Nikki: Nikki Cox - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Nikki aired from October 2000 until January 2002 on The WB.

Beauty met brawn in this lightweight, young-love sitcom. Cheeky, cheerful Nikki ( Nikki Cox) and earnest Dwight ( Nick von Esmarch) were newlyweds trying to make a living in Las Vegas. She was a dancer at the stuggling Golden Calf Casino. Shy, blond Luna ( Marina Benedict) and sarcastic, brunette Mary ( Susan Egan) were 2 of her fellow showgirls. Martine ( Steve Valentine) was their effete choreographer. Each episode opened with a tacky production number at the GoldenCalf. Husky Dwight was trying to become a professional wrestler in the CWF-to his dismay his sleazy manager Jupiter ( Toby Huss) , had given him the stage name The Crybaby. In November Dwight's obnoxious mom , Marion ( Christine Estabrook), broke the news that she had decided to stay in Vegas permanently. Marion was convinced that the marriage had prevented Dwight from getting a real job and had no love for Nikki. Luna was dropped from the cast early in 2001 but was back in the season finale and Mary, who was always competing with Nikki , started dating Jupiter. At the end of April the I.R.S. took over the Golden Calf for failure to pay millions in taxes. In the season finale Nikki's kid brother Scott ( Aaron Paul) showed up in Vegas looking for a job.

Early in the 2001-2002 season the workers at The Golden Calf went on strike and the owners decided to close the place down. The loss of Nikki's income was tough on the White's. Despite her job situation, the tacky opening production numbers were still used for a couple of months. In November Jupiter sold his wrestling operation to the WXI, and Dwight almost lost his job too. Ken and Alice ( Todd Robert Anderson, Jacqueline Heinze), their incredibly straight and conservative neighbors became the building's managers and evicted Nikki and Dwight. At the same time Dwight and Jupiter started a new wrestling league and Jupiter let the Whites live in the old beat up bus on his property. Desperate for an income, Nikki took a job at a local auto parts store. They got their old apartment back when at their first wrestling promotion event, Ken was almost killed wrestling Kevin Nash and Dwight saved him. In late January Nikki changed jobs and went to work as a dance instructor with a famous choreographer, but it didn't work out. Neither did the series. That was the last episode of Nikki. Six episodes were left but they never aired.

A Review from The New York Times

New TV Season in Review; A Marriage Made In Vegas, or Somewhere

By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: October 5, 2000

It would be easy to fear the worst about ''Nikki,'' a new WB comedy. The show stars Nikki Cox as a Las Vegas dancer and Nick von Esmarch as her professional-wrestler husband, seemingly a recipe for a lot of vulgar jokes and unnecessary skin.

But Bruce Helford, the executive producer, is smart enough to use the ridiculous premise as a vehicle for just plain being ridiculous. No gratuitous efforts to shock, no attempts to graft the heavy messages of drama into a sitcom; just good-natured fun that nicely mixes satire on real life (the wrestling husband's stage persona is the Crybaby) with absurdity (as in a scene in which dancers audition for a starring role by singing notices off the dressing-room bulletin board).

Christine Estabrook makes a great domineering mother for Mr. von Esmarch. (''I'm not saying give up your dreams,'' she tells the couple as she tries to steer them to college, ''just do what everyone else does -- push them way down deep inside you.'') And the actors seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.

Given the smartly written material, who can blame them? NEIL GENZLINGER

An Article from CNN

Beauty and the bugs
Nikki Cox hoofs it, big time, in 'Nikki'

October 6, 2000
Web posted at: 1:16 p.m. EDT (1716 GMT)

By Gloria Hillard
CNN Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- In the chorus line of high-kicking cockroaches, one particular leggy dancer stands out -- no small accomplishment, since she's clad in a Styrofoam bug body.

But not even a bulbous body can hide the fact that Nikki Cox has that long, Las Vegas showgirl look. Now, if only she can hit the big time.

That's the premise of "Nikki," the new WB show about a Vegas showgirl living her dream to be a professional dancer. But the dream, her character knows, could stand some embellishment: She's dancing in one of those "off the strip," low-rent casinos where performers find themselves competing for marquee space with the joint's breakfast buffet special.

The role seems custom-made for the former star of WB's "Unhappily Ever After." A Hollywood agent discovered Cox while she was attending dance class, and the actress sees the resemblance between the series and her life.

"The character is a lot more like me than anything I've ever played," Cox said.

The California native says she started dancing at the age of 4; by 9, she was dancing professionally. At 14, she gave up dance for acting, but returned to hoofing when WB offered her the showgirl series.

"(I)t's been hard getting my butt back in shape," said Cox, 22. "We did an episode last week about the auditioning process, which is brutal. It brought back some not-too-great memories."

The actress recently took time out between rehearsals to talk to CNN about dancing, bug costumes and the pressures of a show that bears your name.

Nikki Cox plays an aspiring dancer in "Nikki," but instead of making it on the Vegas stage, she takes a job as a disco-dancing cockroach

CNN: Talk to us about a dancer's life.

Nikki Cox: It's incredibly tough. There's not much glory and your career is over by the time you're 30. It's rough and I didn't have the strength it took to be a professional dancer.

A lot of it is good, old-fashioned chorus line: standing in a row, doing your combination. … Its rough, it's real rough. It's not like an acting audition, when you go in on your own. When you're dancing, you fall in front of 50 people.

CNN: Dancing takes center stage in this romantic comedy. Is this a resurgence of dance on the small screen?

Cox: Bruce Helford, our creator, has been a great supporter of bringing dance back to television. He did "The Drew Carey Show" and they've had huge spectacular dance numbers, so he's always been trying to bring that back and give work to dancers.

CNN: Just who is your character?

Cox: She's a young gal who has trained all her life to be a dancer. I think, eventually, she wants to go to Broadway or music videos. In the meantime, she is stuck here.

CNN: How true is that for young dancers today?

Cox: Unfortunately, that's what most people do. There are too many folks looking for too few jobs, so they wind up working in the outskirts.

CNN: Are you feeling any extra pressure because this show bears your name?

Cox: Of course, of course -- not so much (pressure) put on by others; more self-imposed. It's nerve-wracking and flattering and exciting and a whole jumble of things.

For more on Nikki go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_(TV_series)

For another Review of Nikki go to http://www.popmatters.com/tv/reviews/n/nikki.html