Reba McEntire may be a country music legend, but she’s also ventured into the realm of acting from time to time, most notably with her 2001 sitcom Reba. However, McEntire got some additional star power when Dolly Parton stopped by for a guest spot.
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As part of a promotion for Parton’s new album Rockstar, McEntire opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the time Parton dropped in on her sitcom. While Parton played a ruthless businessperson on the show, Parton was nothing but nice in real life.
“She’s special because she came from a bare-bones, hard life,” McEntire said. “She survived. She improvised. She persevered. She followed her dreams … and she’s still doing it. I love how she treats everyone as equals. When she did the Reba show, everybody was already in love with her, but the way she treated everyone from the actors to the crew behind the scenes, she had them as fans for the rest of their lives.”
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The 2005 episode “Reba’s Rules of Real Estate” cast Parton as Dolly Majors. The real estate boss appeared bubbly and bright, much like Parton in real life, but McEntire’s character Reba learned that all that sweetness was hiding its share of venom. The guest spot was memorable for how McEntire and Parton bounced off of each other.
Ultimately, Reba realized that working with Dolly Majors wasn’t right for her. Parton never got the chance to guest star on the show again before it ended a few years later. However, the guest spot has remained memorable all these years later.
This wasn’t the first time that McEntire has opened up about Parton’s appearance. In a 2017 interview with E!, McEntire said, “I love Dolly Parton. When I was doing the Reba TV show, Dolly spent the whole week with us on set. She was one of the guest stars and that’s the last time we really got to sit down and visit.”
That being McEntire and Parton have performed together sporadically through the years. McEntire wouldn’t be opposed to teaming up on camera again either. She told the same outlet, “Anywhere you can go in the world and you say Dolly—you don’t have to say Dolly Parton—everybody knows Dolly and everybody loves Dolly. Why wouldn’t you want to hang out with her?”
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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