By Kayla DeKraker
Did you know Reba McEntire’s new sitcom HAPPY’S PLACE was originally suppose to be a reboot of her early 2000s show REBA?
“We were working on a reboot for about a year,” showrunner Kevin Abbot told IndieWire. “The old team had gotten together, and we were hashing out, ‘Where would these characters be now?’ We’d come up with a whole pitch. We’d gotten all the other previous actors on board. We went to Disney who owned the rights to the ‘Reba’ show, and they loved it.”
Unfortunately, loving it wasn’t enough, and Disney didn’t follow through with the show, leading the REBA team to try something different, which seems to have worked out as fans have loved HAPPY’S PLACE since it started airing in October.
“We pretty much just carried over what we did on REBA,” McEntire explained. “Kevin always made sure that we were laughing, and it was witty and snarky, but by three-quarters into the show there was always a poignant place that was fit for everybody to relate to.”
The show follows Bobbie (McEntire) who “inherits a restaurant from her late father, then learns she must share ownership with a newly discovered half-sister, creating awkward tension between the two.”
The creators wanted the show to feel warm and lighthearted, qualities embodied in every detail.
Production designer Glenda Rovello shared, “Kevin and Reba were very clear that it had to have a certain amount of warmth and a lot of humanity.”
She added, “There’s a lot of wood in that set, and all the booths, I don’t pull them from a warehouse, and they’re not rented. They’re all custom made because I wanted it to have that layer of authenticity and be a place that you would long to go to, like, ‘Gosh, I want to go there when I go to Knoxville.’”
The other feature that makes the show warm and welcoming? It’s shot in front of a live studio audience, and the actors get to experience viewer reactions in real-time and even use their reactions to figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
“I love the changes. And when you get lines that are great, you get to really sink your teeth into them,” McEntire said, adding that “Everybody’s game. Everybody wants to play. And that makes it comfortable and fun for everyone. It’s never dull.”
Across all platforms, HAPPY’S PLACE has reached 17.6 million viewers. The show has improved its slot by 54% and got renewed for Season 2.
Movieguide® rated HAPPY’S PLACE a +1 for content, stating that it “emphasizes the value of family and includes strong references to Christianity” and that “there is no nudity, violence, or foul language.”
HAPPY’S PLACE is to set return this fall to NBC.
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