Nikki and Alexander

TV Guide lauded "Nikki and Alexander" the 80's version of "I Love Lucy" (bold, weren't they?) as this attempted spin-off of "Night Court" was aired only once during the summer back in the day when unsold pilots of comedies and dramas littered the network landscape. I remember Tim Matheson only being seen in "Night Court" a couple of times, and this sitcom opens as he is awakened by his doorbell only to find a poor Russian defector (think of a young version of Ivana Trump) on the other side. "The telephone. What is it please?", she asks.. "Over there", he replies. She then proceeds to call her homeland Russia while speaking in Russian phrases that may or may not have contained dirty words. They both agree that it would be best that she stay with him as she kinda sorta forgot to tell anyone she left Russia. With that eye candy around, what could be so bad.?? Um, the landlady. She takes one look at Nikki and says "Nice gams", to which she turns to Alex and says "I betcha though that word meant breasts!" It had the same writing style of "Night Court" (hell, it had the same writers, duh), and although the T&A jokes were sure to fly, NBC just didn't think it had potential. But beyond it's cursory sex jokes and double entendres, it shoulda deserved a chance.

I have no idea how I remember this show, but I do. I think it was tried-out during the summer, as I saw the pilot while staying in a campground with my parents (I was about 9 at the time).

I remember knowing even then that it was a bad show, but almost "feeling bad" for it because it was so obviously cruddy. I think there was a scene where the Russian girl spills a drink on the guy? Who knows. It'd be amazing to see the episode again, though it probably no longer exists. As the previous poster said, this definitely owed something to "Perfect Strangers". It really is rather amazing what a 9 year old brain chooses to remember. Sigh.

I believe this show may have run for only one or two episodes. It was your typical situational comedy sitcom, something similar to Perfect Strangers. I am a little hazy on the details, as I was only twelve at the time. Alexander (Tim Matheson) was your average NY City guy, happy to have a good apartment, a good job, and an overall average life. Then he runs into Nikki (Irena Ferris), a down-on-her-luck Russian girl homeless and loose in the city (she may have defected, I can't recall). For whatever reason, Alexander let's her stay the night in one of those typical 'well this is obviously going to become permanent' sitcom twists. It does, and we are promised week after week of ensuing hilarity as a New York Capitalist tries to cohabitate with a Russian Communist. The promise was short lived, however, and the show disappeared after one or two episodes. What I remember most of all was that Nikki was rather cute, and that I was supposed to get two dogs on my birthday that year and I wanted to name them Alexander and Nikki. So let's all raise our glasses to the sky, and toast another show that was never meant to be...