“One Saturday Morning” was amazing when I was a kid. The strong of shows they strung together we all just great. Well, except “Lloyd in Space,” but I’ve already spent a review complaining about that. I’m also speaking strictly cartoons, because the only live action show spawned the terrible lead of the “Transformer” movies, so they should really be ashamed of themselves. “The Weekenders” was one of these great shows. It follows the adventures of four friends on the weekend. Get it? It got a little flack for being a rip-off of “Recess” but I’d like to think of it as a sequel. You’ve got the charismatic leader, his cool black friend, the smart girl and the tom boy. They just dumped the dead weight of the geek and fat kid. Let’s call a win a win, just like Titus O’Neil.
Aside from a similar character structure, “The Weekenders” was its own thing. It was very quick witted and smart. That seems to be the calling card of a good children’s show. If they manage to appeal to kids and their parents, they’ve struck the right chord. This show also was one of the only cartoons I’ve ever seen where the characters change clothes. They had basic sets, but that’s more effort than most people make. I mean, look at this great outfit:
Tino Tonitini is the main character of the show. You can tell by the way he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience. Unlike most main characters though, he’s not just surrounded by crazy people, he gets to join in on the action. He’s neurotic and weird. He is scared of a bunch of stuff and relies too heavily on advice from his mother. But he is a sarcastic kid, and that’s always fun when everyone around you is an idiot.
Lor is the token girl that acts like a boy. She likes sports and beats people up. She is like this because she has between 9 to 20 brothers. She’s mainly just a dumb jock, but with matching chromosomes.
Carver is the girly man of the group. I assume this is to counter the jock girl. He is very into fashion and mainly shoes. He’s a shallow and superficial jerk, and has the handwriting of an infant, if an infant in fact had hand writing. What are you to do if your friend barely like you most of the time?
Tish, full name Petratishkovna Katsufrakis, is from one of the places referred to as the “old country.” She is a wet blanket. She’s a vegetarian and dresses like a librarian. She’s very smart and is a bit of what we would call a hipster these days.
Why would any of these people hang out? To be diverse of course. Despite my seemingly flippant view of the show, it was really funny. I would watch it now if Disney didn’t bury all these shows in a vault somewhere. At least Nickelodeon put old stuff on Netflix. I want this and “Pepper Ann” on there now! The group of kids really were great, and the side gags and characters made this show special viewing.
One of the most noticeable side gags was the pizza establishment the kids would occupy. Apparently under a never-ending line of new owners, the theme of the shop changed every weekend, and the poor sap of a waiter was forced to act out the new outlandish theme. Here is this quickly thrown together collage to demonstrate:
The shining light of this program is Tino’s mom. She gives the best advice of any television mother ever. She also cooks things like seaweed casserole, and tuna Jell-O. Good stuff. She knows her son so well that any ridiculous problem he has, she already knows and has the answer. She also understands that he is completely insane because of her. It’s a fun dynamic to go along with a very fun show.
