Reba McEntire is primed to headline a sitcom for the first time in more than a decade with a new NBC pilot, a project that reunites her with producers, writers, and at least one star of her 2000s WB series Reba.

The pilot — which McEntire says is titled Happy’s Place — stars the singer as a tavern proprietor named Bobbie. “My dad was the owner, and I’ve been running it for the last ten years, and my dad dies,” she explains to Entertainment Tonight. “So I find out some information at the reading of his will that I’m not too happy with, so…”

That information is that she has a half-sister, played by Belissa Escobedo (Blue Beetle), who’s joining the tavern team as her new business partner.

Reba costar Melissa Peterman, meanwhile, will play Gabby, a clingy bartender who wishes she could be Bobbie’s sister, according to Deadline.

Other cast members, as Deadline reported last month, include Tokala Black Elk (Yellowstone) as handy waiter Takoda, Pablo Castelblanco (Alaska Daily) as obsessive-compulsive accountant Steve, and Rex Linn as short-order cook Emmett.

“He is kind of the patriarch now that my daddy has died, because he’s been with the tavern the longest,” McEntire says of Linn’s character.

Linn’s casting, by the way, is a wink to McEntire’s personal life — she’s been dating the CSI: Miami alum since 2020.
Plus, the pilot comes from executive producers Kevin Abbott, Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis, who also worked with McEntire on Reba. “It’s the same showrunner, same writers, and same producers as [Reba]. So it’s gonna be that heartfelt, fun, funny, laugh at our silliness, but also be touched by the heart in the show,” the country star explains. “That’s what I really loved about Reba.”

With those cast members and creatives in place, McEntire says it’s been “lots of fun” working on the new project. “I love all genres of entertainment, but the sitcoms are just so much fun because it’s a brand-new script every week. And you’re just having fun. Yeah, it’s really hard memorizing all the dialogue you have to do, but … it ain’t my first rodeo, girlfriend, absolutely. I do love it, and it’s just playtime. We have a blast with this.”

Diverse Voices