By Bonnie Malleck | The Record

A Town Without Christmas 

I'm so pleased with myself that I had the good taste to appreciate Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton's comedy talent years ago when she appeared in a string of failed sitcoms in the 1990s. In Room for Two (1992) she was Linda Lavin's exasperated TV exec daughter. In Someone Like Me (1994) she was exasperated mom to an 11-year-old. And in Women of the House (1995) she was exasperated chief of staff to Delta Burke's Rep. Suzanne Sugarbaker.

Clearly, you see the pattern here.

Heaton is skilled at playing a glib, smart, witty woman who is persistently vexed by the annoying people in her life.

She honed it in her early work and perfected it as Debra Barone, the linchpin of logic and reason, on Everybody Loves Raymond, for which she's won two Emmys . . . so far.

Tomorrow she tries something different in the holiday drama A Town Without Christmas (9 p.m. on Channel 4). The setting is a small Washington town where an unhappy child's letter to Santa sets off a frantic search after the little boy, Chris, confides to Santa that he wants to leave this world so he will no longer be a burden to his bitter divorcing parents.

Heaton plays a TV reporter who arrives in town to track down the lad and teams up with a struggling writer (L.A. Doctors' Rick Roberts) in the hunt. They meet a gruff angel named Max (Peter Falk), who offers them guidance in finding Chris and performs a spot of matchmaking in the process.