Nikki

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.

Unfortunately, I only have two good things to say about this series: right breast and left breast!! C'mon, this series is so lame, so full of NOTHING that the only reason why it exists is the one I gave above!! It is time to give real actors a chance to prove themselves instead of airing low quality series like this one!!

I like this show! It's a different idea, and although it's not what one would call a realistic show, the characters are somehow believable and definately likeable. It's a good role for Nikki Cox--she shows she has personality and isn't just a pretty lady with a great figure. I think Nick is a real pro and very likeable--hard to believe it's his first show! And I LOVE Toby Huss as Jupiter--he makes the rather brash and crude character fun and endearing. I'd like to see a lot more of him. Toby does a great Sinatra impersonation, too, by the way, and does great improv--he's a talented guy. I hope this show makes it!

"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.

The first season of this show is absolutely hilarious. Some people don't like the dark ride, as evidenced by the cool reception given to the similarly-themed John Larroquette Show, but I do! The opening dance numbers were delightfully tacky, and the love story of Nikki and Dwight was sweet and sincere. I'm glad actress Nikki Cox continues on TV on NBC's Las Vegas, but it's a shame she couldn't have brought castmates Nick von Esmarch, Susan Egan, and the eternally-underappreciated Toby Huss with her (hang in there, Toby; it took *decades* for Joe Pantoliano to get his due, too). Alas, the good times ended with the second season, with Steve Valentine's exit (to Crossing Jordan), Nikki & Dwight losing their showgirl and wrestler jobs, and the re-focus of the show to the "wacky neighbors" in their apartment building. Huh??! Yuck!! Naturally the few fans the show had acquired left in droves, and the show died a quick death. I see the show has been enjoying distribution all over the world now (Portugal?!). Woe to those who have stumbled upon the later eps -- when they could have been outside watching grass grow, a far more entertaining way to pass the time.