There's not a lot new in "The New Adventures of Old Christine," the latest lackluster effort to create a comedy centered on Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Seinfeld"). Not that it's her fault.

	Mitch Haddad, CBS/Warner Bros. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine and Clark Gregg as her ex-husband Richard argue over his new girlfriend on "The New Adventures of Old Christine." Click photo for larger image. 'The New Adventures of Old Christine' When: 8:30 and 9:30 tonight, CBS. Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

The writing in "Old Christine" (8:30 and 9:30 tonight, KDKA) is occasionally funny in a low-key way, but too often the show is a bore. And "Christine" creator Kari Lizer (a former actress who played an eager law clerk on "Matlock") has made her leading lady a stock sitcom character: Rather than face embarrassment, Christine lies, which just leads to greater embarrassment a few minutes later. Viewers will be forgiven if they feel like they've entered a time warp, sucked back 25 years to another misunderstanding on "Three's Company."

Christine got a divorce from her husband, Richard (Clark Gregg), two years ago, but the pair remain friends.

"My marriage was like a game of hide and seek where both people hid and nobody seeked. Sought? Slept together," Christine says in tonight's first episode. "Nothing's really changed."

Christine has custody of her son, Ritchie (Trevor Gagnon), and her brother, Matthew (Hamish Linklater), lives with her. He wanders in and out of scenes, usually dressed in pajama bottoms, for no discernible purpose except to make a joke at Christine's expense.

Christine, who worries way too much about what other people think of her, gets upset (and starts lying) when she discovers her ex-husband is dating a new, younger woman, also named Christine (Emily Rutherfurd), hence the "old Christine," "new Christine" dichotomy.

If the situations are overly contrived, some of the dialogue could make you chuckle in a knowing way. It sounds almost real when Christine frets, "They're already looking at us like we're the project family the church sent over."

But for every winning bit of dialogue, there is, unfortunately, a lame situation to go along with it (Christine dates a loser, Christine goes on blind dates with multiple losers).

The show benefits from Wanda Sykes as a guest star in the third episode, airing at 9:30 p.m. next Monday. She livens things up and could give Louis-Dreyfus a worthy foil, although her appearance in this episode is all too brief.