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How Did Reba McEntire & Melissa Peterman Meet? See Their Sweet Friendship Timeline
The Happy's Place stars are so close, Reba McEntire was the first person to sing to Melissa Peterman's newborn son.
Way back in the early 2000s, Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman joined the ranks of other beloved TV friendships during the six-season run of Reba. Since then, the two have remained best friends and have reunited on yet another hilarious sitcom, NBC’s Happy’s Place.
Read on to revisit McEntire and Peterman’s beautiful, lasting friendship and how they’ve remained in each other’s lives long after the sitcom that brought them together ended.
When did Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman meet?
McEntire and Peterman have known each other for over two decades. The two actresses met in 2001 on the set of Reba when Peterman was cast as Barbra Jean, a dental hygienist who becomes pregnant while having an affair with Brock Hart, the husband of McEntire's character. In a video for Peterman's game show Person, Place or Thing, the actress said McEntire “was just so down-to-earth” when she met her at the first table read for Reba.
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On paper, it might not seem like Barbra Jean and Reba would ever become buddies, but the two characters managed to build one of TV’s most iconic friendships over the show’s six seasons. “Reba was very vocal about wanting to make this seem real, to that relationship of a stepparent and that, like it or not, they're in your life and you gotta figure it out," Peterman said in McEntire's episode of the documentary series, Superstar.
In real life, their friendship became just as strong. “She’s like coming home,” Peterman said tearfully about her bond with McEntire in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “In this business, we have a lot of ‘Hollywood friends’ and you have friends that you share just the good stuff with. I think I knew that when we started sharing the, like, real life stuff, that it was forever," she shared. "I know she’s got my back. Whether we ever work together again, she is on my side always and she knows I’m [on] hers.”
Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman are still best friends today
McEntire told Entertainment Tonight that she and Peterman “gelled really quickly” when they met on Reba. “She’s just one of my best friends, I will always love her forever and ever,” McEntire said in 2024, adding that Peterman wouldn’t be the friend who bails you out of jail: “She’d be the one sitting right next to ya. She’d say, 'Wasn’t that fun? Let’s do that some other time and not get caught!’”
McEntire and Peterman have been friends for so long, they’ve gone through life's big moments together. They’re so close, McEntire has said that they’ve “raised our kids together.” Indeed, McEntire’s son, Shelby Blackstock, is 34 today, while Peterman’s son (Riley) is 19. On Instagram, Peterman shared a sweet photo of McEntire holding Riley when he was a baby and shared in another post that McEntire “was the first person to sing to him in the hospital when he was born.”
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In July 2024, Peterman told Entertainment Weekly that their friendship hasn’t missed a beat, even after Reba ended in 2007. “We’ve been friends ever since,” she said. “We’ve done other things together. I got to go on tour with her and open the show and do standup, and we vacation together. We hang out.”
What have Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman been in together?
After starring on Reba together from 2001 to 2007, McEntire and Peterman have worked together on several TV shows and projects over the years. McEntire shared with NBC that Peterman would often join her on the road. “When I was out on tour, she’d come with me, open the show, do a bit in the middle of the concert,” she said. “The crowd cheering for her was four times louder than for me at any time because they love [Peterman] to pieces.”
In 2011, the two reunited when McEntire guest-starred in an episode of Working Class, a sitcom starring Peterman.Then in 2015, the two worked together on Baby Daddy; Peterman starred in the series as Bonnie and McEntire appeared in two episodes as Charlotte.
In 2020, they co-hosted the first season of McEntire's podcast Living & Learning, interviewing celebrities like Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda. Just a few years later, they took their comedic chemistry to the movies in 2023’s The Hammer. McEntire starred as a traveling circuit judge, while Peterman played her sister, a brothel owner in Nevada. The thriller also starred McEntire’s IRL boyfriend, Rex Linn, as a cowboy.
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Peterman joined McEntire on the set of The Voice, the singer’s first season as a Coach, and the two snapped an adorable picture together in the iconic big red chairs. Then at the 2024 Emmys, McEntire and Peterman reunited once again as presenters.
Currently, the besties star in NBC’s Happy’s Place together.
Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman reunite in NBC’s Happy’s Place
McEntire and Peterman joined forces once again in NBC’s Happy’s Place, a new sitcom about a woman named Bobbie, played by McEntire, who inherits her father’s bar. Peterman plays Gabby, the pub’s longtime bartender.
“Getting to do this show after the Reba show? Oh my gosh, we know how special it is to have an ensemble that’s so easy to work with, fun to be around, so talented. We’re not taking anything for granted,” McEntire said in a video where she and Peterman answered fan questions.
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Peterman told Entertainment Weekly that working with McEntire on Happy’s Place is “like riding a bike.” And while it’s a whole new show with a different plot, Peterman said on the Big D and Bubba radio show that Reba chemistry is very much present in Happy’s Place. “Barbra Jean was forced on Reba, but Gabby is her friend,” Peterman said of her character. “I think Gabby wants to be closer, she considers Bobbie her family, so there’s definitely a no boundary situation that’s similar. We’re new people, but that energy and that chemistry that we have is there.”
Happy’s Place also stars Belissa Escobedo as Bobbie’s newly discovered half sister, Rex Linn as Emmett, the bar’s cook, Pablo Castelblanco as the accountant Steve, and Tokala Black Elk as Tokada, the pub’s waiter and handyman.
Watch Happy’s Place on Fridays at 8/7c on NBC and the next day on Peacock
