Reba McEntire. Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Reba McEntire is still a survivor.
Over 17 years after her sitcom Reba went off the air, the country music legend is returning to TV with a new comedy, Happy’s Place, and she’ll once again be singing her own theme song.
“It’s written, and we’re recording it at the end of this month. We’ll see if you like it,” McEntire said recently, per The Hollywood Reporter.
McEntire, 69, performed the enduring theme song to Reba, “I’m a Survivor,” which opened all six seasons of the sitcom with its memorable lyrics about a working single mom. The song remains popular to this day as a sound on TikTok and Instagram.
Reba McEntire proved she is more than just a country superstar when she led her own TV show — appropriately called Reba. The sitcom ran for six seasons from October 2001 to February 2007. McEntire starred as a single mother raising her three children — played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Scarlett Pomers and Mitch Holleman […]
Happy’s Place, which reunites McEntire with the executive producers behind Reba, was given a series order by NBC in May. It is expected to premiere later this year.
McEntire will play Bobbie, who inherits her late father’s restaurant only to discover that she will have to be business partners with the half-sister she never knew she had. McEntire stars opposite Belissa Escobedo as her half-sister, Isabella, and her former Reba costar Melissa Peterman as a bartender at the restaurant.
“Ever since we stopped doing Reba, we’ve been looking for another project to do. I love the sitcom genre. Out of all the things I do, this is my favorite,” said McEntire recently, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Melissa Peterman as Gabby and Reba McEntire as Bobbie in ‘Happy’s Place.’ Casey Durkin/NBC
McEntire teased the new comedy in May in an interview with Entertainment Tonight as she described filming the pilot.
“The cast is wonderful. We’re so excited,” she said. “We shot the pilot and everybody said, ‘You know, this is like a second season first episode instead of the pilot and that’s the way I felt. Everybody gelled, everybody got along, and the writing is wonderful, so I’m really happy. I’m so happy.”
Peterman, meanwhile, talked about reuniting with McEntire 17 years after Reba during a Television Critics Association panel event on Sunday, July 14.
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn first crossed paths 30 years before they started dating. McEntire met the actor while shooting 1991’s The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw but didn’t pursue a romance until January 2020. “We’ve kept in contact with each other over the years, and we both know the same people, so […]
“It’s just easy, it’s like riding a bike. We’ve never really left each other. I mean, the show ended, and we’ve been friends ever since,” said the actress.
Happy’s Place premieres on Friday, October 18, on NBC.
