‘Town Without Christmas’ Crew Doesn’t Sweat the Dark Stuff

Though many consider it the Christmas movie, Frank Capra’s 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” has a very dark premise: George Bailey is on the verge of suicide until he’s stopped by an angel named Clarence who sets out to prove to Bailey that the world would have been less special without him. And in Capra’s lesser-known 1941 film, “Meet John Doe,” a despairing man writes an anonymous letter to a newspaper claiming he will commit suicide on Christmas Eve.

The new CBS holiday film “A Town Without Christmas,” airing Sunday, has a similarly downbeat premise. A young child writes a suicide letter to Santa explaining that he no longer wants to be a burden to his divorcing parents.

It was the film’s dark edge and Capraesque quality that attracted director Andy Wolk. Growing up, he loved the Capra movies. “You say, ‘That’s why I want to make movies,’” he says. “I think when you have the opportunity to do a movie about the times you are living in and what kind of spirit exists among people, it is really important.”

Although “A Town Without Christmas” was made long before the terrorist attacks, Wolk says, “whatever we felt was important about the movie when I signed on to do it, it takes in an added resonance post-Sept. 11.”

Emmy winner Patricia Heaton of “Everybody Loves Raymond” stars in the movie as M.J. Jensen, a serious Seattle TV reporter still smarting from a love affair gone awry. She is sent by her opportunistic boss (Ernie Hudson) to the small fishing town of Seacliff, Wash., to cover the story of “Chris,” the boy who wrote the letter to Santa and is now missing.

There she encounters struggling writer David Reynolds, played by Rick Roberts. Although M.J. and David meet cute, they immediately hate each other. But this being a holiday movie, their standoffishness doesn’t last very long.

Also on hand is Peter Falk as a most unlikely angel. He offers clues to Chris’ whereabouts through a series of paintings.

Roberts found portraying a realistic character in a fantasy situation was fun. “It’s actually challenging to play because you are dealing with an angel and supernatural events,” he says. “You have to challenge yourself to believe in the context of the story.”

The mother of four young sons, Heaton rarely takes on roles outside of “Raymond” so she can spend time with her family during the CBS sitcom’s hiatus. But, like Roberts and Wolk, she was attracted to the complexity of this project and agreed to be separated from her family for several weeks.

“I just basically got on the plane [to the Halifax, Canada] location and never looked back,” the actress says. “I had such a good time while I was there, I thought I must really have needed a break.”

Heaton did rendezvous with her family in Toronto during the production. “They were already in the hotel, and when I walked in, the look on the 4-year-old’s face was if I had risen from the dead. It was like this primal thing. He just looked at me, and he ran and threw himself on me. That is when I was really feeling heartsick.”

The mystery aspects of “A Town Without Christmas” intrigued Heaton. “It’s interesting to watch the characters sort of solve the mystery and change internally,” she says. “So it had a lot of nice elements to it, which you don’t have in your average Christmas movie.”

M.J. is a vastly different character from her exasperated wife and mother in “Everybody Loves Raymond.” For the film, she cut her hair and had blond streaks added. Initially, CBS wasn’t pleased with her transformation. “At the beginning, we were getting notes from the network to take the makeup down. I said, ‘No. We take the makeup down when she begins to change, when she softens up.’”

Making “A Town Without Christmas” fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams as an actress. Heaton recalls a scene in which M.J. and David kiss as the snow begins to fall.

“I think a lot of actors get into this business to do some fun things,” she says. “[For me,] one of those is a period piece where you get to ride through the English countryside on a stallion in a gown. I haven’t gotten to do that one yet. Another is to fight aliens with a big gun in my underwear like Sigourney Weaver. I haven’t gotten to do that one yet. And the last was to finally meet Mr. Right, fall in love and, when you kiss him, snow starts falling on the two of you. So I got to do this one!”

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“A Town Without Christmas” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).