Happy’s Place Enlists Steve Howey for Reba Reunion (Exclusive)
Steve Howey will be making a pitstop at Happy’s Place.
TVLine can exclusively reveal that the Shameless vet (who got his start on The WB’s Reba as Reba’s son-in-law Van Montgomery) will reunite with McEntire and Melissa Peterman on their new NBC comedy — and you’ll never believe what brings him into the titular tavern.
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“One of the arcs for [Peterman’s] character Gabby is that she thinks she wants to have a baby… and the Steve Howey character becomes a potential sperm donor,” series creator (and former Reba EP) Kevin Abbott tells TVLine. “We’re hoping that Steve’s character can come back” — but as of now, he’s only slated to appear in the Happy’s Place Christmas episode, aptly titled “Ho-Ho-Howey.”
Howey’s character, Danny, is described by NBC as “a wealthy business owner that Gabby has met at a dog park. In order to impress him, Gabby has pretended to be Bobbie (Reba McEntire) because she thought that would make herself more interesting — that is, until he wants to hold his holiday party at the tavern.”
“It’s a lot of fun,” Abbott says. “We absolutely want to bring some of the old cast members on — and in very different roles than what they played on Reba. Steve’s our first one up, and we’re trying to figure out how to bring JoAnna [Garcia-Swisher] in. We only want to have the old cast in if we can really utilize them in a fun, impactful way.”
Premiering Friday, Oct 18 (NBC, 8/7c), Happy’s Place centers on McEntire’s Bobbie, who “inherits her father’s tavern — Happy’s Place — and is surprised to discover that she has a new business partner, Isabella (played by Hocus Pocus 2′s Belissa Escobedo), a twentysomething half-sister that she never knew she had.”
Peterman, meanwhile, co-stars as the aforementioned bartender Gabby. Per NBC, “she’s a bit needy and dramatic, and would have loved to be Bobbie’s sister,” which sure sounds a lot like her former alter-ego, Barbra Jean.
Rounding out the ensemble are McEntire’s real-life boyfriend Rex Linn (Young Sheldon), who plays tavern cook Emmett; Tokala Black Elk (Yellowstone) as waiter Takoda; and Pablo Castelblanco (Alaska Daily) as accountant Steve.
Are you looking forward one of potentially many (!) Reba reunions on Happy’s Place? Let us know in Comments.
Happy’s Place: Everything We Know About the New NBC Comedy
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