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WEEKEND

Program 07-06-10-B

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"Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you." That's according to Ogden Nash. Saturday night is definitely a special night. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Susan Orlean tells us about some of the Saturday nights she spent with different people across the United States...in an effort to discover the magic and mystique of this night. Also, we'll meet Anne Beatts, one of the original writers of the long-running TV show, "Saturday Night Live."

SEGMENT 1:

We hear a musical tribute to Saturday night drawn from the pop charts of several decades. Also, journalist Susan Orlean's latest book is called "Saturday Night." She set out to discover why this night is so special to Americans and tells Steve Paulson about some of her Saturday night excursions, including cruising in Elkhart, Indiana, and why she always ate alone on Saturday night. Also, Canadian Doug Gordon profiles Anne Beatts, one of the original writers for the groundbreaking late night comedy series "Saturday Night Live," itself the brainchild of fellow Canadian Lorne Michaels.

SEGMENT 2:

Craig Harline is a history professor at Brigham Young University and the author of "Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl." He tells Anne Strainchamps how Sunday has evolved over the past several centuries.

SEGMENT 3:

David Sterritt, long-time film critic for the Christian Science Monitor, is the author of many books on film including "The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible." Sterritt talks with Jim Fleming about Godard's film "Weekend" and we hear clips. Sterrit did the commentary tracks for the DVD release of "Weekend."

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 07-06-10-B.

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Books:

Craig Harline, Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl (Doubleday)
Susan Orlean, Saturday Night (Fawcett Crest)
David Sterritt, The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible (Cambridge Film Classics) (Cambridge University Press)

Websites:

• -- Susan Orlean
  http://www.susanorlean.com/
  
• -- Anne Beatts
  To contact Anne Beatts about sketch writing and performing classes,
  e-mail BeattsClass@aol.com.
  http://modernmirth.com/anne/annebeatts.html
  http://www.myspace.com/annebeatts
  
• -- Craig Harline
  http://history.byu.edu/fac/harline/harline.htm
  
• -- David Sterritt
  http://www.davidsterritt.com/
  

Clips:

• -- Anne Beatts Mix:
• -- Clip from very first episode of "Saturday Night Live" Oct. 11th, 1975
  from the DVD box set, "Saturday Night Live - The Complete First Season"
  (Universal Studios)
  http://homevideo.universalstudios.com/details.php?childId=36570
• -- "Speed Commercial"
  (Commercial Parody Written & Performed by Anne Beatts)
  from the DVD box set, "Saturday Night Live - The Complete First Season"
  (Universal Studios)
  http://homevideo.universalstudios.com/details.php?childId=36570
• -- Clip from "Irwin Mainway/Unsafe Halloween Costumes" sketch
  from the DVD, "Saturday Night Live - The Best of Dan Aykroyd" (Lions Gate)
• -- Clip from "Nerd Prom" sketch
  from the DVD, "Saturday Night Live - The Best of Gilda Radner" (Lions Gate)
• -- Clip from "Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute" sketch
  from the DVD, "Saturday Night Live - The Best of Dan Aykroyd" (Lions Gate)
• -- Clips used in David Sterritt interview...
  from the DVD release of Jean-Luc Godard's "Weekend" (New Yorker Video)
  featuring the DVD commentary stylings of David Sterritt
  http://www.newyorkerfilms.com/

Music:

• Songs used in Susan Orlean/"Saturday Night" mashup:
• -- "Another Saturday Night"/Sam Cooke
  from the CD, "16 Most Requested Songs" (SBME Import)
• -- "Saturday Night"/Bay City Rollers
  from the CD, "Bay City Rollers: The Definitive Collection" (Arista)
• -- "Always Saturday"/Guadalcanal Diary
  from the CD, "Flip-Flop" (Elektra/WEA)
  http://www.guadalcanaldiary.com/
• -- "Almost Saturday Night"/Dave Edmunds
  from the CD two-volume set, "The Dave Edmunds Anthology (1968-1990) (Rhino/WEA)
  http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=71191
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Edmunds

• -- "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night"/Frank Sinatra
  from the CD box set, "The Capitol Years"

  ***

  Music used in Susan Orlean interview:

• -- "Paper in My Shoe"/Boozoo Chavis
  from the CD, "Live! At the Habibi Temple Lake Charles, Louisiana"/
  Boozoo Chavis and the Majic Sounds (Rounder)
  http://www.boozoo.com/
  http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&musicalGroupId=169&catalog_id=4735

  ***

• -- "The Heart of Saturday Night"/Tom Waits
  from the CD, "The Heart of Saturday Night" (Elektra/WEA)
  http://www.tomwaits.com/
• -- "Having An Average Weekend"/Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet
  from the CD, "Savvy Show Stoppers" (Cargo Records)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowy_Men_on_a_Shadowy_Planet
• -- "Here Comes the Weekend"/Dave Edmunds from the CD two-volume set, "The Dave Edmunds Anthology (1968-1990) (Rhino/WEA)
  http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDetail.lasso?Number=71191
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Edmunds

Distribution dates: week of 06/10/2007 - hour 2

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