Before Rebecca Sugar and Julia Pott, there was Debra Solomon (Best known as the person behind the animated sequences from the Disney sitcom Lizzie McGuire) the first female animator to make animated shorts for Cartoon Network, though said shorts were never turned into a full series.
Nikki was the first of those pilots, released as part of The Cartoon Cartoon Show (formerly known as The What a Cartoon! Show) I must confess I have no memory of ever watching this as a child.
I found the premise a bit odd, with two kids following a random woman and trying to interfere with her private life, even attempting to give her a new boyfriend.
If those characters were adults, such kind of behavior definately would be seen as creepy. And honestly, I'm not really sure if kids would be interested in a show about two children trying to solve the romantic problems of adults.
There is also a little bit pessimistic message here, with the random woman the kids followed returning to her toxic boyfriend at the end.
In some ways, despite the age of the main characters and the cutesy aesthetic, Nikki feels more aimed at adults than kids.
The second pilot by Debra Solomon, "Private Eye Princess" feels more in line with other Cartoon Network shows from the era with its wacky humor, but unfortunately, never took off.
For some reason, I feel Nikki would have worked better as a Nicktoon (As long as the weird premise of kids following strangers was dropped in favor of focusing in the slice of life elements, in a similar vein to stuff like Hey Arnold)
Nikki was the first of those pilots, released as part of The Cartoon Cartoon Show (formerly known as The What a Cartoon! Show) I must confess I have no memory of ever watching this as a child.
I found the premise a bit odd, with two kids following a random woman and trying to interfere with her private life, even attempting to give her a new boyfriend.
If those characters were adults, such kind of behavior definately would be seen as creepy. And honestly, I'm not really sure if kids would be interested in a show about two children trying to solve the romantic problems of adults.
There is also a little bit pessimistic message here, with the random woman the kids followed returning to her toxic boyfriend at the end.
In some ways, despite the age of the main characters and the cutesy aesthetic, Nikki feels more aimed at adults than kids.
The second pilot by Debra Solomon, "Private Eye Princess" feels more in line with other Cartoon Network shows from the era with its wacky humor, but unfortunately, never took off.
For some reason, I feel Nikki would have worked better as a Nicktoon (As long as the weird premise of kids following strangers was dropped in favor of focusing in the slice of life elements, in a similar vein to stuff like Hey Arnold)
