Since the comedy “Reba” ended in 2007, star Reba McEntire has been looking for another project that would reunite her with executive producer Kevin Abbott. They finally found that vehicle with “Happy’s Place,” a new NBC comedy scheduled to launch at 8 p.m. Oct. 18 on KGET-TV, Channel 17. What brought them back together is the story of Bobbie (McEntire) who inherits her father’s restaurant. She is less than thrilled to discover that she has a new business partner in the half-sister she never knew she had. The series also stars Belissa Escobedo, Melissa Peterman, Pablo Castelblanco, Tokala Black Elk and Rex Linn.  The reason McEntire wanted to work with Abbott again after their “Reba” days is that he is always honest and supportive with his suggestions. She never gets a hard no from him, but he will always explain to her the reasons why something will or won’t work. It also helps that McEntire and Abbott have gotten along so well since the first day of working together they remain close friends. “When Kevin’s wife, Julie, came up with this idea, we all said, ‘Yes, let’s go for it!’ I love the sitcom genre. Out of all the things I get to do, this is my favorite because it’s camaraderie, it’s fun, you just get to go to work and play, and it’s creative. It’s very comforting to me,” McEntire says. “I absolutely love it.” She certainly needs to love it because not only is McEntire starring in the comedy, but she also is one of the executive producers. This goes along with being a multi-media entertainment mogul who has had 35 career number one singles and more than 58 million albums sold worldwide. McEntire also serves as a coach on the 26th season of NBC’s four-time Emmy Award-winning musical competition series “The Voice.” This is her third season on the show. The reason McEntire has had success is so many different fields comes naturally. She jokes that her mother always said she had the attention span of a 2-year-old child. One of the reasons McEntire enjoys working on the new show is because the cast includes her husband, Rex Linn, and close friend Melissa Peterman. Linn jokes that he keeps getting roles on productions starring his wife because he will walk back and forth behind her when she is on a zoom call being pitched a new project.  So far that has worked with “The Hammer,” “Big Sky” and “Happy’s Place.” McEntire and Peterman have worked closely together for the past two decades. The fact they produced more than 100 episodes of “Reba” translates into the pair having a short-hand knowledge of each other. That makes finding the comedy rhythms much easier. McEntire says of Peterman, “We've been buddies.  We've been co-workers.  We've had so much fun.  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 while we were shooting the pilot, they were saying, ‘Gosh, this is like a second season, first episode.  Everybody's gelling so well.’  So, we're just going to continue to have a lot of fun.” Peterman and McEntire disagree on one element of their working relationship. McEntire believes the natural comedy connection they have starts with great writing. Peterman leans toward the theory that it comes from the chemistry they found working on “Reba” that continues to this day. “Happy’s Place” is giving McEntire plenty of reasons to be in a happy place. She is back in the sitcom genre that she likes and is working with a producer and cast who are more friends than castmates. Another reason McEntire is facing the new series with so much optimism is that she knows there is a built-in audience for the comedy that comes from the fans of her music. She has discovered over the years that no matter what project she is doing, her fans are always there. Then there is the fact she loves the character of Bobbie. “Bobbie's a pretty intense character.  She's very devoted to the tavern and to her dad's memory, and she wants everything to stay as it is,” McEntire says. “She works very hard, she's got a wonderful team of people that she gets to work with, and they're at the tavern. She solely depends on because her husband has died. “Her daughter is deployed, and so she's kind of on her own except with her happy place tavern family.  She's very loyal, very hard worker, and loves what she gets to do.”