Reba McEntire takes country to the shores of 'Malibu'

• McEntire plays a former singer starting a new life in Malibu after her politician husband's affair
• The show will pair with Tim Allen's 'Last Man Standing' as part of a new 'TGIF' effort by ABC
• Lily Tomlin co-stars as McEntire's audacious Southern mother

STUDIO CITY, Calif. — Reba McEntire's got sand in her boots.

The grit is handy for a country song, but may fare even better as a TV show. Four decades into a legendary career, McEntire is reinventing herself again, this time as a sitcom star on a major broadcast network.

"I'm very curious to see what different things I can get into," says McEntire, casual today in jeans and a cotton long-sleeved top. She settles into an overstuffed couch in her lightly floral scented, lemongrass-hued dressing room on the set of Malibu Country, her ABC sitcom that launches Friday (8:30 p.m. ET/PT).

In Malibu Country, McEntire, 57, plays Reba Gallagher, a former singer turned political wife who detours from the blueprint of standing by your cheating man. In the pilot, Reba leaves her politico husband (Jeffrey Nordling) in the midst of his news conference confessional. With her sassy mother Lillie Mae (Lily Tomlin) and opinionated teenage kids (Justin Prentice, Juliette Angelo) in tow, Reba flees her home in Nashville for a property her husband had stashed away: a beach house in Malibu.

The series also follows Reba's struggle to reclaim her career as a recording artist, and marks McEntire's return to television after a six-year break. The light went dark on her WB/CW sitcom, Reba, in 2007.

What precipitated her return? "I wanted to do TV when they fired us," she says with a laugh. "I love television. I love to watch it, I love to be a part of it. I don't care if it's an awards show, game show, special event or a TV show."

Shot in front of a live audience, Malibu Country, like Reba, explores the concept of life after divorce. But while Reba painted McEntire as a soccer mom coping with a pregnant teenage daughter and the perky dental hygienist her husband left her for, in Malibu Country Reba Gallagher is "a little more out of water, a little lost, because she had a husband who took care of her, and she took care of the kids," says McEntire. Faced with a new life that trades Southern conventions for morally murky Malibu, "Reba is pretty much flying by the seat of her pants in a lot of situations."

The half-hour sitcom joins Tim Allen's Last Man Standing in a hour-long comedy block on Friday nights, a more grown up rejuvenation of the 'TGIF' format popularized on ABC in the '80s and '90s, when such family-friendly shows as Full House, Step by Step and Family Matters dominated ratings.

Today, audiences want a less saccharine fare, says Bill Carroll of ad buyer Katz Television Group. "We're looking at family situations with a little bit more adult context than the Olsen twins or Urkel. The audience expects that it's going to be more realistic and more contemporary. You're looking at two shows that attempt to fill that requirement."

Executive producer Michael Hanel, who began working with McEntire and Narvel Blackstock, her husband and longtime manager and business partner, in 2001, says they're excited about the positioning. "I think ABC has been dying to have a comedy block on Fridays again and two icons like Tim Allen and Reba combined into one block is a great opportunity."

McEntire plays a character close the real-life, big-hearted personality her fans have remained loyal to, with the added benefit (like sister ABC show Nashville) of being able to unveil new, plot-perfect McEntire songs. (New Me, which debuts in the pilot episode, is an immediately catchy tune written by McEntire, music producer Dave Stewart and Blackstock. All three are executive producers.)

She's humble, not bitter

McEntire is one of the most successful country artists of all time, having sold 56 million albums worldwide and been inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011, but she's the first to point out how the face of country has gotten progressively younger.

"I can't be bitter about radio not playing me anymore," says McEntire. "They played me for decades. It's time for other people to come up. They've still got the radio stations where it's the oldie but goodies. I'm in that segment, it's fine with me. And they still play the songs that I've had out in the last two, three years, which I'm very proud of."

It's a humble take – McEntire's last album All the Women I am spawned her 25th No. 1 country hit, Turn on the Radio, putting among female country artists behind only Dolly Parton, who has 25 No. 1 hits.

But McEntire, whose demeanor is friendly mix of Southern hospitality and on-message professionalism, insists she's embraced a new frontier. "What I try to do is reinvent myself, and I don't mean put another truck out on the road with more lights, more dancers, more costumes," she says. "I had done tours where I had more lights on my stage than Madonna or Michael Jackson. I had the dancers, I had the 15 costume changes."

It's partly why her critically praised run on Broadway's Annie Get Your Gun in 2001 was "like a slap in the face," she says, a sign that the universe was opening a new door, saying, "this is where you need to go. Come on.' "

McEntire took note. By fall of 2001, she and her family relocated to Los Angeles to begin work on Reba. (A number of McEntire and Blackstock's fish-out-of-water experiences on the West Coast have been co-opted by Malibu Country.) The show ultimately left air "on a positive note," says Carroll.

"That's the thing you can take to the bank about Reba," says Billboard's Wade Jessen. "It's always going to be good regardless of the platform."

Her fans agree. With every new venture, McEntire's fans have ardently followed, turning her into what Jessen calls a generational performer "as relevant to the 25- or 35-year-old who's listening to country now as she is to their parents and their grandparents."

Long before social media provided a framework for stars to interact with fans, McEntire cultivated a close and personal relationship with her fan base, beginning in the '70s and traveling with her "from music, movies, television, books, Broadway, the gamut," says McEntire.

Hanel says that's because of her open nature. McEntire has shared her triumphs and her tragedies, including her devastation when members of her band were killed in a plane crash in 1991. The memory is still close to her and surfaces in conversation when she discusses aging. "I'm very proud that I'm 57 years old," she says. "When I hit 50 I had three birthday parties. One in L.A., one in Oklahoma, and one in Tennessee. And I celebrated each party for my family members and my band and my manager who didn't get to see 50 years old.and I cherish every minute that I have."

It remains startling to consider her dominance in music, on any chart. McEntire has sold more than 56 million albums and sent 59 songs to the top 10 songs across four decades. She's had whopping 23 country albums in the top 10 —11 of which went to No. 1.

But aside from recording songs for Malibu Country (plans for release are still being formalized), McEntire has no news on an upcoming album. "Not yet," she says. The only prediction she'll make is that forthcoming songs will have an "uptempo, positive" mood.

Touring seems more likely. "We have dates for next year," she says, but does not elaborate.

The timetable, says Jessen, is hers to determine. "I don't think that country radio has closed the door on Reba because when she does come back, when she does make a record, when she does concentrate on that part of her career it's invariably successful. That's one of the advantages of being a superstar. You don't ever really leave."

Hanel credits McEntire's professionalism with steering Malibu Country after creator Kevin Abbott (who also is behind Last Man Standing) entered rehab earlier this month, requiring the writing staff to reshuffle duties. "He's so good at what he does," says McEntire. "And he just needs some help right now and we're all 100% supportive of that."

Sara Rue, who plays Reba's busty trophy-wife neighbor, also recently announced she's pregnant with her first child , spurring some creative blocking as they shoot around her growing bump. On set, Tomlin says McEntire is as in sync with her character as Candice Bergen was with Murphy Brown. "Murphy lived in Candice's skin. It was just the right role for her." McEntire's new Reba is "probably 90% her, her real, absolute human incarnation."

.While a "gypsy at heart," McEntire's found that the steady pace of TV suits her. She spends her weekends off playing select shows, relaxing or cheering on her and Blackstock's sonShelby, 22, who has recently begun a career on the racetrack.

In fact, while promoting Malibu Country this summer, she watched him on her iPhone as he got behind the wheel in Indianapolis. "Your stomach's up here in your throat," she says, but adds that with her family's rodeo background, it's her husband who has had a harder time with it.

The cost of the sport is another matter. "But I told Narvel, I said, book me more dates if that child wants to do it," she says, in mama bear mode.(Their three older children, Brandon, Chassidy and Shawna are from Blackstock's first marriage.) "We have four that are go-getters and we love 'em, every one of 'em."

Kelly Clarkson is Reba's 'little sister'

Married since 1989, she and Blackstock are partners in their company Starstruck Entertainment, under which her deals are negotiated. "We have a great time together, no matter what we do," says McEntire. "We enjoy life. We're gypsies at heart. We love to travel. We plan vacations way in advance. We always have something to look forward to and we love life."

Some of those vacations have included Kelly Clarkson, who, with McEntire's blessing, signed Blackstock as manager in 2007 (Blake Shelton also is managed by Starstruck).

Recently, Clarkson started dating Reba's stepson. McEntire says she had already regarded Clarkson as family. "Before she and Brandon started dating we were on vacations — every time Narvel and I would get a group together, we'd call Kelly, she'd go as a single, she didn't care. She was our kid, she was my little sister."

Now, Clarkson could end up as her daughter-in-law. "Exactly," she says. "Which I'm fine with."

Time is up, and Narvel Blackstock walks in, and laughs when he hears that a reporter misheard his daily strategy of putting positivity into a tunnel — not funnel.

"You take the best part of your day, and put it in an imaginary funnel," clarifies McEntire, who has adopted her husband's can-do frame of mind. "You never know what comes out of the bottom. You just keep pilin' stuff in, and whatever comes out is what you're supposed to be doing."