Nancy Travis admits it: When she started out in the early 1980s, her goal was to have it all. Fame, fortune, the husband and kids, the whole nine yards. She worked toward that end for the better part of a decade when the realization hit her that maybe she ought to downsize her ambitions a tad — particularly if she wanted the family part to come to fruition.

“It was important to me to be around for the family,” Travis, 47, admits. “It became clear that I just couldn’t do the career and the family full-force at the same time. But I’ve found a way to be happy as an actor and have great balance with my family life, and TV is what makes that possible. If I had to give up a little bit in reaching for the top, it’s been more than worth it.”

Indeed, Travis has found the ultimate job for an actress, keeping something close to bankers hours while co-starring on the TBS comedy “The Bill Engvall Show.” It allows her to do the family thing big time with her husband of 15 years and two kids.

“I go to work at 10 and come home at three,” Travis says. “And we shoot in L. A. You can’t do better than that as a performer in television.”

So what does Travis do? She screws up her impeccably stable existence by taking a role in Hallmark Channel’s “Safe Harbor,” premiering at 9 p. m. Saturday— a gig that obliged Travis to spend six weeks freezing on the water in Long Beach, Calif. in January.

“Safe Harbor” tells the true story of Doug and Robbie Smith, a couple who was about to embark on a global sailing trip when they reluctantly agree to take in some troubled teen boys and help turn around their lives. It would be the humble beginnings of the Safe Harbor Boys Home in Jacksonville, Fa.. Treat Williams portrays Doug, with Travis playing his wife.

Travis stresses that her participation in the Hallmark film came about quickly. One day, she’s on a sitcom. The next, she’s the wife of Treat Williams, whom she had never before met.

“He and I kind of got tossed into this together, and it was fortunate how well we struck up this great rapport and connected as performers,” Travis recalls. “We didn’t even have a week between getting cast and the start of shooting. Treat only got there the day before we got started. It was like, ‘Nice to meet you, here’s your husband, good luck.’ ”

But pro that Travis is, she made it work. Here, after all, is an actress who has been part of a stunning number of memorable projects, from a national tour of Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” to the Broadway run of “I’m Not Rappaport” to the movies “3 Men and a Baby” (1987), “Married to the Mob” (1988), “Eight Men Out” (1988), “3 Men and a Little Lady” (1990), “Air America” (1990) and “So I Married an Axe Murderer” (1993).

Since marrying studio exec Robert Fried in 1994, her career has been more about series TV. Travis portrayed three voices in USA animated series “Duckman” and starred with Kevin Kilner in the “Almost Perfect,” which ran from 1995-97. That was followed by a regular role in another CBS comedy, the Ted Danson-starrer “Becker” (2002-04) and, finally, “Bill Engvall.”

Working on “The Bill Engvall Show” is something Travis calls “less a job than a vacation. It’s just so much fun. I love the people I get to work with. I often shake my head and think, ‘I can’t believe I’m actually getting paid for this!’ ”

Vacation, however, is not the first word to come to mind when discussing “Safe Harbor.” “There was one scene where I had to get into the water, and it was cold,” she remembers.

What helped her overcome the frigid conditions was the inspiring story behind the film.

“If it wasn’t for people like the Smiths, who do so much for others before they do for themselves, where would we be as people?” Travis asks. “It was really an honor to portray a person like that. It reminds me that we can all do something, even if it isn’t as grand as setting up a huge charity. We can all do something to make the world a little bit better.”