"You've got a mama and a daddy and a family that loves you very much. You're not losing that. You're just gainin' a Barbra Jean." - Reba Hart (Reba McEntire) to her daughter on the eve of her ex-husband's remarriage to hygienist Barbra Jean
Reba: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Imagine you started life as a country girl from tiny Chokie, Oklahoma, and that you grew up to be a country music superstar. Along the way, you sold over 48 million albums, won the Academy of Country Music's "Top Female Vocalist of the Year" award seven times in a single decade, played to sold out stadiums around the world, and even conquered Broadway. What could you possibly do for an encore? If you're Reba McEntire, you set out to conquer the world of TV sitcoms in Reba for the WB. On the surface, it may seem like a risky move. After all, other popular singers have failed to make the transition to TV. (Remember Bette Midler's self-named sitcom? If not, be thankful.) With McEntire's down-home charm and loyal fan base, though, maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the series became a hit when it premiered on October 5, 2001.
McEntire plays Reba Hart, a Houston mother of three who is optimistic that her failing marriage of twenty years can be saved. After all, their marriage was once so strong that she supported her now-estranged husband, Brock (Murphy Brown's Christopher Rich), while he struggled through dental school years ago. There's only one small hitch - Brock's new girlfriend, a ditzy dental hygienist named Barbra Jean (Melissa Peterman), is pregnant, and now Brock wants to rush the divorce so that he can marry Barbra Jean. The bad news doesn't end there. Reba and Brock's teenage daughter Cheyenne (JoAnna Garcia) is pregnant, too, and the father is dimwitted football player Van Montgomery (Steve Howey). Cheyenne and Van get married, but Reba wonders how they will be able to simultaneously start a family and graduate from high school. Rounding out the family are brainy tween Kyra (Scarlett Pomers) and cute moppet Jake (Mitch Holleman).
In each episode, Reba and her family struggle to overcome the obstacles presented by their new situation. Van and Cheyenne learn about double standards when Cheyenne is asked by her principal to leave school while Van, the star of the football team, is allowed to stay ("The Honeymoon's Over or Not What?"). Reba is appalled when the mother of Jake's best friend will not let the tyke stay over at Reba's home because she thinks it is an inappropriate environment for kids ("You Make Me Sick"). Reba takes tentative steps back into the dating scene ("The Man and the Moon" & "The Story of a Divorce"). She even helps Brock scatter the ashes of her disagreeable ex-father-in-law ("Brock's Swan Song"). In each instance, Reba tackles her family's problems with equal parts perky aplomb and down-home common sense.
Some of the best episodes pit Reba against Barbra Jean, Brock's mistress. Reba is a take charge, no-nonsense woman. B.J., on the other hand, is a simpering hypocrite who piously comments on the sins of others while conveniently glossing over the fact that she committed adultery and became pregnant in the process. The character is a brilliantly funny comic creation, and sparks fly when she and Reba get together. In "Every Picture Tells a Story," Reba discovers an old photo that suggests that B.J. and Brock's affair began long before Reba and Brock's separation. She is infuriated, until she learns the real story from B.J.: Brock is but one in a long line of affairs she has had with married dentists. The scene in which B.J. reveals this fact is shockingly funny. Reba has to bail B.J. out of jail in "When Good Credit Goes Bad" when she is arrested for charging angel figurines at a Christian bookstore using a credit card that Reba reported stolen. In "You May Kick the Bride," Reba reluctantly gives her blessing to B.J. on the eve of her wedding to Brock. In an amusing physical gag, she also finds herself at the altar when she accidentally stitches B.J.'s wedding dress to her own pants while repairing a tear.
The scripts for those episodes are funny, but much of the credit has to go to the performances by Peterman and McEntire. The two have great chemistry. Peterman is also able to take what could be an abrasive, repellent character and turn her into a sympathetic one. The other actors are also extremely likeable.
Reba has the potential of doing for divorcees and teen mothers what Roseanne did for lower middle class families: presenting the problems and concerns of a sizeable (yet marginalized) group in a funny, semi-realistic way. Reba, however, does not quite live up to this promise. The series often relies on standard sitcom formulas rather than speaking the simple truths that Roseanne imparted as a way to transcend sitcom conventions. But while Reba may not have the emotional depth of the earlier series, it is still funny and endearing.
The first season of Reba features a number of faces that should be familiar to TV fans, including Park Overall (Empty Nest, The Critic), Nell Carter (Gimme a Break), Julia Duffy (Newhart, Designing Women), Greg Evigan (B.J. and the Bear, My Two Dads), Sam McMurray (Freaks and Geeks), Barry Corbin (Northern Exposure), Dorothy Lyman (Mama's Family), and Peter Scolari (Bosom Buddies, Newhart).
The twenty-two episodes that make up season one are divided onto three double-sided discs. The discs are housed in slim, black keepcases. The front covers each feature the same publicity photo of Reba McEntire. The back covers include episode titles, original airdates, and plot synopses of the episodes found on each disc along with publicity stills of the entire cast. The four keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which features a shot of McEntire, JoAnna Garcia, and Melissa Peterman.
The DVD menus are simple. Each disc's full-motion menu features clips from the series that move across the screen in small windows as the McEntire-sung theme song plays. Viewers can play all of the episodes or choose an individual one. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
