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...which would seem like an oxymoron, when we consider the reputation of the Lifetime cable station (unless each story involves the horror of a cheating husband or the suspense of a stalking ex-boyfriend), but I remember it being rather well-done (if rather obviously on a shoestring), particularly an episode which adapted a short story by the well-regarded horror and science-fiction writer Lisa Tuttle...the first a/v adaptation of her work with which I'm familiar. I would like an opportunity to review these episodes again, but suspect something like the Museum of Television and Radio will be the only hope, since not only the various fantastic-drama cable and satellite stations but everyone else seems to have forgotten about the series.

WEEKEND was meant to reach teens and 20-somethings with a 60 MINUTES-style magazine format, and it succeeded admirably with me, as I watched as a kid. Initially, it was on every fourth week in the Saturday at 11:30pm ET slot, to give the Saturday NIGHT LIVE folks a break (similarly, NBC was driven through desperation to schedule professional wrestling in the same timeslot in the early '80s during one of SNL's fallow periods). I remember the show's pace and breadth of subject matter were impressive, and would be nearly as likely to stick with WEEKEND to the end of the show at 1am as I would be SNL in its first seasons. It's a real pity that the attempt to move WEEKEND into primetime was botched so badly...certainly no other newsmagazine show since has quite had its tone or approach (there was a faint echo of it in the first season of CBS's much later, short-live WEST 57TH, but that show lacked the wit and grace of WEEKEND).

Nick Bakay ended up the true star of the show in its short run. Perhaps the most memorable running joke throughout the series for me was the recurring lampoon of NYPD BLUE, then a hot newish show on ABC, but already familiar enough for Bakay, portraying the David Caruso character, and the various other cast members to consistently ask each other, with heads cocked to one side, "You OK?" Since this seemed to happen at least once every ten minutes on NYPD BLUE, it hit home. As a whole, the sketches that made up most of the episodes were less than stellar, but there was usually enough to make any given installment worth watching. Bakay, after his penance on the first shipwreck of a Dennis Miller talk show (syndicated in a time when there were many slots open for late-night syndicated talk shows), went on to shine in another largely female context, doing voiceovers in the teen-oriented but initially clever fantasy sitcom SABRINA, THE TEENAGED WITCH.