Reba McEntire Has Found Her Happy Place

Reba McEntire loves the sitcom genre. “Out of all the things I get to do, this is my favorite. It’s camaraderie, fun, creative. You go to work and play,” says the down-to-earth hitmaker and current coach on The Voice, who starred as a wisecracking, divorced mom in Reba (2001-7 on The WB, followed by The CW). That show, which earned the songstress a Golden Globe nomination, used her anthem, “I’m a Survivor” as the theme song.

For her new NBC comedy Happy’s Place, McEntire is recording an original song for its theme music and playing another character who can stick with it. Now she’s reliable Bobbie, who inherits her dad’s Knoxville tavern, Happy’s Place, her workplace for 10 years, only to discover the new co-owner is a younger, 20-something half-sister she never knew she had. That’s Isabella (Belissa Escobedo, who got her first big TV break in 2020’s The Baker and The Beauty), who’s overflowing with new business ideas. 

“Bobbie’s pretty intense. She’s loyal, a very hard worker, and loves what she gets to do. She’s devoted to the tavern and to her dad’s memory and wants everything to stay as it is,” McEntire said at the Television Critics Association press tour, where TV Insider welcomed the series stars into our video suite. “She solely depends on [the tavern] because her husband has died. Her daughter is deployed, so she’s kind of on her own except for her tavern family.”

When Isabella walks in the door after being called there by those settling Happy’s estate, the newfound siblings have mixed feelings. “It’s a little bit of a shock for both of us. Happiness [for Isabella]. Shock [for Bobbie.]” McEntire says. “The whole [series premiere] is [about] absorbing and adjusting. It’s huge news. Life-jarring.”

Adds Escobedo, “Bobbie and Isabella both had no idea the other existed. Isabella grew up with a single mom not really knowing who her dad was. So, she always had that piece missing. She’s given this opportunity to find a family for her own.”

Reba Reunion

On Happy’s Place it’s not only the newfound blood relations who are reeling from the discovery. So is Bobbie’s tavern family including the needy and dramatic bartender who would have loved to be Bobbie’s sister: Gabby, played by Melissa Peterman. “There’s a little bit of jealousy for just a second [when Isabella appears],” Peterman says.

Peterman and McEntire are a pairing that previously struck comedy gold. On Reba, Peterman portrayed a dental hygienist, Barbra Jean (“BJ” for short) who got pregnant after an affair with her boss, Reba’s husband Brock (Christopher Rich, who McEntire credits with teaching her the sitcom ropes, “I would pull Chris into the kitchen part, and say, ‘What do they mean when they say this?’ I went through acting 101.”) The domestic reshuffling and BJ’s desire to befriend Reba, much to the latter’s annoyance, gave the sitcom some of its biggest laughs.

“We’d been looking for something [to do together] since Reba was canceled in 2006. So, long, long time,” McEntire says of reuniting. “Almost had something, didn’t work out. I’ve always been a firm believer that timing is everything and everything happens for a reason. Thank God, because this is such a good show. It’s got so much heart. I’m glad we’re reunited.”

Peterman says that bringing “heart” to the set is a carry-over from the Reba days.  “From day one [on the earlier sitcom], Reba made sure that we all knew we were here for the same reason, to have fun, make a good show, respect each other and be a little grateful for it,” says the actress. In their ensuing twenty-year friendship Peterman has opened for McEntire’s tour as a standup, and they vacation together.

The work reunion was made even sweeter because the executive producer on Happy’s Place and Reba are one in the same. That would be Kevin Abbott, who has produced numerous sitcoms, from The Golden Girls to Last Man Standing. “He understands my lingo,” McEntire says. “He knows when to pull certain things out that I say, probably incorrectly, but my way of saying it, and we’ll all laugh about it.” Adds Peterman, “He knows my voice so well. He can write to that.”

Abbott spent a year tossing around ideas for a Reba-centered story along with his writing team, Mindy Schultheis, and Michael Hanel who also worked on Reba. But when Abbott saw the pilot, he asked NBC for a reshoot. “Have you ever turned in a project that you’re really proud of and then at night, you wake up and go, ‘Aw, shit! I should have done it that way?’ Well, I did that, but I’d already spent a couple million dollars. Sorry, NBC!”

Reshooting a pilot is far from unheard-of. And Abbott really wanted to get this series right. He says, “We like to tell stories that are reflective of little dilemmas that people actually encounter and to try to find humor in those.” These predicaments reveal the new chapter they’ve all entered since Reba ended almost 20 years ago.

“It’s a pleasure to take everything that we have gone through in our lives, the growth that we’ve had, and continue to apply [that to stories],” Abbott says. “It’s nice to do this at a tavern as opposed to [in] a family [setting] show because we’re both now at our stage where the kids are grown. It’s more interesting to us to do more adult stories — even though they are told for a family.”

McEntire praises Abbott’s open-door policy when it comes to storytelling, saying, “With Kevin, anybody can come with an idea, and he’ll listen.”

A New Work Family

The overall welcoming vibe on set was felt by Escobedo who shares she was nervous about starring opposite show business royalty like McEntire, despite having experience working with big names, including another famous songstress, Bette Midler, in Hocus Pocus 2. It’s clear how at home she now feels by the lighthearted way the trio of female leads play off each other in conversation.

Take the moment in which Escobedo is describing how warmly she was welcomed by McEntire. “Right when I met Reba, the first chemistry read, I went in there, gave her a hug, and she just smelled like warm, fuzzy [teddy] bears and I was immediately comforted,” when Peterman interjects, “and a little chardonnay.” Without missing a beat, Escobedo bats back lightly, “and a lot of whiskey. No, just kidding.”

McEntire smiles at the exchange. It’s exactly the vibe she and Abbott want behind the scenes. They even want to teach Escobedo to drive so she doesn’t take the Metro to work. “I have a taser. I have bear spray. I’m set!” Escobedo insists. “I might take Reba up on the driving lesson. I’ll make you some pozole.” Reba and the older cast and creators just shake their heads.

The tavern too is a cross-section of generations and attitudes, an ideal set-up for laughs. Hey, it might even be a place where everybody knows your name. Abbott says he wanted a setting where “a diverse group that has different experiences in life congregates.” Then he adds with a laugh, “And I just didn’t buy [Reba] as a doctor, quite honestly.”

Besides, Happy’s Place, like any respectable tavern and unlike any respectable hospital, has a stage for live music. Would any of McEntire’s The Voice coaches guest star? “Oh, in a skinny minute,” McEntire says. “Snoop Dogg — that’s Mr. Snoop Dogg — and Michael Bublé have said they want to be on the show. Gwen [Stefani] will come visit. She didn’t say she wanted to be on the show. She’ll want to want when she comes and hangs out, cause we’re a good team. Karaoke night!”

Hey, Dolly Parton once guest-starred on Reba, so you never know who might stop by! McEntire says shooting two shows simultaneously is easy because “you just have to walk across the alley [on the lot]. I think the two stages are next to each other. Some [shoot] days we’re overlapping, but it’s so much better than two years ago when I was doing Big Sky in Albuquerque for ABC and then flying to the East Coast for concerts on the weekend.”

Supporting Cast

Speaking of Big Sky (2020-23) there’s another onscreen reunion on Happy’s Place. The tavern short-order cook, Emmett, is played by McEntire’s real-life boyfriend, Rex Linn. (They first met in 1991 on the set of The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw and remained friends until the singer announced in 2020 that they were dating.) On Big Sky, they portrayed husband and wife Sunny and Buck Barnes. Spoiler alert: Buck turned out to be the deranged Bleeding Heart Killer and Sunny shot him. The murderer’s identity came as a shock to many fans, but Abbott insists, “I picked him [as the killer].”

The only secrets Emmett might harbor in Happy’s Place are his recipes. Linn, a longtime actor, jokes that when “Big Sky came along, [Reba] was talking to the producers on Zoom.  They were campaigning for her to be on the show.  I walked in the background a couple of times, and pretty soon, Reba wondered if her character had a husband. And now, I’m really glad to be a part of this.”

Turns out his role is true to one of Linn’s off-camera skills. He’s comfy in the kitchen at home, too. “We cook together, but he’s the type that will find a recipe and cook for three days. I’m like, ‘What’s in the refrigerator?’ I just pile it all together,” says McEntire whose nickname for Linn is “tater tot.”

But it takes more than a bartender and hash slinger to help Bobbie run the business. “I’ve got a great cast of characters there at the tavern who help her run it, who are doing a lot of the heavy lifting,” McEntire says. Peterman cracks of Gabby, “I don’t even have a bar back. I’m doing it all!”

Not quite. There’s the bar accountant, Steve (Pablo Castelblanco, Alaska Daily) who has OCD and is a germaphobe. “So, he doesn’t like change,” Castelblanco deadpans. “He’s dealing with Gabby, who’s a lot of energy. Then comes the new co-owner of the bar. His whole world is shaken. I’m excited to show that kind of person dealing [with] life. We all go to therapy. We all do our work. Happy’s Place highlights how a place where your co-workers are your family lets you have some safety net to grow and get better.”

The safety net includes waiter and handyman Takoda (Tokala Black Elk, Yellowstone). “I am so excited to be in a comedy because I have had a career of playing a villain, being a really scary bad guy, somebody that little kids probably don’t want to be around,” the actor says. “In reality, I’m a fun person. My character is the nicest person you’re ever going to meet.”

Put all of these folks in a cocktail shaker and you get the clip we saw of the premiere’s penultimate scene. Bobbie has just come from a conversation with Emmett, who was encouraging her to try and be open-minded with Isabella and her suggestions. But Isabella has told Gabby and Takoda that they can use Bobbie’s office on their breaks. Let’s just say Bobbie’s not…happy.

If the change at work is going to take some getting used to for her character, McEntire is right at home. “I always love the sitcom.  You know your dressing room.  You know your parking spot.  Consistency is not something I’ve had the first 20, 30 years of my career.  So, to get to do that, I just fell in love with it.  We’ve been working on it a long time. This worked out perfectly.” Cheers!

Happy’s Place, Series Premiere, Friday, October 18, 8/7c, NBC