Reba McEntire has returned to her sitcom roots in the NBC show Happy’s Place.
The sitcom premiered on October 18, 2024, and also stars Melissa Peterman, Belissa Escobedo, Rex Linn, Pablo Castelblanco, and Tokala Black Elk.
RELATED: Meet The Cast Of Reba’s New Sitcom “Happy’s Place”
The show centers on McEntire’s character, Bobbie, who recently lost her father. She has to step up to run his bar, Happy’s Place, when she finds out her dad fathered a much-younger daughter, Isabella, that she didn’t know about. The rest of the cast plays Happy’s Place employees, including an accountant, a waiter, a bartender, and a cook.
There aren’t many guest stars on the show – proving how good the six main characters are together – but when there are, it’s newsworthy!
One of the first guest stars on the show was McEntire and Peterman’s former Reba co-star, Steve Howey.
It was first reported that Howey would play a potential sperm donor for Peterman’s character, Gabby. But, his role turned out to be a little different. He played a business owner that Gabby met at the dog park that spends the day at Happy’s Place to see if he’d want to have his company Christmas party there.
During his first scene with McEntire, he had to pull a bit of a prank and reference their Reba characters.
Another notable guest star was the actress who would play McEntire’s daughter.
Elizabeth Alderfer, known for her role on United States of AI, was originally cast as Gracie, Bobbie’s daughter. Her role in the show was announced in October 2024, the day before the sitcom’s premiere.
Shortly after the announcement, she was recast, but it wasn’t announced until January 2025. Actress Emma Kenney booked the role of Gracie and made her Happy’s Place debut on the January 10th episode.
According to the official character description, Gracie is “no-nonsense and somewhat tough. She is in the military and has been deployed overseas. She has just gone on leave and is returning home to Knoxville to visit her mother.”
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Kenney And Howey Have A Previous Connection
Emma Kenney currently stars on the ABC sitcom The Connors, a spinoff of the Roseanne reboot. Previously, she starred on the Showtime series Shameless for the entire 11 seasons alongside…Steve Howey!
Shameless follows the Gallagher family of six siblings, and Kenney played Debbie, the third youngest sibling. Howey played Kevin, the longtime neighbor and friend to the Gallagher family.
Speaking with Us Weekly, Kenney said, “I was very excited to be a part of Happy’s Place and work with Reba. I worked with Steve Howey for a long time, who also worked with Reba for a long time. So going into it, I gave him a call. He had nothing but amazing things to say about her and he was not wrong.”
She continued, “I definitely felt a lot of responsibility going into this project and playing Reba’s daughter. She’s such an icon and such an established performer. The show had already aired a few episodes when I started shooting. So obviously I watched what I could that was out and tried to prepare in that sense. I definitely wanted to come and try to bring some honor to her daughter’s character.”
Asked if working with Howey again is in the cards, specifically on Happy’s Place, Kenney said, “I would love to get back onto a set with Steve. He is one of my favorite people and the funniest person. He’s definitely kind of an uncle figure to me. And I would love to do scenes with him and Reba. That would honestly be so much fun.”