SO I WASN’T THRILLED WHEN I POPPED TNT’S “THE GOODBYE GIRL” INTO THE VCR. MY ANNOYANCE LASTED ONLY THROUGH THE OPENING CREDITS.

“The Goodbye Girl,”

tonight at 8 on TNT

½ (three and one half stars)

THE first thing I asked when the screener for a TV movie version of Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” arrived was, “why?”

I mean, really, what’s the point of remaking/revamping great movies when it would make a whole lot more sense to remake bad movies that should have been great – like, say, “Bonfire of the Vanities”?

So I wasn’t thrilled when I popped TNT’s “The Goodbye Girl” into the VCR for a watch. My annoyance lasted only through the opening credits, however, and then I started laughing.

Paula McFadden (Patricia Heaton) is a divorced mom who lives with her boyfriend and her daughter, Lucy (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), in New York.

Paula and Lucy come home one day and find a note from the man in their life – who happens to be an actor. It says he’s accepted a part in Italy and, oh, yes, he doesn’t want to be in a relationship anymore.

Devastated, Paula, who used to be a Broadway dancer, starts trying out for parts again – which isn’t so easy once you’re past 35 and the dancers you’re competing with are so young that you recognize one from your daughter’s school.

When things can’t get worse, they do. In the middle of a storm, at midnight, the doorbell rings. It’s a man. It’s a man that Paula’s ex-man has sublet the apartment to.

Along with forgetting to mention that he didn’t want to be in a relationship, the ex also forgot to mention that he’d sublet their home out from under them.

Now, I know (and you might not, if you haven’t seen the original, for which Richard Dreyfus won an Oscar), this doesn’t sound like a million laughs – but it is.

The man, Elliot Garfield (Jeff Daniels), is not only another actor, but he’s paid three months rent in advance and he wants in. And Paula won’t get out. They make a New York compromise – despite the fact that they hate each other. They agree to share the apartment.

Elliot has come to town to star in an off-off Broadway production of “Richard III” and is appalled to discover that the hunchback, partly paralyzed Richard will be played – for this production only – as a flaming queen, as envisioned by the director (Alan Cumming).

The laughs in this remake (the movie and Richard III) are more than generously doled out, and the performances are terrific – which make up for the fact that Elliot flip flops from obnoxious to salt-of-the-earth in 10 seconds.

Of course, Paula and Elliot hate each other and then fall in love. The only problem with the movie is that Heaton and Daniels are great individually, but not that good together.

There was more chemistry in my high school class when Victor Shill blew off his eyebrows.

But I forgive since they actually filmed a New York film in New York. The Manhattan of the north – Vancouver – is nowhere to be seen, thank you Lord.