I so desperately want to be happy that Reba McEntire is back on network TV. The country singer and actress anchored one of the most enjoyable sitcoms of the 2000s with "Reba," about a single mom who works too hard,

Reba's half-hour series "Happy's Place" premieres at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, on NBC and co-stars Belissa Escobedo, Melissa Peterman and Rex Linn.

While "Happy's Place" is also a comedy with some of the same actors, that's about where the similarities end. The new series features McEntire as a bar owner in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the wake of her father's death who discovers she has a much younger half-sister she never knew about.