In a departure from her customary comedy...

In a departure from her customary comedy appearances, Lucille Ball takes a dramatic role in a new CBS movie, “Stone Pillow,” airing Tuesday from 9 to 11 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8.

She plays a shopping-bag lady in New York City who exists on scraps, spunk and dead dreams. Ball says the role “represents all the country’s homeless who thought they were fixed for life and now find themselves sitting on park benches saying ‘what happened?’ ”

Daphne Zuniga appears as a young social worker and William Converse-Roberts plays a public accountant who helps the homeless in his spare time.

“Stone Pillow” was filmed in New York. It was produced and directed by eight-time Emmy winner George Schaefer. The script is by Rose Leiman Goldemberg, who wrote last season’s “The Burning Bed.”