Gabby has officially chosen a sperm donor on Happy’s Place — and Melissa Peterman has plenty of possible casting ideas for the pivotal role.
During the Friday, November 21, episode of the hit NBC series, Gabby got help from her coworkers when it came to choosing the father of her baby.
“Gabby [would want] Channing Tatum. She’s going to dream big,” Peterman, 54, exclusively told Us Weekly during a joint interview with costar Pablo Castelblanco. “Dream big or go home.”
The duo also threw Jon Hamm‘s name out there, joking, “I’m sure Gabby was on the dark web trying to find [someone good to donate]. I think she had fun shopping.”
Before Gabby chose a donor online, creator Kevin Abbott revealed to Us that Danny (Steve Howey) was meant to be involved in the story line.
“With Steve Howey, we originally had an idea that he was going to be the sperm donor,” he shared in March. “Then NBC wanted a Christmas episode so we had to scramble and come up with something. We put Steve in that and we changed things. But he was originally the sperm donor.”
Howey, 48, and Peterman previously teased to Us in individual interviews how they wanted to see the story go after sharing the screen on Reba. Abbott, however, admitted that it would be “a little weird” considering the way viewers have associated Howey with Van from Reba and Peterman with the role of Barbara Jean. (The pair played in-laws on the hit sitcom.)
“It got a little creepy and a little incestuous,” Abbott quipped. “It got weird. So we decided against that. We are so lucky we’ve been able to have two of our old cast members on right now.”
Reba, which aired from 2001 to 2007, starred Reba McEntire, Peterman, Christopher Rich, JoAnna Garcia Swisher and Howey. The show followed a single mom who had to start over after her husband left her for another woman. Reba (McEntire) attempted to start fresh while raising three kids — including her pregnant teen daughter (Garcia Swisher) and her boyfriend (Howey).
Nearly two decades later, McEntire, 70, and Peterman reunited with former Reba executive producer Abbott on Happy’s Place. This allowed them to cast some familiar faces in their new sitcom, which centers around Bobbie (McEntire) as she inherits her father’s restaurant and discovers a new business partner in the long-lost half-sister (Belissa Escobedo).
“It is a great place to be. We know our audience, we know each other better and we’ve gelled. We didn’t have that big of a break between the first season ending and second season beginning so we just fell right back into it,” McEntire teased. “We’re bonding a lot more. All six of us are very confident and very comfortable with each other — to a point that when we do have a guest cast, we feel very comfortable sharing the stage.”
Escobedo said the connection can be felt on the show.
“As we get more comfortable and more bonded, we see it in the characters as well,” she added. “Because we’re getting comfortable with our own characters and so each personality gets a little deeper. You get more into that person.”
She continued: “That’s what I’m so excited for everyone to see is how much the relationship between everyone has progressed into even more of an ensemble. It’s just so funny.”
McEntire teased to Us that the stories in season 2 are even bigger and better, adding, “We’ve progressed and we’ve grown together. We’re a tight knit family — although [Belissa and I] are the only ones that are blood related on the show. But it feels like we’re kids that have been adopted into one big family called Happy’s Place.”
Happy’s Place airs on NBC Fridays at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Peacock.
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