The Weekenders

infobox television
show_name=The Weekenders


caption=Tino, Tish, Carver, and Lor.
format=Animated series
runtime=30 minutes with commercials (mostly two 15-minute segments, with some double-length 22-minute segments)
rating=TV-Y
creator=Doug Langdale
starring=Jason Marsden
Grey DeLisle
Phil LaMarr
Katherine Soucie
Lisa Kaplan
country=USA
network=ABC
first_aired=February 26, 2000
last_aired=February 29, 2004
num_episodes= 39 (78 episodes including each 15-minute segment)
tv_com_id=5215
imdb_id=0237987

"The Weekenders" is a Disney animated series about the weekend life of four pre-adolescents: Tino Tonitini (Jason Marsden), Lor McQuarrie (Grey DeLisle), Carver Descartes (Phil LaMarr), and Petrotishkovna "Tish" Katsufrakis (Kath Soucie).

Premise

Despite having four school-age children in the main roles, the show hardly (if ever) touches on aspects of school life (as "Recess" does), as stories nearly always begin on Friday afternoon and end on Sunday evening, with a few exceptions that cover the aftermath on Monday morning, usually only if the plot relates to homework or other school activities. Tino is the main character, and most episodes are told from his point of view. Tino often breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the viewer about what's going on "à la" Greek chorus.

Production

The series, created by Doug Langdale, made its debut in 2000 as a part of Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC and later on Disney's One Too on Sunday Mornings. Later it moved to cable channel Toon Disney and aired on The Disney Channel for a short time. In Canada, it is shown on the Family Channel. In the UK, Disney Channel began airing the show exclusively on Friday Afternoons, Saturdays and Sunday Mornings to fit in with the basic premise.

There are a handful of episodes that have never been screened in the US. The show's title theme was written by Roger Neill and Wayne Brady and performed by Wayne Brady.

"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.

The Weekenders began airing on Toon Disney again starting on May 13, 2008. It will be consistently aired every Tuesday from 2:30-4pm. WGN America also has the show slated for future broadcast.

Episodes

Cast

*Jason Marsden - Tino Tonitini, Colby, Tony Tovelerro
*Grey DeLisle - Lor McQuarrie
*Phil LaMarr - Carver Descartes, Bluke, Coach Colson, Mr.Higginbottom, Mr. Descartes
*Kath Soucie - Tish Katsufrackis, Ruby
*Lisa Kaplan - Mrs. Tonitini, Foods of the World Lady
*Jeff Bennett - Mr. Katsufrakis, Pizza Guy, Percy, Mr. MacQuarrie
*Kerri Kenney - Mrs. Katsufrakis
*Julianne Buescher - Bree, Frances
*Robbie Rist - Thompson Oberman
*Lauren Tom - Pru, Candace
*David Razowsky - Dixon
*Cree Summer - Penny Descartes, Todd Descartes, Mrs. Descartes

Main characters

Tino Tonitini

Voiced by Jason Marsden, the usual narrator of the show, Tino has straight, blond hair and a pumpkin-shaped head. He is of Italian descent. Tino can be very sarcastic, slightly paranoid, and sometimes immature (e.g. his obsession with comic book superhero Captain Dreadnaught). Despite his reputation as the neurotic one, Tino is the "de facto" leader of the group and often the voice of reason. Tino's parents are divorced, but he has a good relationship with both; though he is wary of his mom's cooking, as he's never quite sure what ingredients have been used, and he wishes his dad would visit more often. We find out in "The Worst Holiday Ever" that he and his mother celebrate the Winter Solstice. In "Secret Admirer" we learn that his favorite color is blue when his mother put a blue vegetable on his plate, he responds to the food by saying "Is it supposed to be blue, or did you try to hide something awful by dying it my favorite color?"

Tish Katsufrakis

Voiced by Kath Soucie, Tish has straight, auburn hair and glasses. Tish loves Shakespeare, the dulcimer, culture and arts. She is very intelligent and knowledgeable, though this has caused trouble for her at times. Tish is a vegetarian and requests her pizza without meat (in the opening credits, she eats a carrot in her hotdog bun while everyone else eats a chili dog). She tends to be a perfectionist and sometimes ends up bossing her friends around instead of just hanging out with them, a common plot of many episodes. When she was born in the Old Country, Tish was originally named "Gooosh" which meant "Girl who must remove shoes to count past ten", but was renamed once Tish's parents soon discovered her amazing abilities at a young age.

As the artist of the group, Tish is sometimes embarrassed by her parents' (particularly her mother's) lack of understanding of American culture. "Tish" is short for "Petrotishkovna" which, according to her father, means "Girl with only one nose". We learn in "The Worst Holiday Ever" that she celebrates Hanukkah, despite also practicing Lent ("Carver the Terrible"). This can either point to her family being both Jewish and Christian (somewhat like the Pickles Family in Nickelodeon's "Rugrats") or that she willingly chooses to celebrate Lent (probably due to some Christians abstaining from eating meat during Fridays of Lent, which aligns to her vegetarianism). Considering the context of her comment about Lent, it's also very likely she was joking.

Carver Rene Descartes

Voiced by Phil Lamarr, Carver has brown hair that he keeps in dreadlocks and a pineapple-shaped head. He loves shoes and is always obsessing about new styles and even aspiring to be a shoe designer. His other aspiration is to be cool, even though he is viewed by everybody at the school as a loser. He set up a "coolness shrine" in his bedroom closet to which he prays "coolness, give me strength." Carver panics easily, though he doesn't quite have Tino's paranoia. He is terrified of worms after Tino volunteered him to stand in a big bucket of worm while a person throws more worms in it, a fear that his father shares (though both are unaware of this fact). Carver can be a bit forgetful and self-centered, but he usually comes around in the end. He sometimes has trouble listening, which was seen when he was originally unable to listen to his Pre-Teen Pal's questions about upcoming middle-school life. He has a hard time writing in cursive. Carver is the most athletic, after Lor. He has an snobby older sister named Penny and a bratty younger brother named Todd. He and his family celebrate Kwanzaa, as seen in "The Worst Holiday Ever" (which was that he realized his socks didn't match his shoes, another component to his shoe obsession). As a middle child, Carver is often overlooked by his yuppie-ish parents, which possibly contributes to his loyalty to his friends. He has had 1 true love interest so far in the series. That is Moyra, Dixon's daughter. Inspite of beng 2 years younger than her, he fell in love with her due to her looks and her love of shoes.

Lor McQuarrie

Voiced by Grey DeLisle, an athletic tomboy and the dumbest one in the group, Lor has short, straight, orange-blonde hair. She is of Scottish descent. Lor loves sports and despises homework, though it is revealed in one episode ("Home @ Work") that she can learn just about anything when it's presented to her in game form. She has an almost obsessive devotion to a movie called "The Day the Left Sock Never Came Back". Lor's crush on Thompson resulted in an abandonment of her jock-like ways for a while ("Makeover"), but by the end of the episode she had abandoned the girly girl look and resumed her tomboy activities (something Thompson seemed to approve of). Similarly in a later episode ("Brain Envy"), she tries to act smarter to impress Thompson, but, again, she returns to normality. Lor has a very large family, with somewhere between 12 and 16 brothers; she never can remember the precise number. (In one episode, while they are going through Lor's couch, Carver finds one of her brothers in the couch cushions. Also, in the episode with Tripp Nickerson ("Super Kids"), Lor is trying to reach her goal of breaking the world record for most consecutive baskets. The curtain is pulled across revealing 12 brothers). Lor and her family celebrate Christmas with their extended family (which is also unusually large) and Coach Coleson, as revealed in "The Worst Holiday Ever".

Secondary/Recurring Characters

Ms. Tonitini: Tino's single-mother is known for her unique styles of cooking, which are depreciated by Tino and his friends, and her ability to always give good advice, with exceptions, such as the time that Tish changed her hairstyle. Tino usually accuses his mother for reading his mind, although he admits it can be useful at times. Her first name was never been given throughout the entire show.

Mr. Tonitini: Tino's father has a full-time job around the east coast. With Tino and his mother living in the west coast, he only has an opportunity to visit his son and ex-wife once a year. He only appears in one episode ("Tino's Dad"). In another episode ("Father's Day"), Tino is upset that his father couldn't come for Father's Day, but still enjoys it with his friends and their dads.

Dixon: Ms. Tonitini's boyfriend shares the interests of Tino and his friends (such as being a Captain Dreadnought fan, a Shakespeare reader, having a degree in literature, being a shoe fanatic, athletic, and a Scottish games champion) and has a childlike personality. Nevertheless, he is a responsible parental figure, especially when bringing up his 14-year-old daughter Moyra, who has a love for shoes.

Mrs. Katsufrakis: A former roller derby of her unnamed home country, Tish's mother has good advice for her daughter. She is known to have foreign pronunciation in English, as opposed to her husband. Usually when Mrs. Katufrakis says something, Tish and, rarely, her husband, pronounce it properly so Tish's friends, or even they themselves can understand.

Running Gags

* Frequent references and mentions of goats (particularly in connection with Tish's family's old country).
* The constantly changing themes of the pizza place (one weekend it's Pizzamergency, and another it's Pizzanaut).
* Carver's horrible handwriting.
* A reference to Lor's many brothers and Lor never being quite sure exactly how many there are.
* Tino's single mother serving foods of highly questionable origin.
* Chloe Montez's unusual, and often embarrassing predicaments.
* Tino says, "____, number ____ on my list of things that ____. Right between ____ and ____."
* Strange and exotic food exhibits at the anthropology museum.
* Whenever Mrs. Katsufrakis says something, Tish says what she means, and Mrs. Katsufrakis then says: "is what I say." (e.g.: In the episode "To Tish", Mrs. Katsufrakis says "I leave you to "kitchen my cup"." when she really meant "I leave you to "kiss and make up".")
* Tino's mother knowing everything about all of the predicaments he's ever gotten himself into. This usually leads to her finishing his sentence for him.
* Tino (or someone else in the group) always summing things up and ends an episode with the statement "Later days".
* Frances constantly saying, "I like pointy things." e.g.: The Halloween episode shows her dressed as a pair of scissors.
* Tish's long and sharp toenails.
* Jan "The Man" Testeverde constantly saying, "Hey yowza, dudes!"
* The kids' teacher, Mr. Hossinfeld, referring to something as "a kick in the pants".
* Tino having constant fears and obsessions.
* The charitable duties of Helpers Helping the Helpless, led by Gloria Duong (who is perpetually pregnant).
* Coach Colson answering the door in his robe.
*Tino becoming glued to various objects, such as beach towels and trees
* Carver's obsession with shoes.
* Tino's fear and lack of coordination with anything sports related.
* Tish's mother being a champion at every sport she endeavors in her old country.

Clothing

Unlike most cartoons at the time, the Weekenders are often seen wearing different clothing, possibly to emphasize the day changes. They also tend to wear specific types of footwear with their outfits. However, certain characters such as Dixon, Lewis, or Percy, will often wear the same outfit.

Tino

*Standard Outfit - a short sleeved blue t-shirt with a navy blue stripe, light colored pants, blue shoes.
* - a short sleeved red t-shirt, blue jeans, blue shoes.
* - a short sleeved lime green t-shirt with a diamond emblem in the center, blue athletic shorts, blue shoes.
* - a short sleeved navy blue t-shirt, denim shorts, flip-flops. Tino would wear these flip flops indoors as well.
* - a long sleeved shirt with white and blue stripes, blue athletic shorts, blue shoes.
* - a short sleeved blue button down shirt, khaki shorts, blue shoes.
* - a short sleeved blue t-shirt with red sleeves and a T on the front worn over a long sleeved white shirt, blue jeans, blue shoes
* - Blue Striped Pajamas for when he goes to sleep.

Lor

*Standard Outfit - A navy blue t-shirt with white lining and a white 'M' with little wings on it. Light blue jeans, blue shoes.
* - Red t-shirt with blue sleeves and a football on it. Jeans and sneakers.
* - Red and white striped t-shirt that bares her midriff with jeans and sneakers.
* - Red opened zip up sweatshirt, with a white undershirt. Jeans, sneakers, and a backwords baseball cap with a baseball on it.
* - Gray tee shirt with navy blue sleeves and a red star on it. Jeans and sneakers.
* - Gray hoodie with red and black stripes on the sleeves. Shorts with a similar stripe design on the sides and sneakers.

Carver

All of Carver's outfits consisted of an open button down shirt, t-shirt, pants, and sneakers, of various colors.

*Standard Outfit - white t-shirt, yellow button down shirt, gray pants, gray sneakers.

Tish

She commonly wears a blouse with a skirt, and they are usually a shade of purple and pink.
*Standard Outfit - lilac long-sleeved shirt over white t-shirt, dark purple skirt, brown mules.

External links

*imdb title|id=0237987
* [http://www.tv.com/the-weekenders/show/5215/summary.html?q=The%20Weekenders&tag=search_results;title;0 The Weekenders] at TV.com
* [http://www.snackshack.niceboard.com snackshack] A forum with a petition for a DVD release of the series
* [http://psc.disney.go.com/abcnetworks/toondisney/shows/weekenders/] The Weekenders homepage on Toon Disney, no longer posted on Toon Disney's current site, only through this link.