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Today — 12 January 2025Main stream

Which 'Reba' Sitcom Alums Have Appeared on Reba McEntire's 'Happy's Place'?

12 January 2025 at 06:00

Happy’s Place has enjoyed keeping it in the TV family by casting numerous stars from Reba McEntire‘s past sitcom Reba.

Reba, which aired from 2001 to 2007, starred McEntire, Melissa Peterman, Christopher Rich, JoAnna Garcia Swisher and Steve Howey. Nearly two decades later, McEntire and Peterman reunited with former Reba executive producer Kevin Abbott on Happy’s Place.

“We are new characters. It’s a new time and it’s different. But those core things that you loved about it are there. It does feel really different [though],” Peterman exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2024. “As far as trying to harness the things that [Reba fans] love — like the chemistry that we have — that is there no matter what. We’re just new characters. And Barbra Jean [from Reba] was forced on Reba because she married her ex-husband. Gabby is there because she’s her friend.”

Peterman applauded Happy’s Place for finding a way to “keep the magic” without copying the same sitcom structure.

“The other big difference is real life family and the reality of blended families,” she noted. “Happy’s Place is all about finding family at work, and Belissa [Escobedo’s] character is also finding a family that she didn’t know existed and figuring that out. You’ll feel that same warm feeling but you’re gonna it’s new.”

Her costar Howey felt the same way when he joined for a potential multi-episode arc. “Kevin had this idea for this character ahead of time. And then he was like, ‘What if Howey would do it? That would be really great to get a reunion going.’ I fit the character description, so he gave me a call,” Howey recalled to Us two months later. “The planets just aligned on this one.”

He continued: “Now after 20 some years, I can bring different experiences to the characters that I play. Also the character relationships — because Happy’s Place is a new thing — are different. Yes, it’s Reba and Melissa, but the characters are different. Bobbie is a lot different than Reba. Gabby is a lot different than Barbara Jean, and Danny’s obviously different.”

Keep scrolling to see which Reba alums have reunited on Happy’s Place so far:

© The WB/Andrew Eccles; NBCUniversal

© The WB/Scott Humbert; Casey Durkin/NBC

McEntire played “a single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kids and never stops," a.k.a. the lead of Reba. Now she is still the star but on a new NBC sitcom as Bobbie, who inherits her father’s restaurant and discovers a new business partner in the half-sister (Escobedo) she didn't know she had. 

© The WB/Greg Schwartz; Casey Durkin/NBC

Peterman captured our attention on Reba as Barbra Jean, who married Reba's ex-husband, Brock, after working as his dental hygienist. She gets off to a better start with McEntire's character on Happy's Place. Peterman plays Gabby, a bartender at the tavern who loves Bobbie and wants to be her best friend. (Sound familiar?) 

© The WB/Danny Feld; Casey Durkin/NBC

When Reba premiered, Howey won Us over as Reba's son-in-law who got her daughter Cheyenne (Garcia Swisher) pregnant. On Happy's Place, Howey stopped by as a rich businessman named Danny who is friends with Gabby and ultimately helps the tavern. 

© Trae Patton/NBCUniversal

Abbott didn't appear on screen on either show, but he was executive producer on Reba when it aired on The WB between 2001 and 2007. He remained with McEntire and Peterman as the creator (alongside wife Julie Abbott) of Happy's Place. 

Sullivan claims Biden admin leaves Russia, China and Iran 'weaker,' America 'safer' before Trump hand-off

12 January 2025 at 11:50

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed in an interview Sunday that Russia, China and Iran are "weaker" and the United States is "safer" after four years under President Biden's leadership. 

"Our alliances are stronger than where we found them four years ago," Sullivan said on CNN's State of the Union, referring to President-elect Trump's first term. "They're stronger than they've been in decades. NATO was more powerful, purposeful and bigger. Our alliances in the Asia Pacific are at all-time highs. And our adversaries and competitors are weaker across the board. Russia's weaker, Iran's weaker, China's weaker, and all the while we kept America out of wars."

"I think that the American people are safer, and the country is better off than we were four years ago, and we're handing off that to the next team, as well as having the engines of American power humming," Sullivan said. "Our economy, our technology, our defense industrial base, our supply chains. So the United States is in a stronger, more secure position, and our competitors and adversaries are weaker and under pressure." 

Biden's presidency was mired by the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, as the Pentagon monitors the rising threat of Islamic extremism worldwide. 

TRUMP'S DESIGNATED SPECIAL ENVOY FOR UKRAINE AND RUSSIA SETS LONGER TIMETABLE THAN '24 HOURS' FOR ENDING WAR

Much of Trump's promise to voters while campaigning for a second term in 2024 centered on justice for the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate and promising peace through strength on the world stage. 

Sullivan defended Biden's handling of the withdrawal on Sunday. 

"If we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying, Russia would have more leverage over us, we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face," Sullivan said. 

"We have not seen, although the investigation continues, any connection between Afghanistan and the attacker in New Orleans," he added, referring to the New Year's Day truck-ramming attack on Bourbon Street. "Now the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections, maybe we'll find one, but what we've seen is proof of what President Biden said, is that the terrorist threat has gotten more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including homegrown extremists here in the United States – not just under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first term, and that is part of why we had to move our focus from a hot war in Afghanistan to a larger counterterrorism effort across the world." 

During the final weeks of his presidency, Biden has been rushing billions of dollars more in U.S. aid for Ukraine before Trump takes office.

Meanwhile, the Republican president-elect has claimed the war in Ukraine would never have started under his leadership and vowed to broker a deal to stop the fighting between Moscow and Kyiv. 

ISRAELI PM OFFICE DENIES REPORTS THAT HAMAS FORWARDED LIST OF HOSTAGES TO RELEASE IN EVENT OF DEAL

At a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, last week, Trump warned Hamas terrorists that "all hell will break out" in the Middle East if the remaining hostages aren't released before he takes office on Jan. 20. 

On the status of the negotiations, Sullivan said, "We are very, very close, and yet being very close still means we're far because until you actually get across the finish line, we're not there." 

Sullivan stressed how President Biden's top Middle East adviser, Brett McGuirk, had been in Doja for a week "hammering out with the mediators the final details of a text to be presented to both sides." 

"And we are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done," Sullivan said. 

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