Melissa Gilbert Meets A Heavenly `Soul Collector'

A recent loss has helped Melissa Gilbert appreciate her latest TV movie even more.

The home-screen staple stars at 9 p.m. Sunday in "The Soul Collector," a CBS drama based on Kathleen Kane's novel "A Pocketful of Paradise." The actress plays a widow who doesn't realize the man (Bruce Greenwood) she has hired to work on her farm is actually a heavenly spirit in human form.

His supervisor (Ossie Davis) has sent him to Earth to gain a better understanding of people's emotions. That he does as he grows close to Gilbert's character and her son (Scotty Leavenworth). However, he's meant to visit for only a month, and he ultimately must decide whether to remain mortal or return to his ethereal state.

"You don't generally see scripts like this," Gilbert says. "This one was very, very special. It has a strong message, which is that we're not alone. That's very comforting to me, having just had to go through another personal loss." Gilbert's grandfather - Harry Crane, a veteran comedy writer who was the co-creator of the Jackie Gleason classic "The Honeymooners" - died in September.

"There is a whole world out there, one we don't even know about, that surrounds and protects us at all times," Gilbert says. "There is a grand design, so nothing happens by accident." Gilbert and her husband, actor Bruce Boxleitner, did a "Touched by an Angel" episode as a tribute to since-divorced friends who had lost a son. "That (offer) came to us right as they were separating," Gilbert recalls, "so I do believe that everything happens for a reason.

"I wouldn't say I'm involved in a particular religion, but I am an extremely spiritual person. When we filmed this movie last April, I did believe in all of this to a certain extent already, and I liked being able to portray that for people. The way the characters were written made this different from any film I had done before."

Also rare, maintains Gilbert, is that she has stayed in touch with her co-stars and the behind-the-scenes principals. "That usually only happens on a series, if you're lucky," she claims. "Everyone on this was just so special." Gilbert is happy to have seen the softer side of co-star Greenwood, who has been giving Ashley Judd a rough time as the scheming husband in the box-office hit "Double Jeopardy." Gilbert reflects, "I can say I was in Bruce Greenwood's last TV movie. He's a film star now, and he deserves it."

Playing a widow, at least at the start of a story, is also new for Gilbert. "It's one of those things I find it difficult to even imagine. The closest I can come is to combine the deaths of all the father figures I've had: my father, then Michael Landon (Gilbert's `Little House on the Prairie' mentor) and now, my grandfather. There's also my divorce (from first husband Bo Brinkman), which was a death in itself. They're emotions I didn't really want to have to tap into."

It won't be long until Gilbert is seen on CBS again. She has just completed the true drama "Two Babies: Switched at Birth," slated to air Dec. 1, and she may be going to work for the network again soon on a miniseries. "I think it's the familiarity factor," she explains. "Viewers have come to feel comfortable with having me in their homes and they've accepted me as an adult. I also think they appreciate the projects I pick."