Timing is everything when it comes to love.

Can the same be said for TV shows?

Rob Thomas, the creator of Cupid, sure hopes so. And he hopes the time is right for his new version of Cupid, which debuts tonight on ABC.

"My desire to want to do this show again for ABC has little to do with how can we change it because it was unsuccessful the last time," said Thomas, whose original version of Cupid, with Jeremy Piven in the title role, lasted only one truncated season on ABC back in 1998-99.

"It just feels like a better time, a better network now, a better time slot for us," added Thomas, who also has created Veronica Mars, 90210 and Party Down. "Ten years ago when we did this show, I think ABC was a network that did not know what it wanted to be. I think the year they picked us up, it was us and Vengeance Unlimited."

To which Bobby Cannavale, the new Cupid, interjected, "That's a great title. Title of my autobiography."

Cupid stars Cannavale as a mental patient named Trevor Pierce who may be crazy, or actually may be Cupid, the god of love, as he steadfastly claims. The series isn't definitive about that.

The vagueness is designed to be charming. We'll see.

Anyway, Trevor/Cupid insists he must get 100 couples together in a specified time frame or he won't be allowed back to Mount Olympus.

After getting himself arrested and thrown into a mental facility, Trevor/Cupid finds himself under the care of a psychiatrist and self-help author named Dr. Claire McCrae, played by Sarah Paulson. There's an amusing exchange in the debut episode when a dubious Dr. McCrae asks Trevor/Cupid to describe Olympus.

"Non-stop clothing-optional party," Trevor/Cupid says. "An amazing place. You have no idea."

"I have a vague idea," Dr. McCrae responds. "You just described the Playboy mansion."

Cannavale said he never saw the original Cupid series, so he wasn't tainted by Piven's performance one way or the other.

"I approached it as a completely new piece of material," Cannavale said. "What attracts me most to the part is the endless possibilities you could play.

"Is he crazy or is he a god? Either way, if he's crazy, it's a new kind of crazy that the doctors can't explain. Or I could play a god and I can control everything. Either one works."

Cannavale recalled that the first time he spoke with Thomas about the role, the ultimate "explanation" of what's going on with Trevor/Cupid never even came up.

"I think we both kind of agreed that it doesn't matter, really," Cannavale said. "I never felt like I'd be acting my way into a corner with this part."

Still, this is just such a bizarre circumstance, don't you think?

It's not unheard of for successful TV shows to be remade, but an unsuccessful show?

"We were on Saturdays at 10 p.m. (in 1998-99), and weekly we had our ass handed to us by Chuck Norris," Thomas recalled. "We were a show about being single and 30 on Saturdays at 10 on a network that really didn't know what it wanted to be.

"I feel like this is a better time for romantic comedy, a better time to be on ABC. We got knocked off (the first time) in the era where they put Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on five nights a week."