Happy’s Place is an ensemble cast sitcom lead by Reba McEntire. Reba’s character, Bobbie, inherits a restaurant from her late father only to find out she has to share it with her sister, who she didn’t know existed. SciFi Vision got to sit down with co-creator, Kevin Abbot and director, Pamela Fryman to talk about the second season. They shared a few behind the scenes moments with us.

Happy’s Place airs Fridays on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.



Watch the interview and read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:   So, where did the idea of Happy's Place come from? Was there any real life inspiration?

KEVIN ABBOTT:   This was actually, yeah, this is, we've been working on a reboot of the old original Reba show for about a year, and I'd had all the actors on board and where the characters were at and everything. And at the last second, Disney pulled the plug on it. We won the rights.

So, Reba said, “Well, let's just do another show. Me and Melissa will do a show together.” And I called up my wife, bitching and moaning, because that's the kind of person I am about how I've worked for a year on something, and now I got to come up with something completely new.

And then when I hung up the phone about five minutes later, she called me back, because we were trying to think of an idea for Melissa and Reba. And she pretty much pitched the way the premise of the series was. We switched out Melissa's character with Belisa, Isabella became the sister as opposed to Gabby, just to kind of change things up in the dynamic, but that's pretty much where it came from. We were looking for a way to put Reba in a situation where she had to deal with a lot of stuff.

SCIFI VISION:   So, what's a normal day of shooting like? Reba seems like the type of person that likes to create her share of blooper reels.

PAMELA FRYMAN:   Wow, she would love to hear you say that. That's so great. When we're actually, we rehearse for a few days…we have one day where we have cameras in, and we camera block the whole thing, and we shoot a bunch of scenes just to have them to play back for the audience.

And then the next day an audience comes in, and we do the rest of the show. So, it's fairly efficient after our few days of rehearsal. So, we're pretty much ready for it.

But that's just so funny, because there's nothing better than when Reba goes up, and she breaks. They all do, but by far, there are just times when you just can't get it, and it's hilarious. And the audience loves it. The audience goes crazy.

KEVIN ABBOTT:   She used to tell me on the old Reba show, you know, I'd come up to her when I'd want to change a line. We'd take a shot, and I'd want to come in and change a line. And if it was like around, if it was the third in a run of three, you know, I'd come up, and she'd go, “Oh no Kevin, my hard drive's full. Don't, don't change the line on me.”

SCIFI VISION:   So, was Emmett's big reveal at the end of season two something that was always planned, or was it an idea that grew out of kind of like a what if scenario?

KEVIN ABBOTT:   The reveal that he knew about Isabella?

SCIFI VISION:   Yes.

KEVIN ABBOTT:   Yeah.

That was something that actually I'd had back when I was pitching the show originally to the networks. So, it was always something that was kind of brewing, something that I, you know, you want to have circumstances get in the way of the dynamics between your characters. And I thought that's a really interesting point to kind of get into and say, “Okay, what does it mean? Who's at fault? How much emotional weight should that carry?”

So, it was something that I'd actually been thinking about doing at the end of the previous season and just brought it into the first season, because I didn't have enough time to get the characters where I wanted them to be.

SCIFI VISION:   What's been some of your favorite storylines or just stuff that happens on set?

PAMELA FRYMAN:   That is such a hard question. I mean, we've had so many great guest stars. So, it's been lovely to have people come in who are that the cast, you know, is so enamored with and also they're just so game.

Everybody from Jane Lynch to Eric Stonestreet, I mean, Carol Kane and Christopher White, everybody's game. Sherry O'Terry. And it's just, it makes the day that much more fun.

KEVIN ABBOTT:   Yeah. I mean, mine are, and I agree with Pam, there's just so much. I mean, I loved the Joanna episode just for the sheer fun of it.

I love Jane Lynch's character. I love what it says about the Gabby character and how great Melissa is with her. I thought the scene when Reba finds out about Emmett knowing is just heart-rending, and I tend to love those as well. And I just, I think there's an upcoming episode with Steve, 16 or 17, right in there that he's just so marvelous. Pablo's so marvelous.

I tend to like the emotional that leads to funny. So, those tend to be my favorites.