Happy’s Place Creator Kevin Abbott Says New Series Will 'Recapture Some of That Old Feeling' from the OG Reba Show

Kevin Abbott reveals if he will Happy’s Place is actually a reboot of the cult show Reba.

As the creator of both Happy’s Place and Reba, Abbott talked about what makes the two similar after the original Reba the restoration was never made. Noting that he and star Reba McEntire work well together, Abbott said he knew he wanted to do another series with her, and that’s where the idea for the new NBC sitcom came from. Happy’s Place arose.

“Basically, Reba and I gelled and clicked on oldies Reba I think because we both like to tell the same stories and have a very similar sense of humor, and thematically we like positivity,” he said. “When people finish watching our shows, we want them to feel good. We want them to go away really enjoying themselves and to maybe get rid of the tension of life for half an hour.”

“In this one, we wanted to recapture part of the feeling we had on the old one Reba show, on reboot,” he added. “I guess that’s what we were looking for.”

Reba McEntire on ‘Happy’s Place’.

Casey Durkin/NBC

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The themes of “family, forgiveness and responsibility to other people” run through both Abbott and McEntire, they said, so naturally each show they create will embody the essence of the other. However, they made sure to add some new elements Happy’s Place to separate it from their past work — and they weren’t really the originators of the sitcom plot.

“From an emotional standpoint, I think we would like the shows to come from that place,” he explained. “Otherwise, the reboot, when that disappeared, it became, well, let’s do a totally different show. Let’s not do a family show in a family environment. We told a lot of those stories. Let’s find different stories to tell elsewhere.”

He continued: “Then Julie, my wife, came up with the concept of having Happy’s Place and involving the family in a different way so we could tell more stories for adults, not necessarily from an R-rated perspective, but from an adult perspective that was really interesting to us.”

The cast of ‘Happy’s Place’.

JSquared Photography/NBCUniversal

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While McEntire and Abbott have a history with other cast members like Melissa Peterman, who played Barbra Jean in Reba, and Rex Linn, who is McEntire’s longtime boyfriend, the two wanted to bring in new actors who could deepen and diversify the series.

“Just in the times that we’re in, and when you see different views on life, that you can capture some of them and see how they bounce off each other, and see where we can find commonalities that you wouldn’t think were there,” he said. “I mean, we tend to bring people together and find the things that people share, not the things that separate them. And that’s why we brought Belissa [Escobedo] and Pablo [Castelblanco] and Tokala [Black Elk].”

“We wanted to get some different perspectives on life so we could respect them and show how, yes, we can be different, but we’re also more alike than you think,” he concluded.

The cast of ‘Happy’s Place’ from left: Rex Linn, Belissa Escobedo, Pablo Castelblanco, Reba McEntire, Tokala Black Elk and Melissa Peterman.

Todd Williamson/NBCUniversal

Still, Abbott said Reba’with Steve Howey guest starring and hopes to bring in more old cast members from the iconic series to infuse that sense of nostalgia into Happy’s Place in future. McEntire agreed.

“I absolutely love it,” she said of filming for Happy’s Place. “Our group, our cast s Reba the show was magnificent, but with this cast and [writers] Mindy [Schultheis] and Michael [Hanel]Kevin said it at the very beginning, that [felt] as the second season in the first episode instead of the pilot. I don’t know why, but this show was meant to be at this time.”

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Happy’s Place premieres Friday, October 18 at 8:00 PM ET on NBC.

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Source: HIS Education