The WB tries, tries again with a couple of new half-hour comedies on Sunday night. And about the best thing you can say about either of them is that, compared to "Hype," "Nikki" is a masterpiece.
But that is almost entirely because the half-hour sketch comedy (and I use that term loosely) "Hype" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 30) is incredibly awful.
Brought to us by the producers of another lame sketch comedy show, Fox's "MAD TV," "Hype" has an enormous cast — 10 regulars — several of whom appear to be great mimics. And the show is big on mimicking famous people, from President Clinton to Regis Philbin to Patsy Ramsey.
But the writing here is dreadful. Immature, moronic, gross, tasteless — choose your own adjective. Many of the sketches can't even be described in a family newspaper.
Honestly, I watched most of the pilot with my mouth agape. I watch a lot of TV, and even I was taken aback by just how bad — and utterly vulgar — "Hype" was. Let's just say that the funniest bit in the pilot involves Britney Spears in the bathroom of a hotel room she's sharing with Prince William. I'll have to leave it at that.
This isn't just a show you should avoid, it's a show you should encourage everyone you know to avoid as well.
So, as you can tell, calling "Nikki" (Sunday, 8:30 p.m., Ch. 30) a masterpiece in comparison is damning it with faint praise. This one at least gets a few points for trying to update the sitcom format at least a bit.
The buxom Nikki Cox stars as Nikki White ("Norm," "Unhappily Ever After"), making the most of her talents by starring as a struggling Las Vegas showgirl. Every episode includes a musical production number of some sort, a welcome revival of the sort of thing musical variety shows used to do.
But that's about the only innovation in this show, which comes to us from the producer of "Drew Carey" and "Norm." Other than that, it's standard, low-grade, blue-collar sitcom. In the pilot, Nikki meets and marries a nice young man, Dwight (Nick von Esmarch) and encourages him to go against his mother's wishes and give up college in favor of going for a career in professional wrestling. And much of the comedy derives from the hoary old sitcom convention of battling in-laws, as Nikki jousts with her mother-in-law, Marion (Christine Estabrook).
Actually, Cox is better than the material. As is newcomer von Esmarch, whose unaffected performance is a delight. And the two of them have some chemistry to build on.
Too bad they're not in a nicer building than "Nikki."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com