TV Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman on reuniting for Happy's Place: 'Like riding a bike' The two became good friends on the sitcom "Reba." By Raechal Shewfelt Published on July 16, 2024 01:07AM EDT Reba McEntire will be back onscreen with her Reba costar Melissa Peterman this fall. The women spoke of their friendship on Sunday in Pasadena, Calif., during a Television Critics Association panel to promote their new NBC show, Happy's Place. In it, the country great plays Bobbie, a woman who inherits her late father's restaurant and discovers that she has a half-sister, who's played by Belissa Escobedo (Hocus Pocus 2). Peterman's character, Gabby, is a bartender at the restaurant. Peterman described working together again as "just easy." She added, "It's like riding a bike." Melissa Peterman celebrates reuniting with good friend Reba McEntire for new sitcom Happy's Place Melissa Peterman and Reba McEntire in 2023. Jason Kempin/Getty Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. After all, the two never really left each other in their personal lives, Peterman said. In Reba, Peterman played the younger woman who Reba's husband left her for. The show ran from October 2001 to February 2007 on the CW. Reba McEntire coaches artist to channel Nicole Kidman in Voice Knockouts — and he wins "We've been friends ever since," Peterman 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, and we just were waiting for another project so we could actually go to work together again. I think it's evolved to even — you know, we had six years together, a 100-and-some episodes — we have such a shorthand." They're also back with writer and producer Kevin Abbott, who worked on that first show. He's an executive producer and head writer here. Reba McEntire's new sitcom Happy's Place takes her back to her comedic roots For her part, McEntire joked, " I don't even know this person." She explained, "We've been buddies. We've been co-workers. We've had so much fun." The "Fancy" singer said she's getting good vibes on Happy's Place. "The thing that I can already see is going to happen on this show that happened on the Reba show, we'd all go on vacation together — the writers, the producers, showrunners, everybody — and with their families. We had such a good time. I can see this happening with this group. The camaraderie and the way we gelled on the first week during while we were shooting the pilot." Happy's Place premieres Oct. 18 on NBC.