The Weekenders

The Weekenders
From left to right: Tino, Tish, Carver, and Lor
Genre	Comedy Slice of life
Created by	Doug Langdale
Starring	Jason Marsden Grey DeLisle Phil LaMarr Kath Soucie
Opening theme	"Livin' for the Weekend" by Wayne Brady
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	39 (73 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Walt Disney Television Animation
Distributor	Buena Vista Television
Release
Original network	ABC (2000–2002) UPN (2001) Toon Disney (2002–2004)
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	February 26, 2000 (2000-02-26) – February 29, 2004 (2004-02-29)
Chronology
Related shows	Project G.e.e.K.e.R. Dave the Barbarian

The Weekenders is an American animated television series created by Doug Langdale. It centers on the weekend life of four seventh graders: Tino, Lor, Carver, and Tish. The series initially aired on ABC and UPN, but was later moved to Toon Disney.

Premise

The Weekenders details the weekend life of four ethnically diverse seventh graders: Tino Tonitini (Jason Marsden), a witty Italian-American oddball who makes bizarre and creepy obscurances of everything, Lorraine "Lor" McQuarrie (Grey DeLisle), a sporty Scottish-American tomboy who isn't the smartest person around, Carver Descartes (Phil LaMarr), a self-centered African-American fashionista who dreams of becoming a celebrity, and Petratishkovna "Tish" Katsufrakis (Kath Soucie), an artistic Jewish-American intellectual of Lithuanian descent who idolizes William Shakespeare.

The show was known for its distinctive animation style, similar to shows produced by Klasky-Csupo such as Rocket Power and As Told by Ginger. It is one of the few animated series where characters' outfits change from episode to episode. The series takes place in the fictional city of Bahia Bay, which is based on San Diego, California where the creator lived.^[1]

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

Production

The Weekenders 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.^[2] In September 2002, the series moved to Toon Disney,^[3] and new episodes began airing on October 19,^[4] finishing on February 29, 2004.

Reruns of the series continued to air on Toon Disney from 2004 to 2006 and again in 2008, and also on Disney Channel in 2003.

Episodes

DVD releases

US (Region 1)

The entire show is now available on DVD on two volume sets sold exclusively through the Disney Movie Club^[5] and Disney Movie eBay shop,^[6] which makes The Weekenders the first Disney animated television show to have a full release on DVD.^[7]

Reception

Critical reception

The Weekenders has received very positive reviews from critics and fans for its solid writing, upbeat energy and multi-dimensional characters.^[8] It has an 8.5/10 rating on IMDB and similarly maintains an 8.7/10^[9] on TV.com.^[10]

Ratings

TV Guide dubbed 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 and the New York Post 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.^[11][12]

References

External links

• The Weekenders at the Internet Movie Database
• The Weekenders at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Weekenders at TV.com