Stars on screen

Though her character took a major header off a hotel balcony, Angelique Cabral can’t stay away from “Life in Pieces.”

That Season 2-ending fate for newlywed Colleen was devised by the CBS comedy’s writers and producers to give the actress a maternity leave from the series, which starts its third round Thursday, Nov. 2. Cabral and her composer husband Jason Osborn welcomed a daughter in September, and while a hospital bed is her main set for the early weeks of the show’s return, Cabral is ready to explore Colleen’s married life with new husband Matt (Thomas Sadoski).

“I knew that they had to do something to hide my pregnancy in Season 3,” the lively, friendly Cabral says of having started to film the episodes before she gave birth. “I had heard there was going to be some sort of exit for Colleen that would lend itself to hospitalization, and I gave the writers a big head’s-up about my pregnancy. Though it wasn’t originally scripted that way, it was changed so that Colleen had an accident.

“I thought it was hilarious ... and also very appropriate for Colleen, because she’s kind of a klutz,” adds Cabral. “She’s a hot mess, and nothing goes her way, but she’s always trying to make the best of it. She had a disappointing wedding, and the fact that in the first moment they have alone as a married couple, she falls off the balcony? It’s just so typical of her, and I loved it so much.”

Cabral continues to embrace the structure of “Life in Pieces,” which tells four short stories per week about various family members (with James Brolin, Dianne Wiest, Colin Hanks and Betsy Brandt among other principals in the ensemble cast). “There’s a truth and a sensitivity there,” Cabral reflects. “It almost makes you want to cry sometimes because it’s so true to life, and people really respond to the things that our characters are going through.”