snobby older sister.
  • Todd Descartes (voiced by Cree Summer is Carver's obnoxious younger brother.
  • Mrs. Katsufrakis (voiced by Kerri Kenney-Silver) is the unnamed mother of Tish. She is a former roller derby champion and provides good advice to her daughter.
  • Mr. Katsufrakis (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is the unnamed father of Tish who works as a college professor.
  • Ned Colson (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is a sports coach.
  • Thompson Olbertman (voiced by Robbie Rist) is a blue-haired boy in sunglasses who Lor has a crush on.
  • Bree (voiced by Julianne Buescher) is a cool kid that Carver worships.
  • Colby (voiced by Jason Marsden) is a cool kid and Bree's friend that Carver worships.
  • Bluke (voiced by Phil LaMarr)
  • Penny (voiced by Cree Summer)
  • Gloria Duong (voiced by Sandra Tsing Loh) is a stern yet friendly event planner and volunteer coordinator who is known to set up Tino, Lor, Carver, and Tish into volunteering for something.
  • Todd (voiced by Cree Summer)
  • Pizza Guy (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is the unnamed worker at the pizzeria. His persona and voices changes to fit the establishment's theme.
  • Otto is a worker at the pizzeria who is mostly mute and assists in the different themes.
  • Frances (voiced by Julianne Buescher)
  • Dixon Payne (voiced by David Razowsky) is the boyfriend of Mrs. Tonitini. He has a childlike yet responsible personality and shares the same interest as Tino, Lor, Carver, and Tish.

Production

The series takes place in the fictional city of Bahia Bay, California ("Bahia" is for "bay"), which is based on San Diego, California where the creator lived.

Theme music

The show's theme song, "Livin' for the Weekend", was performed by Wayne Brady and written by Wayne Brady and Roger Neill.

Episodes

Series overview

All episodes were directed by Steven Lyons.

Season 1 (2000)

Season 2 (2000–01)

Season 3 (2001)

Season 4 (2002–04)

Broadcast and home media

The series premiered on February 26, 2000, as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC. From 2001 to 2002, it also aired as part of Disney's One Too on UPN on Sunday mornings. In September 2002, the series moved to Toon Disney, and new episodes began airing on October 19, 2002, finishing on February 29, 2004. Reruns of the series continued to air on Toon Disney from 2004 to 2006, and on Disney Channel in 2003.

In the United States, the entire series is now available on DVD on two volume sets sold exclusively through the Disney Movie Club, which makes The Weekenders the first Disney animated television show to have a full release on DVD. Due to the first-sale doctrine in the United States, the discs can be legally resold and are regularly available from sellers on eBay and other similar sites.

Reception

Critical reception

The Weekenders has received very positive reviews from critics and fans for its solid writing, upbeat energy and multi-dimensional characters.

Ratings

TV Guide called The Weekenders as "the show that killed Pokémon", because ABC stole the ratings when they aired it at 10:00 am – the same time Pokémon aired on Kids' WB. In addition, Variety reported that The Weekenders took the number one rating on Saturday morning television, which knocked off Pokémon from its 54 consecutive weeks as the top spot.

References

External links