Two Potential Hits, One Miss

“WWF Smackdown” watch out!

“Nikki,” a new comedy from the WB about a struggling young couple chasing their career dreams in Las Vegas, is one of the nice little surprises of the fall season, disproving those who have judged it entirely on Sunday’s premiere.

That may include even the WB itself, which has condemned “Nikki” to the worst time slot on its schedule, as if it were something to hide.

Like “Grosse Pointe,” another new comedy from the WB that has hit its witty stride after opening disastrously, “Nikki” requires some patience. Although most of the premiere is forgettable, the second episode is wheezingly funny and the third is also a kick. The show tracks the struggles of a leggy Vegas showgirl named Nikki (Nikki Cox) and her huge mound of a husband, Dwight (Nick von Esmarch), a rookie professional wrestler known in the ring as the Crybaby.

A designated villain, he is rigidly scripted not only to lose most of the time but also to be humiliated while sniveling like a child and appearing to wet himself out of fear. These wrestling sequences are a body-slamming riot.

“Nikki” arrives behind the revoltingly bad premiere of “Hype,” a half-hour of inept comedy sketches with an ensemble of fresh young faces whose work here affirms that no performers, however talented, can overcome bad writing. Here’s hoping “Hype” dramatically improves too.

With so much of pop culture ripe for ridicule, “Hype’s” low achievement Sunday is stunning, especially as its creators once wrote for Fox’s often clever “Mad TV.” The best of their new smorgasbord of comedy is a parody of those hilarious airline dot-com commercials that feature a self-mocking William Shatner.

Otherwise, splat--providing a deadly lead-in for the vastly funnier series that follows.

“Nikki” is excruciating before it gets good, beginning with a lengthy banal flashback that witlessly sets the stage for the present. Yet give it time, for Cox and newcomer von Esmarch are later swell together as these ultimately likable characters. And if Dwight’s mean-spirited mother (Christine Estabrook) is a constant irritant, some of the other supporting figures are crackups, including Jupiter (Toby Huss), the wrestling trainer whose ingeniously camp pre-match introductions of the Crybaby are a highlight reel in themselves.

The Crybaby’s wife faces her own challenges as a member of the low-budget Golden Calf Dancers. Each episode here includes a rather expansive production number, and the third finds Nikki reluctantly agreeing out of economic necessity to appear in a topless revue created by the sleazy choreographer, played by Steve Valentine, who operates the troupe.

He’s “an artist,” another dancer says. “He wants class. He wants elegance. He wants jiggling.”

Another reason why this unheralded high-stepper merits your attention.

* “Hype” premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on the WB. The network has rated it TV-14-DL (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14, with special advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language).

* “Nikki” premieres Sunday at 9:30 p.m. on the WB. The network has rated it TV-PG-DL (may be unsuitable for young children, with special advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language).