The Happy’s Place cast is dreaming big when it comes to season 2 guest stars — starting with Kevin Costner.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Reba McEntire, Belissa Escobedo, Melissa Peterman, Pablo Castelblanco, Rex Linn and Tokala Black Elk teased what to expect from the new season including the scenarios they are pitching to the writers.
“We have a dream of seeing flashbacks to Happy,” Castelblanco said about Bobbie (McEntire) and Isabella’s (Escobedo) late father. “Belissa really wants Kevin Costner.”
Peterman, 54, cosigned the idea of Costner joining the NBC sitcom. “I also would love a flashback scene, specifically a flashback of the day showing each and everyone’s job interview,” she teased. “That could be really fun. Do we ever really want to see Happy? I would love to.”
Happy’s Place, which premiered in October 22024, follows Bobbie as she inherits her father’s restaurant and discovers a new business partner in the long-lost half-sister (Belissa Escobedo) she didn’t know she had. The rest of Happy’s Place is made up of bartender Gabby (Peterman), cook Emmett (Linn), accountant Steve (Castelblanco) and waiter Takoda (Black Elk).
Two seasons in, Happy’s Place has been able to stage some memorable Reba reunions for McEntire and Peterman including Steve Howey, Christopher Rich and JoAnna Garcia Swisher. But the cast is hoping to get even more familiar faces in the future.
“My dear friend John Lithgow would love to do it. He’s now doing the Harry Potter show on HBO so he’s in London for another year. I’m also trying to get my good friend Jean Smart to come over,” Linn, 68, told Us. “She’s on the studio lot just right across the way here. I’d love to see those two but I have about 30 friends that want to come on the show. We’re trying to get some of them.”
Linn and Black Elk, 41, also threw in Peyton Manning as a suggestion while Castelblanco pitched Sofia Vergara and John Leguizamo as Steve’s parents. McEntire, 70, and Escobedo, 27, meanwhile, are just excited for viewers to see how much Happy’s Place has evolved.
“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 returns to NBC on Friday, November 7, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Peacock.
