Fans of Happy’s Place were in for a shock while watching Season 2 Episode 8 “The Name Game.” After months of planning and excitement, it was revealed that Gabby (Melissa Peterman) can’t have children. She’s infertile. And the news devastates Gabby, leading to a heartbreaking scene with Bobbie (Reba McEntire) and hopefully the beginning of a new journey for Gabby.
MORE: Make sure to read our review for Happy’s Place Season 2 Episode 8 “The Name Game.”
But what went into this decision to make Gabby infertile on Happy’s Place? Fangirlish spoke with Showrunner and Co-Creator Kevin Abbott about the decision.
Gabby’s journey when it comes to wanting a child started back in Happy’s Place Season 1 Episode 5 “Ladies Night.” That episode explored her loneliness and how she was looking in the wrong places, aka with men, for connection. Happy’s Place Season 1 Episode 12 returned to the conversation with Gabby testing out her mothering skills on a robot doll. And in Season 2 the show has continued exploring this storyline with Gabby picking a donor for her child.
Then we got to “The Name Game.” And according to showrunner Abbott, who also previously worked on Reba as Executive Producer, the choice to make Gabby infertile was grounded in the realities of life. He said, “A large part of the thought process is […] real life is tough, that we get disappointments.”
But there’s also the added caveat that this is a workplace comedy first and foremost. “You know, we want to keep this a workplace comedy. We want to keep it with the adults. […] I did a lot of my family stories and my children’s stories and my parenting stories on the old Reba. We want to tell more different types of stories.”
For those who didn’t watch Reba, it also starred McEntire and Peterman. McEntire played the title character Reba, a single mom who works too hard, who loves her kids and never stops. And Peterman played the Barbara Jean, the new wife of Brock, Reba’s ex-husband and father of her children. That entire show is grounded in children, parenting, and divorce. Happy’s Place isn’t Reba.
“So we decided to go with, okay, how does Gabby, this person you’re rooting for, this person that you love, who we know is actually very deeply sensitive. How do you take her through something that is… she doesn’t get her heart’s desire?” Abbott explained, hinting at how the next steps in Gabby’s journey will be explored when Jane Lynch guest stars as her mother, “I think we answered that in a very interesting way with Jane Lynch, which I also think is a marvelous episode.”
At the end of the day Abbott wants fans to know that Happy’s Place is just like it’s name: happy. But they “don’t want to just be a Pollyannish” show where everything is happy and laughs are plenty. Because that’s not real. “We want to have people go through things and show through togetherness and family, you can triumph. You can work through these difficult things.”
Happy’s Place airs new episodes every Friday at 8pm ET on NBC.
