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(l-r, Sara Rue, Lily Tomlin, Reba McEntire, Justin Prentice, Juliette Angelo & Jai Rodriguez)
With sitcoms featuring major gay characters like NBC’s The New Normal and CBS’s Partners creating various levels of buzz earlier this fall, ABC recently entered the fray with the new sitcom Malibu Country. (Sadly, right after this story went live, CBS announced that it was immediately pulling Partners from the schedule due to low ratings.]
Yes, the same Malibu Country that marks the return of Reba McEntire to network television. And, yes, the same Reba McEntire who is known for her Christian beliefs and comes from the typically conservative country music world.
But with her on-screen mother played by out legend Lily Tomlin, a co-star in Jai Rodriguez (who recently told us about his gay character) as well as a running storyline about whether a neighbor's son is truly gay or simply pretending to be so he can get some lip-locking time with girls, the show is quickly earning its gay stripes.
How important was it for McEntire, who is also an Executive Producer, to have "gay" figured in so prominently? “I don’t know that I thought it was important,” McEntire told AfterElton when asked about the sitcom’s gay sensibility. “This is just the way it worked out. I think it’s a great story, great personalities, great people to tell great stories in a funny way. It wasn’t anything like ‘we’re going to do this for this reason.’”
Executive Producers Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis, via email for this story, used Rodriguez’s character to explain where they were coming from with some of the choices in building the series. “The fact that Geoffrey is gay, and very comfortable with his sexuality may make the show feel like it has a ‘gay sensibility,’ but I think it is a component of the character that is very real for Reba to go up against (mostly because he's an obstacle to her success).” [Geoffrey works at the music label where Reba wants to jump start her country music career.]
Is Sage really gay-- or just playing? (l-r, McEntire, Hudson Thames& Angelo)
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The producers added that the storyline about teenage Sage (played by Hudson Thames) and whether he may or may not be gay came from a real life experience of one of the producers. “The daughter was making out with a boy when she was a middle-teen and swore ‘they were just practice kissing’ when her mother saw them making out," they shared. "We thought it was a great way to show the differences between Malibu and the rest of the country (say Nashville). Could that story happen in Nashville? Sure, but it’s probably more likely here in Southern California. It was also an unexpected way to deal with a parenting issue that might be tricky for parents of teen girls.”
The on-screen Reba is a little thrown by some of the West Coast progressiveness and Tomlin explained that the function of Lillie Mae (who Tomlin named after her own mother) is to actually help her on-screen daughter open herself up a little bit more to the world. “[She’s] a little more conservative,” the comedienne said. “[She’s] more traditional even though she was a country singer herself at one time and she was married to a country star.” By contrast, the difference in characters is mined often for laughs on the freshman sitcom. “Lillie Mae is totally inclusive [and] she knows how ridiculous all that narrow-mindedness is. She wants Reba to loosen up a little too.”
Though both Tomlin and McEntire have had long careers, they’d never worked together before Malibu Country. Tomlin admitted to having been a longtime fan of the singer after seeing her perform in Nashville as well as on Broadway inAnnie Get Your Gun. “I’d thought so highly of Reba for so long,” Tomlin said, “and I thought the [Malibu Country] script was interesting, and I thought there was a lot of potential in the relationship and in the character, to be this kind of mother, this grandmother of teenagers. Reba’s mother comes at a certain age from a place like Nashville and hits Malibu and Hollywood, and she’s ready for it.”
Thankfully, Geoffrey will not be relegated workplace scenes on Malibu Country
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Reba agreed that Lillie Mae is there to help her character loosen up a bit, but that doesn't mean Tomlin's character is merely the wise, all-knowing matriarch. Quite the contrary, in fact. “Lillie Mae gets into quite a few situations because she’s quite a liberated woman," McEntire said. "She’s more creative and more curious than Reba, and she will step out there and get herself in some predicaments. You’ll never know what she’s going to come up with next.” The fact that Lillie Mae was enjoying a marijuana lollipop in the pilot shows that the series is venturing into some non-traditional areas that you probably wouldn't have found back in the heyday of the ABC comedy lineup known as TGIF.
As for having Rodriguez as part of the cast, Reba expressed her happiness with having him be a member of the ensemble. While his Geoffrey character was first seen only as a member of the record label office, the writers quickly demonstrated in the second episode last week that he would also be a part of Reba’s Malibu home. “We’re trying to get him every place he can be because he’s such a talented young man,” Reba said. “When he gets in front of that camera, especially during a live taping, the crowd goes nuts. He is so loved, he’s so funny and they just love it when he comes on the set.”
Malibu Country airs Fridays at 8:30pm on ABC.
