The Weekenders

***The Weekenders*** was a Disney animated series about the weekend life of four diverse misfit 7th graders in middle school: Tino Tonitini, Lor McQuarrie, Carver Descartes, and Tish Katsufrakis, voiced by veteran cartoon voice-actors Jason Marsden, Grey DeLisle, Phil LaMarr, and Kath Soucie, respectively. It is stated at least once that the four main characters are each twelve years old. The setting is the fictional town of Bahia Bay, California. The show was created by Doug Langdale, who later created the Disney Channel animated series *Dave the Barbarian*. The theme song was performed by Wayne Brady. The show lasted from February 26, 2000 to September 22, 2006 for 4 seasons and 76 episodes.

## Plot

Each episode takes place during the weekend. Friday usually sets up the conflict for the episode, Saturday escalates or develops it, and the climactic third act is usually what happens on Sunday. The implied "ticking clock" is used to signify that the problem must be solved before school on Monday. Unlike most children's cartoons and teenager's television programs, *The Weekenders* rarely touches upon the aspects of school life. Furthermore, because it is the weekend, the characters are not supposed to be in school, and thus they are allowed to partake in activities that are not school-related (such as playing arcade games) without a logical error. Disney's *Recess* chose to set the episodes during the school's designated hour of playtime for a similar effect. (It should be noted, however, that in *The Weekenders*, homework is occasionally the instigator of conflict, making some episodes related to the characters' academic lives.) The episodes either tell one story for the full-time duration (as in "Nevermore," a Halloween special) or two stories that each take up half of the episode. Although most of the episodes are told from the character Tino's point of view, making him in a way the main protagonist, the episodes can and do center around the other three. Similarly, although Tino frequently provides an introductory greeting and exposition, à la Greek chorus, the other characters sometimes make the episode's conclusion or will step in for Tino to make the introduction. When this happens at any time, the fourth wall is broken. The main characters seem to be fully aware of the audience and the fact that *The Weekenders* is a cartoon in production, as when Tino says "Okay, next scene!" or harshly ordering to "Go to Sunday!" or that certain phrases are not allowed by television censors.

## 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 was shown on the Family Channel three times a day on weekdays. In the UK, Disney Channel began airing the show exclusively on Friday afternoons, Saturdays and Sunday mornings to fit in with the basic premise (the Latin American version of Disney Channel did the same when airing the show).

The show became popular because of its distinctive animation style, and character movements were fluid. One of the points of deliberate humor by the animation was that the eyes on each character were far apart, similar perhaps to the Nicktoon, Rocket Power.

The show's title theme (performed by Wayne Brady) was written by both Brady and Roger Neill. 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 last aired on Toon Disney in 2008.

## DVD Releases

The entire show is now available on DVD on two volume sets sold exclusively through the Disney Movie Club. Volume One includes the first 20 episodes while Volume Two covers the final 19 episodes, making The Weekenders the first Disney TV Animation show to be fully released onto DVD. Each volume are showing a $19.99 price and are available for pre-order on the Disney Movie Club website from February 5, 2013. This marks the first time a television show from Disney's One Saturday Morning is given a full DVD release.

## Characters

List of The Weekenders Characters

* Jason Marsden as Tino Tonitini
* Grey DeLisle as Lor McQuarrie
* Phil LaMarr as Carver Descartes
* Kath Soucie as Tish Katsufrakis