Hit Australian sitcom “Kath & Kim” just moved to Florida, where Molly Shannon’s freshly-divorced gym-obsessed Kath is flamboyantly living her fourth decade and Selma Blair’s 20-something pop culture brainwashed daughter has returned home.

“Kath & Kim” has been hugely entertaining in its native Australia, a hit both with audiences and critics. NBC hopes to translate that success overseas and the bid begins tonight, as the new series premieres at 8:30/7:30c.

“Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon stars as Kath Day, a slightly plump middle-aged woman who has recently divorced her husband of many years. Her daughter has married and left home and life seems ripe with possibilities.

Or at least she wants it to be that way. In her 40s, Kath is terrified of growing old and becoming superseded which is why she obsesses with gym, dresses in the most vivid colors she can find and flaunts whatever physical asset she appreciates in herself.

Kim, portrayed by Selma Blair, is in her 20s and regrets the marriage she rushed into. Her husband of six weeks wants her to, of all things, cook. Unacceptable. Kim is one sorry individual though, as she appears to be completely self-absorbed, impervious to the needs and feelings of others around her, stuck intellectually somewhere in her junior high years (fashion-wise as well) and completely obsessed with tabloids and celebrities.

Kim decides to come back home and have her mom pamper her, only to discover that her bedroom has been turned into a gym and that mom is very busy with her own livelihood.

Both Kath and Kim are lost and looking for some kind of sense in life. Perhaps it is Kath that has more chances at an epiphany, as she is warmed by the sincere adoration of Phil (comedy veteran John Michael Higgins), a cheerful and plausibly chivalrous 40-something mall sandwich shop manager. His feelings are utterly reciprocated by the suburban mom, who is determined to live the rest of her life as if she will always be in her happy 30s.

The cast also includes Craig Baker (Mikey Day), Kim’s loving and similarly unripe husband, a salesman in an electronics superstore.

Shannon and Blair, in real life only 8 years apart in age, give their absurd characters and absurd lines the best they can but one can’t feel that it is a pity that two such talented actresses have gotten themselves stuck in such a muck-up of an adaptation.

The dysfunctional mother-daughter pair has plenty of potential obviously, but in “Kath & Kim,” a good part of the so-called humor comes off as tacky.

Michael Nader (“King of Queens”) is executive producer and writer of the series. It is additionally unhappy that the creators of the original series, Gina Riley and Jane Turner (who also starred in the Aussie sitcom) have come on board as executive producers and consultants of the American version, along with Rick McKenna and Nader.

The series is a production from Reveille for Universal Media Studios.