The most courageous element of the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus sitcom that debuts tonight on CBS is its title. That a television network dares to embrace a female sitcom character as “old” – even when intended only as ironic juxtaposition – is almost reason to rejoice. But not quite. “The New Adventures of Old Christine” never quite manages to escape its overly familiar premise and mediocre execution. Its jokes, setups, and performances taste like recycled sitcom feed you’ve choked on before. But the series will probably succeed because of that same familiar feeling. Sadly, the “Seinfeld” curse has been broken with a sitcom that is utterly ordinary and forgettable.

It makes sense that Ms. Louis-Dreyfus would be the one to break the curse. Her television persona engages audiences easily; she’s a light comedian who can effortlessly milk laughs from ephemeral concerns. It’s when she tries to go deeper that she fails – as anyone who caught an episode of her 2002 NBC comedy vehicle “Watching Ellie” can attest. Developed with her husband, Brad Hall, “Ellie” tried too hard to be innovative, with a realtime storytelling conceit that interested no one. The lack of a studio audience didn’t help either. Ms. Louis-Dreyfus comes out of a crowd-pleasing comedy tradition, and seems to like the laughs.

Here, she’s a divorced mother with a cozy relationship with her ex-husband Richard (the overly likable Clark Gregg), and an icky one with her young son, Ritchie. (If CBS is smart, it’ll find a genuinely charming kid to replace Trevor Gagnon, who plays Ritchie like he’s Damien from “The Omen.”) The basic notion is that she’s a woman struggling to balance her lives – work, home, and love. It could be sickening to watch, especially when you consider how many women without Christine’s means (she owns a chain of gyms) fight far tougher battles every day. But it all works out thanks to the undeniable charms of Ms. Louis-Dreyfus, who has the perfect emotional dimensions for a hit laugh-track comedy series – which this will surely be.

The title derives from the revelation, in the show’s pilot, that her exhusband has found himself a new girlfriend: She’s younger, prettier, and has the same name as his ex-wife. Two blond moms at Ritchie’s new school form a gossipy Greek chorus and inform Christine of her existence, and of her name – setting in motion themes of jealousy, aging, and inequality between the sexes that get tossed aside with second-rate jokes. It’s too bad the banter on “Old Christine” – written by Kari Lizer, a veteran of the hokey-jokey “Will & Grace” – doesn’t dig deeper; it might have been more interesting to see Christine and Richard really battle over their differences instead of shoving them under the rug to preserve their wit-driven friendship. The notion of an ex-wife remaining pals with her husband – while he actively pursues young women with the same name as her – seems like a premise better suited to a Lifetime murder scheme than a sitcom.

“Old Christine” doesn’t completely sugar-coat the realities of working motherhood. The pilot opens with the amusingly familiar notion of a busy parent leaving herself phone messages with to-do lists, and draws real humor from Christine’s attempts to be sweet to herself on the phone. The pacing crackles, as one would expect from experienced sitcom director (and “Seinfeld” alumnus) Andy Ackerman. He keeps the focus tight on Ms. Louis-Dreyfus’s face as she tortures herself about whether to get Botox injections, almost taunting the viewer to speculate on the actress’s age and inclination toward cosmetic procedures. It’s a refreshingly honest approach to an issue on the minds of the audience CBS hopes to grab – adult women who control what families watch on television.

But where does it go? Sadly, “Old Christine” has the feeling of a show that has been on for years, its characters already locked into sitcom archetype. Competing with her husband, she lands in bed with “Sad Dad” from school (Andy Richter, every network’s go-to guy for a loser date); by the show’s third episode, when we see Christine go out on more dates, she seems saddled forever with losers and misfits. Yes, it makes for comedy, but why should Richard have all the fun? Even on a show ostensibly driven by female concerns, the guy gets the girl – and the girl gets the shaft.

Still, it’s great to see Ms. Louis-Dreyfus back on television, and playing someone her own age; she knows how to laugh at herself,and get audiences to join in the fun. But if she wants to make something of “Old Christine” – and not just settle for the Monday at 8:30p.m. time slot hit it’s sure to be, sandwiched between “How I Met Your Mother” and “Two and a Half Men” – she needs to push her producers for stories that dig deeper into the true dilemmas of single motherhood. By settling for standard sitcom gags and trivial concerns, she’s giving up the chance to be forever remembered as Christine, and not Elaine.

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To be completely honest, Simon, your new ABC reality competition – “American Inventor,” debuting this Thursday at 8 p.m. – reminds me of one of those bad reality shows on Fox in the summertime, complete with cheesy music and fussy judges trying desperately to imitate the astonishing success of “American Idol.” The sight of ordinary Americans humiliating themselves on television gets tiring after a while; even on “Idol,” the show’s tone shifts after a few weeks to a genuine talent competition, and even its losers get some humanity from the clips you present of their home life.

Simon – please, Paula, let me finish – Simon, your “American Inventor” show is just awful. You’ve just booked your plane ticket home.

dblum@nysun.com