''Weekend'' is an American television newsmagazine program that aired on NBC from 1974 to 1979. It originally aired once monthly on Saturday nights from 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern time, the same time slot as Saturday repeats of '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' during its first season, then to replace '' Saturday Night Live'', once a month on those weekends when the ''SNL'' cast was not producing a show. The program was awarded a George Foster Peabody medal in 1975 and attracted a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

Overview

The program was hosted by

Lloyd Dobyns Lloyd Allen Dobyns Jr. (March 12, 1936 – August 22, 2021) was an American news reporter and correspondent. He worked for NBC from 1969 to 1986, hosting '' Weekend'', '' NBC News Overnight'', and ''Monitor''. Early life Dobyns was born in New ...

, who also did much of the reporting. The show's creator and executive producer was past (and future) president of NBC News,

Reuven Frank Reuven Frank (7 December 1920 – 5 February 2006) was an American broadcast news executive. Life and career Born Israel Reuven Frank (he later dropped his first name) to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, he earned a bachelor's degree in soci ...

.
Together, Dobyns and Frank were largely responsible for the distinctive writing and quirky style of the program. The opening theme was the guitar intro to " Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones. As a forward-focused executive, Frank brought in a woman, Clare Crawford-Mason, as the show's producer. In 1978, after four years of critical success and moderately good ratings for that hour, NBC moved ''Weekend'' to

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

. After airing once a month in various time slots in September, October, and November, the network placed the program weekly on Sunday nights at 10 P.M. Eastern time starting in December 1978. Linda Ellerbee was added as Dobyns' co-host and co-lead reporter. Placed against strong programs on ABC and CBS, the show eventually died of poor ratings. A few years later, Ellerbee and Dobyns reunited to anchor another late-night NBC news program, ''

NBC News Overnight ''NBC News Overnight'' was a television news program on the NBC television network that aired weekday mornings from 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Central) Mondays through Thursdays and 2:00 a.m. to 3:00&n ...

''. The program was known for an offbeat format, a somewhat less serious tone than such programs as ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

''; comic relief included the use of humorous images (e.g., a trio of magazine covers, ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'', '' The New Yorker'', and the completely fictitious ''New Yorkest''), and the occasional animated cartoon, such as ''

Mr. Hipp ''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...

''. At the end of each broadcast, until the program began airing weekly, a sequence would be played of a rotating

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

record with voiceover explaining when the next broadcast would take place. In the spring of 1978, when ''Weekends late-night run ended, Dobyns noted that "Your Subscription Has Expired", but stated that ''Weekend'' would be back that fall, in prime-time. At the end of the last broadcast in 1979, the voice intoned, "...there will be no more ''Weekends''."

References

{{reflist 1974 American television series debuts 1979 American television series endings American late-night television shows 1970s American television news shows NBC late-night programming NBC original programming NBC News Peabody Award-winning television programs 1970s American late-night television series