Reba alum Steve Howey spilled the details about his highly-anticipated appearance on Happy’s Place and reunion with Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman. It was revealed in October that Howey, who portrayed Van Montgomery on Reba, would be guest starring on McEntire’s new NBC sitcom. He finally made his debut in last night’s episode, appropriately named “Ho-Ho-Howey,” as Danny, a friend of Peterman’s Gabby who winds up having a company party at the tavern after quite a lot of lying.
The appearance reunites Howey with Reba co-stars McEntire and Peterman, and the actor told TV Insider just how the role came about. “ Kevin Abbott, the showrunner for Reba, who’s now doing Happy’s Place, reached out to me and said, ‘I have this idea for this character and want to know if you want to come play with us.’ And I was like, ‘Are you kidding? Absolutely.’ It just made sense,” Howey shared. “It wasn’t anything that made me feel uncomfortable or weird, and it wasn’t Van [my character from Reba].”
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“I liked that. This was an opportunity to reacquaint with some people that I adore that I grew up with, Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman,” he continued. “I’ve always said that Reba has the Midas touch. [She’s] an amazing person and a mentor for me. So [when] Kevin asked me to come on, I was like, ‘Dude, are you kidding? Tell me when.’”
Of course, the episode wasn’t without some nods to Reba, as Howey told Us Weekly, “The line that I did give was the first time I walked in when Reba was drawing on Melissa’s picture, and she made a mustache. I say, ‘Hey, nice mustache.’ She turns around and says, ‘Wish I could say the same about yours.’ But that was my line to Reba — and that’s how cool Reba is. I can pitch something, and she’s like, ‘I’ll try it,’ Also, speaking of being really proud of the mustache, it makes its television debut on Happy’s Place.”
In regards to the subtle nods that the series did, Howey shared, “I grew up with classic sitcoms, and so I always wanted to do a sitcom [as an actor]. I was lucky enough to be on one that is a classic. Fans have been telling me over the years that the show was the one thing that they could bond over with their family because it was appropriate for all ages. And it still plays and people still are finding it now. Those little wink and nods are really cool for the audience. It was cool for us to do it and it was already written by one of the writers.”
Even though Howey will not be a series regular, he is expected to appear in more episodes of Happy’s Place, meaning that fans will probably be able to look forward to much more fun references to Reba. In the meantime, his first episode is streaming on Peacock.