By Jay Bobbin | Tribune Media Services

Christmas came a little early this year for Patricia Heaton. 

The "Everybody Loves Raymond" regular’s "gift" was her second consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. However, she takes a more traditional approach to the holiday by starring Sunday in the new CBS drama "A Town Without Christmas", which has a decidedly non-sunny theme for a yule-time offering. It revolves around a youngster who writes a troubling letter to Santa Claus, expressing guilty feelings over family troubles. The note infers thoughts of suicide, prompting a search for a child that involves the cynical TV reporter played by Heaton.

Along the way, she meets a novelist (Rick Roberts, formerly of the show "L.A. doctors"), who is experiencing his own crisis of faith. He ultimately joins the hunt for the letter writer, as does an angel, portrayed by Peter Falk in a part that recalls his work in the movie "Wings of Desire" (the inspiration for the remake titled "City of Angels"). Ernie Hudson ("Oz") also appears as Heaton’s boss. 

"When you do a Christmas movie, you have the license to be a little sentimental," Heaton acknowledges, "but I’m not the most sentimental person, so this was kinda of nice for me. It was even a little darker when we began, but we took some of the sociopolitical stuff out. That said, this is a hopeful movie. We didn’t know it when we made it, but it’s ended up being particularly timely because of (the events of) Sept 11. This is about people turning to each other in times of trouble, as a community."

"A Town Without Christmas" has more links to current conditions, notes Heaton. "The woman I play goes into a town that is depressed economically, and that’s something else a lot of people are going through. It also talks about how the media deals with things, or at least how it did (before the terrorist attacks). Besides, every actor has a few things he or she wants to do. Mine are to do a period piece wearing a corset and riding a horse, to be like Sigourney Weaver and fight aliens in my underwear, and to do a Christmas movie where I find the man of my dreams as it starts snowing and a star shoots across the sky. I’ve now done the third, so I get to work on the other two."

One of the biggest lures, "A Town Without Christmas" held for Heaton was the chance to work with veteran performer Peter Falk. "I had never met him before, and apart from being a wonderful guy, he’s a real actor. He told me how he started in the business and what got him going, and to find him interested in my roots and how I got where I am was really refreshing."

Nevertheless, Heaton is the definite star of "A Town Without Christmas", and it marks the first time she’s had top billing on TV. She says that made her "nervous about how the movie would turn out. I hadn’t worked in a single-camera film for a very long time and it’s a very different process. You shoot the last scene first and the first scene last, so you have to pretend that you’ve fallen madly in love with someone you’ve just met. Here I’ve had six years with Ray (Romano) and I’m still just trying to like him!"