When you call a show Roseanne or Seinfeld, you know you're going to get brand- name Roseanne- or Seinfeld-type laughs. By changing the name of her ABC series from These Friends of Mine to Ellen, comedian Ellen DeGeneres wants to make it perfectly clear that there'll be more Ellen-type humor and more Ellen- type situations in her Ellen-inspired sitcom about an Ellen-like single woman in Los Angeles who-in no particular order-runs a bookstore, hangs out with her friends, and comments, wryly, on life. *''My character was getting further and further away from who I am. I had some lines to say that were mean and negative and that I didn't want to say,'' the stand-up comic says of her show, which debuted last March and which, even in its Friends incarnation, was a top 10-rated success. ''Now I feel real comfortable.'' In the course of getting comfortable, Ellen has bumped up the title character's occupation from employee to owner of the L.A. literary cafe Buy the Book (where more of the series' story lines will take place this season); let go of original Friends Holly Fulger and Maggie Wheeler (while keeping Arye Gross and David Anthony Higgins on board); and added Joely Fisher (half sister of Carrie) as a childhood pal of Ellen's. Also, Ellen has changed executive producers-twice. * ''There was a creative dissonance,'' says cocreator and (with Warren Bell) reigning executive producer David Rosenthal,referring to the recent departure of executive producer Wendy Goldman. ''We are very much a functioning, happy family at the moment. The goal is that the show properly reflects Ellen's persona and personality. It has come along very nicely.'' A nice show, for DeGeneres, 36, includes plots providing more fun at work and, she says, ''less relationship stuff,'' which is not her kind of story line. But just as important is the fine-tuning of little things. ''Take how (my character) Ellen Morgan dresses,'' says DeGeneres, who anguished over what to wear for her gig as cohost, with Patricia Richardson, of the Emmy Awards on Sept. 11. ''People say, 'She should wear makeup, she should dress up.' Well, I work in a bookshop coffeehouse. I'm not part of corporate America! I can look nice-but the character doesn't fit in if she looks perfect.'' Still, DeGeneres admits, she is a perfectionist herself, and this Hollywood TV thing is a weird experience for a newcomer from a lower-middle-class upbringing in New Orleans. ''I once described moving to Los Angeles as a prison term, and now it's coming back to haunt me,'' she says with a small Ellen laugh. Maybe the comedian-actor can use the analogy in the book she is now writing, following in the footsteps of fellow comedian-actor-authors Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser. Then again, maybe she'll go another route altogether. ''I can take excerpts from Vanna White's book and put them in,'' she figures, ''because nobody read that!'' -Lisa Schwarzbaum
THE BOYS ARE BACK CBS, 8-8:30 p.m. ; *CONCEPT: Grown-up kids move back in with their really grown-up parents. *THE SCOOP: Two likable sitcom vets, Suzanne Pleshette and Hal Linden, play the oldsters. ''The minute we sat down, it was like we were married,'' says Linden of his costar, with whom he had never worked. ''We had that banter like people who've known each other for years. We're trained as actors and know how to do that immediately. But if you like someone (personally), of course, it makes it a lot easier.'' This sounds just ducky, and indeed, Pleshette and Linden's easy byplay is pleasurable. But the kids are ciphers whenever they aren't actively obnoxious. *BOTTOM LINE: Never underestimate the drawing power of charming, familiar stars.
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