Happily ever after does not exist in sitcoms that open the ex-files over and over again. However, happy endings have become less of a cliché than the overcooked formula of ex-spouses striving to get on well, on the one hand, and getting their lives back on track, on the other hand.

As the recipe has been used for so many times and has proved success, why shouldn’t Gary give it a shot? This is what the producers of “Gary Unmarried” might have thought. But just let me give you the reasons why Gary should have stayed married and out of TV.

The sitcom premiering tonight on CBS resembles a 1980s insipid and colorless show, which seems to have forgotten what nowadays life is about. Okay, so it does bring to light a few up-to-date elements, such as a modern daddy who dates (no, not mommy) and a not at all conservative mom, who dates her and daddy’s ex-therapist.

Nevertheless, the kids are the old-fashioned ones and their parents might as well be blamed for their offspring’s issues.

“Gary Unmarried,” starring Jay Mohr in the shoes of Gary Brooks and Paula Marshall as his ex-wife, Allison, walks in the same old and dusty broken-home sitcom vicious circle.

Gary and Allison interact more than they would like because they have these two kids. The show, however, desperately needs other characters in order to avoid becoming an everlasting change of nasty lines between exes.

Thus, it’s Vanessa Flood (Jaime King) and Dr. Walter Krandall’s (Ed Begley Jr.) turn to enter the scene. Vanessa is dating Gary, while Dr. Krandall, Gary and Allison’s ex-marriage counselor, is involved in a relationship with the latter.

Louise (Kathryn Newton), the couple’s daughter, is obsessed with Al Gore and Gandhi and has every inch of her bedroom’s walls covered with posters and pictures of her role models.

Her brother Tom (Ryan Malgarini), however, is a shy 14-year-old who is so inhibited, he can’t even speak to girls.

Now “Gary Unmarried” has the mission of making its weird family taste believable enough to encourage us to watch their adventures. Tonight’s premiere certainly lacks what it takes to talk us into it.