Nikki

"Unhappily Ever After", the previous Nikki Cox centered program, was an unashamed clone of "Married With Children" with the buxom Miss Cox playing the "Kelly Bundy" role of the pretty young woman, (although played as intelligent and pretty as opposed to Kelly's dumb and pretty). It began with a different premise, (about a talking rabbit puppet and a divorced set of parents) but languished (not surprisingly)and quickly degenerated into a show centered around Miss Cox's character. This was filled with the usual sit-com banalities uttered to the uproarious approval of the laugh track while featuring Miss Cox's formidable figure with leering delight.

The new show (the WB Network must really be hurting) is designed as a vehicle for Miss Cox, and her most noticeable attributes. Sadly, these are her only attributes. Miss Cox is supposed to be a Las Vegas dancer married to a WWF-type professional wrestler. She is far too gawky and clumsy to be a dancer (despite her alleged professional history in dance and the labored and elaborate dance numbers in which she is so prominently featured in the opening credits) and the "wrestler" wouldn't have made the cut at any Division II school; he too is a gawky chump. Neither character is likable and neither is funny, although the husband is not as gratingly unpleasant as Miss Cox. They are sad losers talking about poverty, drunkenness and unemployment. What a barrel of laughs!

We are supposed to be amused by their young-and-in-love antics as they struggle in marriage, but instead are subjected to her shrill rantings and unfunny facial contortions as the usual platitudes of sit-com plots are warmed over and served. The most amazing part of this is that you can tell Miss Cox thinks all she has to do is show up and lumber around the set emoting either of her two unfunny modes of "acting" (the caring wife and aggressive young professional) and people will tune in and laugh, just because it's her, Nikki!. Nobody would watch this show but for a glimpse of Miss Cox's ample cleavage (prominently displayed and sniggeringly commented upon in the scripts) for there is precious little else to see. Two ostensible "friends" have been manufactured for them as foils, but just seem like even bigger jerks than Nikki and her husband. Why would they be friends with these people (a conniving wrestling promoter and fellow dance-girl loser)? The parallel with Married With Children continues as dorky neighbors, an uptight shrew and a dopey meek husband wander by from time to time. Why not just call them Marcy and Steve? (the actress who played Marcy is directing this mess- what a surprise!).

The key of any of the successful TV shows has been that the audience develops an affinity for the lead characters, and likes them. Vehicles pinning their hopes simply on a "celebrity" (particularly a third-rate celebrity) fail without good writing; remember Jenny McCarthy's pathetic attempts?

Spare us from this misery WB, just show the old cartoons or Star Trek (original) episodes you have lying around. Nikki Cox is not funny, and this show just plain stinks.

I started watching this show as a progression from "Unhappily ever after" which has a number of hilarious scenes. The one with the rabbit voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait and Geof Piersens "Jack Malloy" trying to leave a message on the answer machine character was hilarious. In that show Nikki Cox plays Tiffany Malloy which became a breakout character later in the show and you could argue that the "Nikki" character is a more humanized version of that character without the assumed success of the Tiffany character. Not really sure I would want to watch a TV show based around the Tiffany characters projected life path really.

The show is based around Nikki and Dwights relationship, where Nikki is a Las Vegas showgirl and Dwight is wrestler. The early episodes open with dance numbers, often in jokingly bad taste but are interesting. The Dwight character is actually quite likable, not the mindless thug one would expect and much of the humour of the show works by challenging the assumptions people would have about the characters. He delivers the line "You know that feeling when someone is screwing around with you but deep down you know they like you. Well, I'm not getting that feeling" about meeting Nikki's father in season one episode 16 "I'll kick your Ass".

I found the support characters interesting Toby Huss's character "Jupiter" has many of the mannerisms of Groucho Marx, obviously without the cigar but in the tradition of a business man/ showman with a sometimes shoddy product. Susan Egans character is a comedic femme fatal character who is cheerfully amoral but we are lead to believe has heart of gold, because although much of the show has a darker gallows humour they are likable characters. Much comedy is about laughing at the darkness.

"Nikki" is the biggest load of rubbish that I have ever seen. The fact that the same channel in Australia that bought this tripe bought the equally as terrible "Girlfriends" says a lot, and none of it's good. I only watched this show once, and that was enough. The only saving grace are the occassional humourous 'I'm a big dumb idiot' comments that we get from Dwight. Nikki Cox doesn't seem to understand the concept of comic timing - and as a result her jokes often fall flat. Where is the director on this set? He/she ought to be shot. As should the writers, producers, actors, and all the people in the WB offices that allowed this 'show' to go to air. Even re-runs of Burgo's Catch Phrase (you Aussies out there know what i'm on about) would be better. Nikki (and her huge breasts in tight tshirts) can go elsewhere, as far as I'm concerned. THIS SHOW BITES!

I don't even have to write a lot to express how I feel about this show!! Actually, I have just two things to say: 1-The show is just one of the best on TV. Just so funny... 2-10 out of 10.

I liked this a lot. Shame it got cancelled, great it gets re-runs. One tuned in to swoon over Nikki Cox but stayed to admire some good gags and ace comic actors.

Even apart from the laughs, its basic story of a young couple in love struggling to earn a living but determinedly following their dreams had great charm. She's a dancer, he's a wrestler, and they face their frequent setbacks, disappointments, and brushes with poverty with a string of one-liners (gallows humour rather than anything too saccharine, I should hasten to reassure cynics). The excellent supporting characters include her scheming dance partner and his sleazy boss, who is possibly the most cheerfully slimy character ever to grace TV and yet somehow lovable. Not to mention her foppish English choreographer, whose crassly over-the-top productions were featured at the start of the early episodes and were simultaneously funny and raunchy and probably didn't endear the show to moral majority types. All in all, good fun.