Heather Locklear, many would argue, made “Melrose Place.” Will she do it again?

Starting Tuesday, the actress moves back to the franchise that led to her greatest television success to date. She reprises the role of Amanda Woodward, shark in both public relations and personal affairs, in the current CW update of the ’90s drama series.

It’s not the first time Locklear has been a later addition to the show. During the original run on Fox, Amanda was introduced midway through the first season (1992-93), with Locklear receiving “special guest star” billing that she retained for the rest of that series.

Formerly the complex’s owner, Amanda resides at Melrose Place again, taking the apartment of the murdered Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton, who continues on the revival in “flashbacks”). The PR background makes it inevitable for Amanda to have dealings with Ella Flynn (Katie Cassidy), the sort of sharp-edged publicity maven Amanda is ... or, at least, used to be.

As with “Melrose Place” the first time around, though, the Locklear factor should not be underestimated. (She’s arriving as two other cast members, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Colin Egglesfield, are preparing to leave the show.)

The new “Melrose” has Locklear’s seal of approval. “When I saw the pilot episode, I thought, ‘Ooh, this is slick!’ Like they had said, it wasn’t the old ‘Melrose Place.’ Then I saw episode two, which I really loved. I had watched it that night with my boyfriend (Jack Wagner, who played Dr. Peter Burns to Locklear’s Amanda) and my daughter, Ava. She was kind of falling asleep, but she’d open her eyes every once in a while and see it and go, ‘Oh, Mom!’ And I’d think, ‘Oh, my gosh. That’s where Jack and I met!’”

Locklear might have been back on “Melrose Place” from the start, but she wasn’t wild about the producers’ initial plans for Amanda. She confirms that early on, “they’d talked to me and showed me some of the stories, and I decided I didn’t want to be dead in the pool.”

Indeed, Locklear says that was to be Amanda’s fate, not Sydney’s. “I thought, ‘That means my favorite character is not alive,’ and I felt it would be better to have her alive and not on the show.”

When last seen, Amanda had faked her death, along with Peter. “Both of those characters weren’t ones to sit on a beach for too long,” Locklear reasons, adding that Amanda is again “ready for action. Something’s going down with her company, and she has to come back and fix it.”

Other original “Melrose Place” cast members have returned, too. Thomas Calabro is on hand again as Dr. Michael Mancini, and Josie Bissett (alias Michael’s ex-wife, Jane) and Daphne Zuniga (Jo Reynolds) have been back as well.

“I ran into Laura (Leighton) at my first table read for this,” Locklear reports, “and we hugged for so long. It was also nice to see Thomas and for us to have our own little group. Then it really did feel like ‘Melrose Place’ to me.”

Locklear admits they didn’t do much socializing during the first “Melrose” run. “Honestly, we were so busy, no one did,” she says. “Well, maybe other people did, but I didn’t. Even with (co-stars) I didn’t have relationships with them, it seems like we have more in common now, whether it’s wisdom or something else.”