Revival Plot Revealed — Just How Close Did the WB Comedy Come to Returning for Season 7?
The roots of NBC’s Happy’s Place are planted in the past — roughly six years in the past, which is when Reba McEntire and Reba showrunner Kevin Abbott wanted to revive the WB classic. But not unlike Noah Wyle, who wanted to bring back ER before starring in The Pitt, McEntire & Co. were forced to pivot.
Abbott previously revealed to TVLine that there were plans to reboot the old sitcom, but we didn’t know just how far they got before they hit a snag — or what a hypothetical Season 7 would have looked like — until now.
“We had moved reasonably far on the reboot,” the EP tells TVLine. “There was not [a script yet]. We’d gotten to the point where we had pitched it to [20th Century] Fox, who wanted to take it out [and pitch it to networks]. The stall came when they were supposed to sign the actors” — including McEntire, Melissa Peterman (Barbra Jean), Christopher Rich (Brock), JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Cheyenne) and Steve Howey (Van) — “to [holding] deals. We were right up to the point of being ready to take it out and sell it when word came back [that it would not be moving forward]. It was unfortunate timing because of the Disney-Fox merger [in 2019], and there was a lot of uncertainty as to who actually should be making those calls.
“We had the story,” Abbott confirms. “We had everything but me actually putting the pen to paper. I was pretty disappointed. It had been a year and a half worth of work going into that, and it seemed so promising.”
Reba cast attends a celebration of the show’s 100th episode on Dec. 12, 2005, in Culver City, Calif.Marsaili McGrath/Getty Images
As for what audiences would have seen in Season 7, Abbott reveals that “we were going to be picking up in real time. The characters had all aged to their [real] ages. We were going to start with Reba potentially moving out of Houston, but realizing that [she needed to stay put for the family].
“Somewhere in the back of my bed, [I think] maybe we can do a movie or something with it,” the EP says, stopping himself from disclosing anything further. “There was enough material generated to cover at least a couple hours.”
In the meantime, Abbott continues to show-run Happy’s Place, which reunites McEntire and Peterman, and previously featured Howey and Rich in Season 1 guest roles. The EP confirms that he has a part in mind for Swisher, and they’re hoping to carve some time out of her busy schedule on Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias to have her appear in the back half of Season 2. But due to Happy’s Place being made by a different studio (Universal Television) than Reba (20th Television), he alleges that they must be careful just how much he uses members of his former ensemble.
“We have been cautioned about how often we can use any actor from the previous show,” Abbott says. “It’s a fairly legal business these days, and we get a lot of restrictions that way, so we are trying to use the people we love in a precise manner. When we can have them on, it’s in a role that is fun, exciting and different, and interesting to them as well as to us.”
Happy’s Place Season 2 premieres Friday, Nov. 7, with back-to-back episodes starting at 8/7c, on NBC.
Reba Cast: Then and Now
