The New Adventures of Old Christine is an American comedy series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a recently divorced single mother. The series debuted as a midseason replacement on March 13, 2006 on CBS and ran for five seasons, which concluded on May 12, 2010. On May 18, 2010, CBS announced that the series had been canceled.^[1]

Christine Campbell (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a neurotic divorced mother and owner of a women's gym who is in a constant struggle to keep pace with those around her. A frequent fixture in her life is her irresponsible ex-husband Richard (Clark Gregg), whose new girlfriend (Emily Rutherfurd) is also named Christine, hence the nickname "Old Christine" for the Louis-Dreyfus character. Christine lives with her son Richie (Trevor Gagnon) and her brother Matthew (Hamish Linklater) while Christine's best friend and colleague Barb (Wanda Sykes) is constantly a shoulder for Christine to lean upon. Christine also struggles with her inferiority complex with the snotty "meanie-moms", Marly (Alex Kapp Horner) and Lindsay (Tricia O'Kelley) at her son's private school.

The show has featured guest and recurring appearances from a wide range of established actors including Blair Underwood, Dave Foley, Eric McCormack, Jennifer Grey, Scott Bakula, Andy Richter and Jane Lynch.

The first season consisted of thirteen episodes and premiered on March 13, 2006. In this season Christine has only just enrolled her son, Richie at a new posh private school, where she is constantly being humiliated by Marly and Lindsay, some non-working mothers at the school. On top of all this she has just discovered her ex-husband, Richard has started dating a much younger woman who is also named Christine. Christine has a brief fling with Burton but they soon break up due to Christine not being able to commit to the relationship. In the season finale Christine kisses Richard, causing him to break up with New Christine.

The second season consisted of twenty two episodes and premiered on September 18, 2006. Due to Richard and Christine's brief kiss, Richie believes that his parents have gotten back together much to his parents' dismay. Christine starts dating an older man who she later discovers is New Christine's father, this situation causes Richard and New Christine to rekindle their romance once again. Barb decides to start working at the gym with Christine, while Christine falls hard for Richie's new teacher, Mr. Harris. The season finale included Richard sleeping with Christine after breaking up with New Christine yet again. This causes a pregnancy scare for Christine which is soon avoided. Eventually, New Christine takes Richard back and Mr. Harrris takes a new teaching job at another school to be with Christine.

The third season was scheduled as a midseason replacement on CBS with thirteen episodes scheduled. Due to the 2007 writer's strike, the third season consisted of just 10 episodes. The third season premiered on February 4, 2008. Christine and Mr. Harris have a smooth going relationship, until Christine's schedule becomes too hectic midway through the season causing Mr. Harris to leave her. Meanwhile, Richard and New Christine take their relationship up a notch and buy a house together, which coincidentally is Christine's dream house leaving her feeling jealous and confused. Barb leaves her husband and she has a short-lived fling with Matthew much to Christine's horror.

The fourth season consisting of twenty two episodes, premiered on September 24, 2008. As Barb is divorced she is facing deportation from the U.S. so Christine decides to marry her in a sham lesbian marriage in order to keep her best friend in the country. Richard and New Christine become engaged while Matthew finds love with one of his clients. Christine has a brief relationship with an obsessive man named Patrick, while she and Barb decide to turn their gym into a spa which they later shockingly discover has turned into a brothel. On the day of Richard and New Christine's wedding, Christine briefly gets back together with New Christine's father, but is later left heart broken when she discovers that he is engaged. This causes Richard to rush to Christine's side leaving New Christine angry and jealous causing her to leave him at the altar. Meanwhile Barb and Christine's sham marriage is discovered by an INS officer leaving Barb imprisoned.

The fifth season consisting of twenty one episodes, premiered on September 23, 2009. The season finale aired on May 12, 2010.

• Christine "Old Christine" Campbell (née Kimble) (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the main character of the series, is a divorced mother who owns and operates a gym for women. She has a number of neuroses: although she suffers from feelings of inadequacy, she can also be highly self-centered and self-obsessed. Christine's bad luck with relationships continued after her divorce, and included failed relationships with New Christine's father, her son's teacher and her ex-brother-in-law. Christine is obsessed with being seen as socially progressive and liberal, and recently married her best friend Barb when she risked being deported, though this marriage ended shortly due to the fact that it in no way protected Barb. Christine currently is in another dysfunctional relationship, as she has romantic feelings for her therapist Max.
• Richard Campbell (Clark Gregg), is Christine's ex-husband, who maintains a frequent presence in her life. After divorcing Christine, he found love with another woman named Christine, whom he nicknames "New Christine". He suffers from commitment issues, and only recently did he finally get engaged. Richard's presence on his ex-wife's life caused a strain between himself and New Christine, which heightened when she walked out on their wedding. Richard has finally accepted the fact she doesn't want him back, but although Richard is currently single, New Christine showed up on his doorstep a month later furious, revealing she is pregnant.
• Matthew Kimble (Hamish Linklater), is Christine's live-in brother, who often acts as the straight man to his neurotic sister. Matthew has had trouble finding a career path: first he entered and then quit medical school, and is currently pursuing a career as a therapist. He suffers from a somewhat unnatural attachment to his mother (who he kisses on the mouth and speaks to several times daily), but recently lost loves with many women, and is left heartbroken. Matthew finally moved out of Christine's and is currently sharing a nice apartment with Richard.
• Barbara Baran (Wanda Sykes), is Christine's straight-talking best friend and colleague at the gym (whom she often calls "my black friend Barb"). Barb is divorced and in the fourth season was revealed to be from the Bahamas and not a US citizen. She has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor and is rarely enthused by any of Christine's plans. Barb and Christine got married early in season four to save Barb from deportation, but their same-sex marriage ended up resulting in them losing ownership of their gym. Since they lost the gym, Barb sold her condo to build up a new business and is married to Richard to stave off deportation. She's also engaged to Dave, a man she met at the wedding. Unfortunately, in reality, Dave hates Barb and thought proposing to her would break them up, but instead she accepted.
• Christine "New Christine" Hunter (Emily Rutherfurd), is Richard's former fiance, an often frustrated and confused young blonde whom he nicknames "New Christine". She is annoyed by Richard's continued friendship with Old Christine, who treats her with derision, leading to friction between the two women. She is also frustrated with Richard's slow pace of commitment to their relationship. She walked out on their wedding, and she currently is single and holds intense anger towards Richard for ruining their wedding, and also became furious to learn she is pregnant, even though Richard told her he got a vasectomy. Christine gives birth to a daughter, Dakota Christine Hunter-Campbell at the end of season 5.
• Ritchie Campbell(Trevor Gagnon), Christine and Richard's only son, who attends a posh private school. Often smothered by his mother, his lack of masculine traits had recently begun to worry his father.
• Marly and Lindsay (Tricia O'Kelley and Alex Kapp Horner), aka 'The Meanie Moms' are two mean, rich mothers whose children attend Richie's school. They are looked upon as the 'queen bees' of the school, although Marly is clearly dominant to the subservient Lindsay (Lindsay even got pregnant when Marly did so Marly wouldn't have to do it alone). They frequently make Christine feel inferior, leading Christine to constantly trying to find ways to get back at them.

• Mike Gay (Tom Papa), Christine's only friend at Westbridge, as he is similar to Christine in that he is not wealthy and divorced. (Season 3)
• Stan / "Sad Dad" (Andy Richter), divorced and mocked father at Westbridge that Christine finds herself unable to not sleep with. She later announces why she finds him so irresistible. (Seasons 1-3)
• 'Papa' Jeff Hunter (Scott Bakula), originally Christine's love interest, but soon finds out is 'New' Christine's father. They continue to date for a while after but eventually becomes too much for Christine. At New Christine and Richard's wedding, Jeff and Christine rekindle their relationship. Christine realizes shortly after this he is engaged. (Season 2,4)
• Tom (Dave Foley), Richard's work associate and obsesser of Christine. After he got sick on their disastrous first date, they bonded later in the series, but Christine still refused to see him. Richard set them up yet again, and this time Christine used him for his money, but Tom left her after he though Christine's attempted seduction of him as "repulsive". (Seasons 2-3, 5)
• Daniel Harris (Blair Underwood), former teacher of Ritchie until he gave it up to date Christine. Christine had been in love with him for a long time and although dating goes well, it eventually becomes too much for Daniel because of Christine's schedule. (Seasons 2-3, 5)
• Ali (Amy Farrington), quiet, shy and surprisingly witty worker at the gym. (Seasons 1-4)
• Mrs. Belt (Jordan Baker), Ritchie's third grade teacher. (Season 1)
• Burton Shaffer (Matt Letscher), Christine's on-and-off romantic interest. She always finds herself stupidly splitting them up until Burton had therapy. They dated again but he was so different and strange Christine couldn't take it. (Seasons 1-2)
• Ashley (Lily Goff), Marly's air-headed daughter. (Seasons 1-5)
• Kelsey (Marissa Blanchard), Lindsay's daughter with lesbian tendencies. (Seasons 1-5)
• Kit/Mrs. Nunley (Nancy Lenehan), peppy principal of Ritchie's school. Nancy Lenehan, before recurring as Mrs. Nunley, guest starred in season one as a completely different character. (Seasons 1-2, 5)
• Pete (Anthony Holiday), ex-husband of Barb. Seems to have little emotions. (Seasons 1-2)
• Mrs. Wilhoite (Mary Beth McDonough), teacher and meanie mom at the school. (Seasons 1-5)
• Ms. Hammond (Jane Lynch), ethics Counselor and gym teacher at the school. (Season 2)
• Lucy (Michaela Watkins), a former patient of Matthew's that becomes attracted to authority figures. Matthew cannot control himself and, thus, the two begin to date. Since then, unexpectedly, the two fell in love and sported a much more serious relationship. The two moved in, and unfortunately, both exhibited negative qualities that led to an upsetting break-up. (Season 4, 5)
• Patrick Harris (Tim DeKay), Christine's new boyfriend, who she meets in a video store and starts dating. Patrick turns out to have some serious rage issues when he 'loses' at something, and Christine fearfully broke up with him. (Season 4)
• Joe Campbell (Charles Esten), Richard's brother. Joe spent the night at Christine's house during a visit and following this came out to her as gay. He lives in San Francisco and returned for Richard's bachelor party where he became jealous he wasn't the best man. (Seasons 2, 4)
• Todd Watski (Lee Tergesen), Christine's elementary school rival. When she discovers he's a fellow parent at the school, she gets revenge. Christine later uses him at a wedding rehearsal as her date to make Richard jealous, but his 'ass' qualities kick in. (Season 4)
• Amy Hunter (Constance Zimmer), New Christine's sister. Amy is notably vastly different than her sister, as she's much less ditsy and much more down-to-Earth. She meets Matthew at Richard and New Christine's wedding rehearsal and the two hook up. (Season 4)
• Principal Merrow (Stephen Toblowsky), Westbridge's middle school principal. He has very little tolerance for Christine's neurotic behavior. (Season 4)
• Max (Eric McCormack), Christine's current therapist/attraction and Matthew's mentor. Christine and Max share a mutual attraction, though currently Christine is only his patient. Max has already had his license suspended multiple times for getting close to patients, and Matthew has shown immense disapproval of his mentor dating his sister. (Season 5)
• Dave (James Lesure), a man Barb met at Richard and New Christine's wedding. Although he originally tried to deport her as he is an IRS agent, he later found a way to keep her in the country because of his feelings for her, but later developed a hatred of her as their relationship progressed. He proposed to her, thinking she'd break up with him, but instead the two are now engaged. (Seasons 4-5)

• Dr. Palmer (Jason Alexander), Christine's gynecologist.
• Audrey (Sandra Bernhard), an activist promoting offshore oil drilling, which Christine's opposed to. She calls Christine "shorty", so Christine counters by calling her names such as "Tall" or "Gigantor".
• Claire (Rachael Harris), Christine's college friend's fiancé.
• Belinda (Ana Ortiz), a down-to-Earth Portuguese mother at Richie's school, who turns out to be Marly's housekeeper.
• Timmy (Ben Feldman), a young ambitious lawyer whom New Christine set up with Christine.
• Shelley (Gigi Rice), Timmy's protective mother
• Ben (Matthew Glave), Christine's friend from college and Claire's fiance.
• Neil (Jeffrey Tambor), owner of a reptile club Richie wants to get into. Christine agrees to go on a date with him to allow Richie in the club.
• Liz (Helen Slater), a mother at Richie's school who flirts with and employs Matthew at the same time.
• Father Christopher (Ed Begley, Jr.), a friendly minister who tries to make Christine feel comfortable at church.
• Angela (Brenda Blethyn), Christine's neurotic mother.
• Margaret (Megan Mullally), corporate adviser of Christine and Barb's gym.
• Francie (Kristen Johnston), a mother at Richie's school, and Christine's needy new friend.
• Howard (Corbin Bernsen), a high powered attorney Christine hires in her divorce with Barb.
• Agnes (Marion Ross), an elderly woman that Richard tries to evict from her own apartment.
• Tracey (Jennifer Grey), a passionate woman whom Christine sets up with Richard. (Jennifer Grey is the wife of series star Clark Gregg)
• Frances (Amy Sedaris), a victim of Christine's bullying from their childhood whom Christine tries to make amends with.
• Jeannie (Molly Shannon), an eccentric neighbor of Christine's who throws a disastrous holiday block party.

The review website Metacritic.com, which tabulates critics' reviews, gave it a 64 — equating to their summary of "generally positive reviews", with 16 out of 26 critics reviews deemed as positive.^[2] A Los Angeles Times review notes that "Louis-Dreyfus makes Christine feel fresh and real" and the show has a "dry charm and a nice tone of affectionate irony."^[3]

The series had broadcast three seasons, and its viewing ride has been a bumpy one. After gaining 12 million or more viewers consistently in the first season and start of the second season, fans responded poorly to its time slot change, as it lost around 5 million viewers. In the third season, it reprised its original slot and gained back a few million. As the season progressed, comedies included in the night it aired began to broadcast new episodes, and Old Christine had their viewers up where they originally were, as in the final episode of the season, total viewers estimated to 12.41 million.

Although the series is one of the most successful comedies viewer-wise on CBS, and was part of its 'Monday Night Comedy Night', the show was put on hiatus. At the CBS upfronts it was officially picked up for 22 episodes. However, it has been leading a new mini-comedy lineup now in its second year, as it acts as a lead-in to sophomore sitcom Gary Unmarried. With the unfamiliarity of the new comedy lineup, ratings dropped severely originally, but have been steadily increasing over the past year and some. It appears clear that throughout the seasons it has maintained consistency, as it has received multiple Emmy nominations for each of its first four seasons including a win for Dreyfus in 2006. TV Squad has been reviewing each episode of Old Christine's current (fifth) season, and the reviews have been extremely positive.

The show's initial ratings success is the first example of a show breaking the "Seinfeld curse" (after the failures of The Michael Richards Show, Bob Patterson, Listen Up!, and Louis-Dreyfus' own Watching Ellie).^[4]

Old Christine's time slot was changed during the second season, thus eliciting a decline in ratings after losing its Two and a Half Men lead-in.

On May 16, 2007, it was announced that, despite the decline in ratings, CBS would renew the show for the 2007-2008 season as a mid-season replacement.^[5] On November 6, 2007, CBS said that production of Old Christine had been halted because of a strike by the Writers Guild of America.^[6] On December 13, 2007 CBS announced that the series would return for its third season, which premiered on February 4, 2008, replacing Rules of Engagement.^[7] However, only ten episodes of the original 13-episode order were produced and aired for the third season because of the WGA strike.^[8]

On May 14, 2008, CBS gave the sitcom a 22-episode order for the 2008-2009 season, where it now airs on Wednesdays, opening up a second comedy night for the network.^[9] The premier, as expected, generated a disappointing audience, as only 6.7 million viewers tuned in. This was largely because the season received little promotion compared to fellow comedies and the new comedy lineup wasn't ready to handle a major audience. Christine's follower, Gary Unmarried struggled too, barely edging out Christine in viewers. Gary Unmarried wasn't received as well by critics which may take viewers away from The New Adventures of Old Christine. The following week, despite not having to go up against ratings success Dancing with the Stars, ratings tip-toed up although not much as liked, as it added a few hundred thousand. By the third episode, the show was over 7.5 million and had added more than one million to the premiere audience. Since then, Old Christine has had ratings close to 8 million viewers, and has come in first in its time period multiple times.

On an overall basis for its fourth season, Old Christine struggled in its timeslot, as it had its worst season in the ratings to date and dipped in timeslot placings over time. However, Rules of Engagement was also given a chance in that slot (a fellow CBS comedy performing well in Old Christine's old timeslot), and Old Christine outperformed it.

The early ratings for the fifth season have been lower than previous seasons, but the fourteenth episode reached 8.3 million viewers, the highest viewership the show had received in its Wednesday night timeslot. While the future of the show was uncertain at CBS, ABC had shown interest in the series on several occasions, and on May 3, 2010, Deadline Hollywood reported that ABC is in negotiations with Warner Bros. to pick up "Old Christine", should CBS cancel it. On May 18, 2010 CBS cancelled Old Christine. There is still speculation that ABC will pick up the show, but the reported negotiations between Warner Brothers and ABC have been slow. ^[10].

During the Warner Television and Animation Live Chat on April 5, 2010, executives from Warner Brothers said that they are "evaluating different options for release" regarding the remaining and possibly future seasons of Old Christine on DVD^[15]

• Official website
• The New Adventures of Old Christine at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com
• Zap2It
• MSN review
• Hollywood Reporter review