Katie Cassidy as Ella, left, and Heather Locklear as Amanda on “Melrose Place.”

THE CW / PATRICK WYMORE

It has been nearly 17 years since Heather Locklear, 48, first wriggled her way into the tantalizing garb of Amanda Woodward, the coldblooded — or, depending on your perspective, determined — advertising executive who imbued 1990s Fox soap opera “Melrose Place” with a sense of backstabbing, hair-pulling purpose.

Locklear knows that not every strategy from her old playbook will work on the new show, which she joins on Tuesday (9 p.m.). She’s now an unlikely elder stateswoman in a cast of mostly 20-somethings. But as she did the first time around, she approaches the over-the-top melodrama with a healthy dose of irony.

“I really was winking at the audience,” she said. “As I stood there watching everything going around me, I tried to go: ‘This is crazy. I’m normal.’ ”

When the “Smallville” producers Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin were approached by CW to restart “Melrose Place,” they said their approach would mostly emphasize a new cast of characters — with one exception.

“Heather Locklear is so synonymous with the franchise,” Slavkin said. “Amanda Woodward is the one character we felt could be folded in, in a much bigger way, to make the show more accessible.”

In her initial conversations with the producers Locklear was not convinced. “I thought, is that a good idea?” she said. “Has it been long enough and does anyone care anymore? It was hard to see what they were really going to do.”

But after the new show had its debut on Sept. 8, and Locklear saw how it integrated other “Melrose Place” veterans like Thomas Calabro (who plays the conniving Dr. Michael Mancini) and Laura Leighton (who portrays the husband-stealing, one-time mental patient Sydney Andrews), she had a change of heart.

Remade for the 21st century, Amanda Woodward is now a partner in a publicity firm and both mentor and tormentor to a young underling played by Katie Cassidy. Though Locklear’s return to “Melrose Place” is a reminder of an era when her pinup posters adorned locker rooms and garages from coast to coast, it is not without its downside. For one, it raises the question of whether she has been permanently pigeonholed as a self-assured sexpot.Her step back into the spotlight also means she will face increased scrutiny for her personal life, which at times has been as convoluted as entire seasons of “Melrose Place.” In the past two years she divorced the rock musician Richie Sambora, her second husband and the father of her 12-year-old daughter, Ava; sought treatment for anxiety and depression at a rehabilitation facility; and pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge that stemmed from a DUI arrest.

Locklear declined to discuss these matters but said that these details about her would turn up whether or not she had a starring role on a network series.

“There’s that whole Internet thing,” Locklear said. “You can’t help but be scrutinized, so I might as well be doing something while I’m being scrutinized. People can talk about whatever they want, but this is what’s happening now. I don’t look back.”