Reba returns to television comedy with “Happy’s Place,” premiering Friday, October 18, 2024 on NBC. The laughs are familiar and are sure to remind viewers what they love about Reba. The cast chemistry is sharp, Reba works well with any member of the cast and her comedic timing has never been better. In “Happy’s Place,” Bobbie (Reba) inherits her father’s tavern (Happy’s Place) and is surprised to discover that she has a new business partner, Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), a twentysomething half-sister that she never knew she had. The series stars Reba McEntire, Belissa Escobedo, Melissa Peterman, Pablo Castelblanco, Tokala Black Elk and Rex Linn.
For Reba, who is a coach on NBC’s “The Voice,” now was the right time to return to the sitcom genre. She starred on the popular laugher “Reba,” which ran for six seasons from 2001 to 2007.
“Ever since we stopped doing the “Reba” TV show, we have been looking for another project to do together because we had fun,” Reba told reporters during NBC’s portion of the summer Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour. “We had more stories to tell…I love the sitcom genre. Out of all the things I get to do, this is my favorite because it’s camaraderie, it’s fun, you just get to go to work and play, and it’s creative. It’s very comforting to me. I absolutely love it and get to work with these folks? Icing on the cake.”
For the country superstar returning to sitcoms means reuniting with co-star Melissa Peterman from the old “Reba” show that lasted more than 100 episodes. She still remembers the first time she met Reba.
“I remember the first day, I didn’t meet her until the table read of the sitcom,” Peterman said. “I mean, clearly, I knew who she was, and she went around to everybody and introduced herself and just said, ‘Hi, I’m Reba McEntire.’ We’re like, ‘Don’t need a last name. We know.’ …It’s a little intimidating, but she made it feel so comfortable from day one and made sure that we all knew we were here for the same reason, was to have fun, make a good show, respect each other and be a little grateful for it. And in the 20-some, how many years? Twenty years? Twenty years since then, we’ve never really left each other. I mean, the show ended. We’ve been friends ever since. We’ve done other things together. I got to go on tour with her and open the show and do standup, and we vacation together. We hang out, and we just were waiting for another project so we could actually go to work together again. I think it’s evolved to even — you know, we had six years together, a 100-and-some episodes, we have such a shorthand, so it’s such a luxury to come into the sitcom and to have Kevin, who knows my voice so well and can write to that, and Reba — like it’s just easy. It’s like riding a bike.”
“We’ve been buddies,” Reba said of her relationship with Peterman. “We’ve been co-workers. We’ve had so much fun. The thing that I can already see is going to happen on this show that happened on the “Reba” show, we’d all go on vacation together — the writers, the producers, showrunners, everybody, — and with their families, we had such a good time. I can see this happening with this group. The camaraderie and the way we gelled on the first week during while we were shooting the pilot, they were saying, “Gosh, this is like a second season, first episode. Everybody’s gelling so well. So we’re just going to continue to have a lot of fun.”
Catch Reba starring in “Happy’s Place” on Fridays along with “Lopez vs. Lopez” on NBC.
