Wednesday, October 6, 2021

"Reba" Celebrates 20 Years

 

WATCH UPtv'S FACEBOOK LIVE WITH REBA McENTIRE & MELISSA PETERMAN RELIVE SOME OF  THEIR FAVORITE MEMORIES & MOMENTS OF SHOOTING THE COMEDY SERIES IN HONOR OF THE 20 YEAR
“REBA-VERSARY”

Hosted by Kelly Sutton


Biggest Question of the Night “Will there be a reboot?”

Kelly Sutton Sits Down with the Legend herself, Reba McEntire and the Hilarious Melissa Peterman as they talk all things REBA

In honor of yesterday’s 20th Anniversary of the hit comedy series Reba starring Reba McEntire, UPtv, the television home for uplifting entertainment, hosted a Facebook Live with the entertainment mogul Reba McEntire and actress Melissa Peterman (who played Barbra Jean on the show). Hosted by Kelly Sutton (host of “Connected with Kelly” on YouTube, syndicated radio show “Y’all Access with Kelly Sutton” and the voice of “Country Heat” on Amazon Music) the online interview and fun discussion was simulcast across Reba’s and UPtv’s Facebook pages. UPtv is celebrating Reba’s 20th anniversary all-month long with special on-air packaging, exclusive interview content with Reba and DVD extras. See highlights and pull quotes below along with the full video.

 

Highlights:

Melissa Peterman joins the conversation by surprising Reba wearing a “Reba” wig!

 

Was there anything about this show that gave you pause or did you just go for it?

The thing that scared me more than anything was that you had no control. I stepped in. I was “Sally” then later on when we did the upfronts, then they changed it to “Reba”. But before it was Sally, I had no control, I auditioned for it twice and it was new territory.

 

Memories with Dolly Parton:

Reba: When Dolly Parton came on as a guest star ,we were all holding our breath and couldn't wait til she got there, and she walks in and visits with everybody in the room, behind the camera on the camera, craft services. Everybody was her best friend by the time she left.

 

Melissa: The entire lot was starstruck, I was at the point where you come to rehearsal and “it’s just rehearsal” and you are sweatpants, but Dolly Parton came everyday dressed to the nine she looked gorgeous and put together. I thought 'I gotta step up my game'. Dolly comes and she is Dolly from the moment she arrives; so lovely and so funny.  I always tell the story of the one time my husband  came to visit me and have lunch with me on set, like he never came to have lunch but when Dolly was there, he came.

 

Barbara Jean wasn’t supposed to be a series regular!

Reba: Melissa wasn’t a regular at the beginning. But when I saw her act and saw how funny she was, I thought “they are crazy, why isn’t she a regular?”

Melissa: It was 7 out of 13 is how they classified it in the beginning, then by Season 2, I was in every one ever since? Did you put in a good word for me Reba?

Reba: Heck ya I did! We always had more fun on the set when you were there!

Melissa: I think they weren’t sure how that character would fit in in that very beginning of that pilot season, and I think when they realized that the chemistry was there and they needed that antagonist or that type of person there, I was happy to be in every show.

 

What Moment did they think “I think I've made it” and about mentoring other women:

Reba: I’m still waiting for the time where I can say  ‘I feel like made it’. For mentoring other females, well I hope so I think, i mean I think  you lead by example rather than preaching and teaching, But Hilary Scott (Lady A) always came to me and asked questions and I appreciated that and Terri Clark and I think it's a lot of fun when they say “hey how do you handle this?” and I used to go to Dolly and ask for advice, so I think it's fun.

 

Will there be a spinoff or movie of Reba?

Reba: I can honestly say that there is nothing that would make Melissa, Chris, Steve and Joanna any happier than to do a reboot of the Reba tv show. We are all 100% for it, we loved doing the show together, we are still all friends. Because as our show runner said when we all parted from the show in 2006, he said “we still have so many more stories to tell.”

 

Are you like Reba Hart or Reba McEntire:

Reba: I’m closer to Reba Hart than Reba McEntire on stage. I'm that pretty goofy that gets myself into situations where “I don’t know what to do now?”

###