 Nikki Cox hugs Nick von Esmarch in her new WB sitcom, 'Nikki' |
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By Ron Miller
of TheColumnists.com
I can still remember the first time I ever saw Nikki Cox in person.
She walked across the stage to take her seat at a 1995 press
conference for a new comedy series on The WB called "Unhappily
Ever After." It was a memorable moment. I mean, you could
almost hear the "boing!" sound as about 50 pairs of
male eyeballs bugged out of their sockets.
I also recall being kind of ashamed for responding that way myself. You see, Nikki was only about 15 or 16 then, which ought to be too young to inspire fantasies in adult men whose hair is already turning gray.
But, in retrospect, I don't feel awfully guilty about my reaction that day at the sight of a truly spectacular young woman. I'm afraid we male TV critics were only recognizing what the young and healthy teenage boys of America were about to recognize as soon as "Unhappily Ever After" premiered: Nikki Cox was already a major attraction at her tender age--with a body that needed no further refinements.
Five years later, Nikki is now a beautiful young woman, who also has turned into a pretty good comic actress. Her popularity as the tempting Tiffany helped keep "Unhappily Ever After" on the air a lot longer than it deserved to otherwise. When it was cashiered, she started popping up in other shows, like ABC's "Norm," but this fall she returns as the star of her own series on The WB, "Nikki," playing a Las Vegas chorus girl.
What? You expected her to play a college professor? Not in this lifetime! Because she's young, gorgeous and has a figure that was made for 3D movies, Nikki Cox is probably going to be doing sexy comedies with lots of bosom jokes until she finally wears out her welcome in Nielsen TV homes.
Happily, I haven't heard that any of this has done any significant emotional damage to the young actress. So far, I guess she's stayed busy with her career and hasn't become a plaything of the tabloid press. I've heard nothing about her that suggests being turned into a sex object by a TV network and the press even before she reached the age of consent has left permanent emotional scars.
Yet there's always a real danger of that happening to a good-looking TV moppet who comes of age, realizes she's now free to be independent and makes the serious mistake of believing she's some kind of sex goddess, immune to natural laws.
Though I've seen plenty of female juvenile players pass into adulthood without serious damage, I've also seen way too many crash and burn on the threshold of maturity. It happens to lots of regular girls who aren't in show biz, too, but the odds are much heavier against TV moppets when they grow up. That's because they're often stuck with an artificial persona that isn't anything like their own--or they're surrounded by an aura of sexuality that has a lot more to do with the publicity photos than the real girls who pose for them.
One good recent example: Christina Applegate, who used to walk onstage to the sound of whistles and howls every time she appeared in front of the live audience through 10 years of tapings of Fox's "Married…with Children." The reason: Her character, Kelly Bundy, was a blonde bimbo and everybody assumed Applegate was, too. She isn't and never was. Fortunately, Applegate was able to shrug all that off. She's much more like the loveable young woman she played in NBC's "Jesse."
Of course, everybody knows about Dana Plato, the cute kid who played rich girl Kimberly Drummond on NBC's "Diff'rent Strokes" from 1978-84. In her early teens, Dana began to blossom physically and seemed to work hard to prove she was a hot number and not the benign teenager she played on TV. I remember coming out of one small group interview with Dana, shaking my head over how sexy she was trying to be. One of my buddies and I turned to each other and simultaneously said: "Jailbait!"
Unfortunately, we were prophetic about Dana Plato. Within a year or two, she was in more trouble than you can imagine and even wound up in a real jail. Sexually precocious, she also did drugs and got involved in some criminal activity. Her career fizzled. Years later, after leaving Hollywood, undergoing drug rehab and starting a new life, Plato died in what appeared to be a drug overdose situation.
For every Dana Plato, I'd like to think there's a Jodie Foster -- a former TV juvenile who got an excellent college education and went on to a sensational career as a serious actress in movies, winning two Oscars in the process. Some believe Jodie also has deep scars from her juvenile acting days that have affected her adult life, but the woman I've met in recent years seems to me to be a wholesome, happy person and a role model for other young women.
When they reach physical maturity, many TV moppets make bad choices because profit-minded advisers push them into it. I suppose it's also natural for some girls to believe they're going to turn-on every young man in America if they just take off their clothes. And some probably misbehave just to shatter an image TV tacked onto them.
Here are some classic examples of female juvenile players I've seen stumble on their way to being grown-ups:
Mackenzie Phillips, who played teenager Julie on CBS' "One Day At A Time," developed a serious drug habit and had to be written out of the hit series twice during its 1975-84 run. Her career was never the same after those well-publicized incidents and her potential as a young leading lady never was realized. She's now healthy and talks openly about her past, but her chance at the gold ring never came again.
Kristy McNichol , who first became popular as "Buddy" Lawrence on ABC's drama "Family" from 1976-80, was poised to become a young leading lady in movies when emotional problems became so intense that her career hit the rocks and self-destructed. Returning to work as an adult on NBC's "Empty Nest" sitcom, McNichol continued to have problems and finally withdrew from the hit show. She has worked very little during the past decade.
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Shannen Doherty, left, and Alyssa Milano matured into beauties, took several wrong turns in their careers, but now co-star as young witches in 'Charmed' on The WB.
Lisa Bonet,
who played teenage Denise Huxtable on NBC's "The Cosby Show,"
the top-rated sitcom of the 1980s, was both talented and beautiful,
earning her own spinoff series, "A Different World,"
in 1987. But the young beauty nearly wrecked her career when
she did an unsavory nude scene in the 1987 film "Angel Heart"
and became increasingly reckless. She was written out of her
series after one season and never regained her career momentum.
Tracey Gold is still best known for playing teenager Carol
Seaver on ABC's hit "Growing Pains," though she had
been in several TV series before that. The eldest of three sisters
who were in TV during the 1980s, I always felt Tracey was the
most talented, but the moodiest in person. It was clear she was
a troubled kid, not unlike the childhood Marilyn Monroe she once
played in a TV movie for ABC. Just when she began to emerge as
a young leading lady, Tracey was diagnosed as an anorexic and
soon the tabloids were covering her fight for life. She finally
won that battle, married and resumed her career as a star in
TV movies.
Barbara Hershey went from playing a loveable 16-year-old in ABC's 1966-67 western series, "The Monroes," into a series of sexy roles in feature films, starting with "Last Summer" in 1969. Her stormy, sexually-charged relationship with David Carradine and her hippie image--she once changed her name to Barbara Seagull--gave her a rather notorious reputation that persisted for years. Ultimately, Hershey put all that behind her, piled up an enviable list of credits as a serious actress in both films and television, and today is considered one of Hollywood's most respected actors.
Alyssa Milano became one of America's favorite TV moppets when she played Tony Danza's daughter, Samantha, on ABC's "Who's the Boss?" from 1984-92. It was no surprise that Milano blossomed into a beautiful young woman, but lots of fans were shocked when she started making some really bum career decisions, appearing in one sleazy movie after another, often with her clothes off. Milano's wholesome TV moppet image is gone forever, but her popularity has rebounded since she was cast in The WB's "Charmed" series two seasons ago, playing a young witch who generally stays dressed.
Shannen Doherty also was blessed with a sweet and cuddly persona after playing teenager Kris Witherspoon in NBC's "Our House" from 1986-88. All that changed when she moved up to Fox's "Beverly Hills, 90210" in 1990 as Brenda Walsh. Her booming popularity and sudden independence fueled certain demons lurking inside and soon Doherty was the queen of the tabloids with her reckless exploits and temperamental on-set behavior. Ushered off the hit show after four seasons, Doherty spent a few years straightening out her personal life, then went back to work to prove she wasn't really the flake everybody thought she was. Now co-starring with Milano in The WB's "Charmed," Doherty has turned the corner and settled into adulthood quite comfortably.
If they're smart, the female juvenile actors of today, their parents and their advisers will use the Jodie Fosters and Helen Hunts as the models for the conduct of their careers, especially when they start to blossom out as young women and face all the temptations that entails.
© 2000 by Ron Miller
The photo from "Nikki"
is © 2000 by The WB.
The photos of Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty are both ©
2000 by The WB. Credit: Frank Ockenfels.
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