BURBANK, CALIF. — Julia Louis Dreyfus is doing a bit of double duty on television this fall.
In addition to starring in her sitcom "The New Adventures of Old Christine," she's reprising the role she played on 179 episodes of "Seinfeld."
But, of course, she's not playing Elaine on "Seinfeld." She's playing Elaine on "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
"I'm playing a little bit of Elaine on 'Curb,' but not entirely. I'm also playing sort of a version of myself, and then rehearsing and then kind of doing Elaine 10 years later and then breaking out of that and being myself," Dreyfus said. "So it's not exactly like your standard reunion."
That would be an understatement.
It does, however, offer her the opportunity to play three roles, including the fictionalized version of herself. And there's no danger of confusing Elaine with Christine.
"I would say that the characters are very different. Elaine is not well-intentioned," Dreyfus said, employing understatement yet again. "And I would say that Christine is well-intentioned. But both are buffoons."
Elaine, of course, is as self-centered a character as television has seen. Christine has more than a bit of that going on as well, but she actually cares about other people. Which Elaine never did.
"The New Adventures of Old Christine" (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2), now in its fifth season, follows the adventures of — you guessed it — Christine. She's a forty-something divorced mother who's still on friendly terms with her ex-husband, Richard (Clark Gregg).
Although when her ex-husband brings home a new girlfriend also named Christine, Christine suddenly becomes "old Christine."
Over the course of the show's run — Episode 70 airs this week — Christine has invariably tried to make things right and has pretty much always failed.
"I think that (Christine) means well, but she fails miserably," Dreyfus said. "But she's well-intentioned, I would say."
"But misinformed," said Kari Lizer, the creator/executive producer of "Christine."
"But misinformed and uneducated," Dreyfus said.
"And dumb," Lizer interjected.
LIKE RIDING A BIKE: According to Dreyfus, the non-reunion "Seinfeld" reunion on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" wasn't as difficult as she imagined it might be.
"It was eerily easy," she said. "The first day of rehearsal was on the stage with two of our sets put back up. And, frankly, it was as if we had taken a three-week hiatus and we were back at work.
"Everything was there, just, you know, better computers and stuff like that."
It has, after all, been 11 years since "Seinfeld" went off the air.
For those of you who haven't seen "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David — the co-creator/writer/executive producer of "Seinfeld" — plays a fictionalized version of himself.
The fictional Larry is cranky and cantankerous ... so it's kind of hard to tell the difference between the real Larry and the fictional Larry.
Anyway, there's an ongoing plotline this season on "Curb" (Sundays, 10 p.m., HBO) in which Larry is talked into doing a "Seinfeld" reunion. The original cast members — Jerry Seinfeld, Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards — are talked into returning.
And, while there won't be an actual reunion episode, we'll see them working on it. Along with a few scenes from the faux-reunion.
"Ultimately, it was a ball," Dreyfus said. "We really, really had a good time working on the show.
"It was a very different experience really than doing 'Seinfeld,' of course, because it was an improvised situation."
(That's the way "Curb Your Enthusiasm" operates. There are no scripts, just outlines. And the actors improvise their scenes.)
"So that's actually a lot different, but it was a great way to do the so-called reunion show, because it, in fact, wasn't a reunion," Dreyfus said. "It is, but it also isn't. And I think it was sort of the ideal way of doing it and not a sad way to do it."
Because we've all seen those sad television reunions. The kind that David and Seinfeld vowed would never happen.
"It was ultimately a very happy experience," Dreyfus said. "And it was like everything fell into place, and we hadn't missed a beat, truthfully.
"Strange that way."
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com