Characters / Reba

Main Characters

Reba Hart

Reba Nell Hart (née McKinney)

Played By: Reba McEntire

Reba (born: 1960) is a divorced mother of three trying to cope with her oldest daughter's marriage and pregnancy, her ex-husband's kooky mistress and the struggles of working-class life in Texas. She goes through a few odd jobs before settling on real-estate agent.

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• '80s Hair: Not in the present day, but in flashbacks, she is often shown with huge perms, like the real Reba sported.
• Age Insecurity: Reba always refuses to reveal her age.
  • When she volunteers herself as the focus for Jake's homework about his favorite family member, she stops herself before telling him her age and says that it's not important to mention that part.
  • She gets defensive when a lawyer asks her about her year of birth.
    Lawyer: Nineteen...
    Reba: Nineteen-none-of-your-business. Move on.
• American Accents: Speaks in an Oklahoma drawl, like the real-life Reba.
• Amicably Divorced: Despite all the arguing, she and Brock are still on pretty good terms, especially during the later seasons.
• Awful Wedded Life: Any real mention of Reba and Brock's marriage implied it was pretty bad, especially during the end. Alongside Brock's infidelity, Brock frequently skipped out on his and Reba's marriage counseling appointments, Reba was on anti-depressants, and she talks so badly about the end of their marriage, you almost wonder why she didn't thank Barbra Jean for putting their marriage out of its misery.
• Berserk Button: Reba gets upset if/when she gets compared to Barbra Jean and is told she's no better.
• Blind Mistake: In the episode "The Blond Leading the Blind", during which she tries to take care of herself while still recovering from eye surgery ("tries" being the operative word here, as drinking water out of a potted plant and spreading peanut butter on a sponge don't count as proof of the ability to successfully take care of oneself), with Barbra Jean attempting to help Reba without Reba knowing.
• Catchphrase:
  • A drawn-out "CRAP" when she screws up.
  • She's also prone to calling people "Mo-ron!"
• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly reserved for Barbra Jean, but her first action when somebody behaves foolishly is to make snide remarks about it.
• Death Glare: Another way Reba deals with idiocy, usually before making said smart remarks.
• The Dreaded: The whole family sans Kyra is deathly afraid of getting on Reba's nerves whenever anyone does something underhanded behind her back, and she is almost always the Only Sane Woman who knows what's best for everyone (though Kyra, after getting older, takes decisions that Reba thinks are illogical but do contain some respectable challenges). They're so afraid of her that Van and Cheyenne thought that a complete family like Brock and Barbra Jean was a good first option for Elizabeth's guardian instead of Reba because they would be dead before having to hear another one of Reba's lectures.
• Fatal Flaw: It is frequently mentioned that Reba's desire to control every decision that her children make actually does them (and her) more harm than good.
• Fiery Redhead: She has one hell of a temper and is prone to violence when enraged. Though it might actually be a deconstruction, as a common theme in later seasons involved her dealing with high blood pressure.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: It's rare to hear Reba curse, she usually only says things like "dang" or "heck". She cursed a lot more frequently in the pilot, which was an example of Early-Installment Weirdness.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: In a slight crossover with Actor Allusion, any flashbacks with Reba would frequently having her sport some of Reba McEntire's more infamous hairdos.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It's not difficult to piss her off.
• Hannibal Lecture: Reba is an expert on these that terrify Van and Cheyenne to the core. She's very good at it that the two actively try to avoid triggering her lectures and keep their childlike-decisions under cover.
• I "Uh" You, Too: In the Valentine's Day episode, Reba is under a lot of pressure to spend Valentine's Day with her boyfriend Brian, worrying that he'll say he loves her, and she is unsure if she feels the same way towards him She considers saying "thank you", but Cheyenne talks her out of it. She's so nervous that she fakes being ill in order to get out of it. Brian decides to visit her anyway and nurse her back to health. He tells her that he loves her and Reba ended up saying it back in the heat of the moment. He continues saying "I love you" and she excuses herself from the room each time. When questioned by Brian, she is forced to admit that she didn't mean it and he breaks up with her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's quick to anger and far too obsessed with controlling the lives of everyone around her, but it's all done out of love and concern for what's best for everyone (at least in her mind).
• Protagonist Title: The name of the character and the actress is the name of the show.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: After so many years of viewing Van and Cheyenne as this, Reba herself starts to become this towards Van and Cheyenne when they finally settle in their own house. It was partly justified since they were weirdos.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite all the insults and violence she displays towards her, Barbra Jean is so eager to be Reba's friend that Reba can't bring herself to hate her. Reba finally admits in the series finale that she does consider Barbra Jean her best friend.

Brock Hart

Brock Enroll Hart

Played By: Christopher Rich

Reba's ex-husband. Brock (born: 1958) is a dentist who ended up impregnating and marrying his hygienist while he and Reba were in a trial separation. Despite being vain and somewhat selfish, he tries his best to make up for his past mistakes to his ex-wife and children.

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• Amicably Divorced: Despite all the fighting, Brock and Reba remain quite close following their divorce, and Brock sometimes expresses regret for leaving her.
• Awful Wedded Life:
  • In the last few seasons, Brock and Barbra Jean had their marriage collapse. He moved back out, they were constantly arguing, and Brock felt the only real way to salvage it was to pull The Baby Trap on Barbra Jean (having his vasectomy reversed without telling her.) They ultimately end up staying together.
  • Any real mention of Reba and Brock's marriage implied it was pretty bad as well, especially during the end. Alongside Brock's infidelity, Brock frequently skipped out on his and Reba's marriage counseling appointments, Reba was put on anti-depressants, and she talks so badly about the end of their marriage, you almost wonder why she didn't thank Barbra Jean for putting their marriage out of its misery.
• Bumbling Dad: Subverted. While he is very nutty and, like Barbra Jean, prone to forgetting about Henry, he is a very competent, loving father who is more than willing to punish his kids when they deserve it.
• Butt-Monkey: Brock is hit with this the worst as he's the object of physical and emotional abuse from nearly all the cast members. To add hilarity to his injuries, Reba's parents can only glare his way but are able to warm up to Barbra Jean, his mother dislikes how he ended up marrying a bimbo, Barbra Jean's father has many implications of wanting to shoot him (even more when Brock stood up to him about misogynist jokes about Big Daddy's own wife), and Barbra Jean's brother Buzzard has such a deep and scary My Sister Is Off-Limits attitude that he removed one of Brock's eyebrows and still has that piece in his pocket.
• But Not Too White: One of the show's running gags is making fun of Brock's fake tan that he often insists is natural.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Called his late father John D. Hart by his first name and middle initial. The two didn't have that great a relationship based on dialogue.
• Drop-In Character: He and Barbra Jean usually drop by Reba's house uninvited. Lampshaded by Reba in one episode.
  Reba: Brock, is it just me, or were you here less when we were married?
• Dumb Blonde: He's prone to making a lot of bone-headed decisions that make things incredibly hard on the family. The affair with Barbra Jean, quitting dentistry to become a professional golfer, his tax evasion that resulted in he and Reba owing the government $75,000, just to name a few.
• Everyone Has Standards: Surprisingly, he doesn't put up with overt sexist comments. His chauvinistic father-in-law told one offensive joke too many and it led to Brock telling him off.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He tends to show signs of jealousy whenever Reba is seeing another man. He never does anything extreme, however. Oddly, he's not this way towards Barbra Jean, who openly fawns over other men, such as Reverend Parks and Dr. Morgan. This is because he trusts her not to cheat on him, and to Barbra Jean's credit, she never does.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: A mild example: Brock, in a flash back scene, sported a long mustache prior to his marriage with Reba.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: The many bonehead decisions Brock does come from this: his cheating on Reba and having a baby from his mistress, his change from a promising dentist to a pro golfer, his not-so-subtle desire to move to Las Vegas instead of anywhere else when being faced by huge debts, his brief outrageous change to a biker...
• Hollywood Atheist: Subverted. An early throwaway line has Brock mention that he's "not a religious man", and he is not thrilled with Barbra Jean trying to get him to go to church. But he is not a Jerkass to his religious family.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • When he points out the tendency for violence on Reba's and/or Barbra Jean's part, only for the very woman/women he criticizes to hit him to make him shut up.
  • Whenever he criticizes the man/men Reba tries to date without success, which ends with Reba making a snarky remark right back at him and/or Brock trying to defend himself.
• Noodle Incident: He and Lori Ann briefly dated prior to him and Reba marrying each other. Considering that Brock himself doesn't bother mentioning it and Lori Ann gets defensive when Reba brings it up, it most likely went badly.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Brock's adultery and Reba's divorce both become this as time wears on. It's usually Played for Laughs though. One time it definitely wasn't played for laughs was when Cheyenne became absolutely furious with Van for catching a ride from the airport and having dinner with a female coworker, calling him a cheater and a liar the whole episode. When Van asks why Cheyenne thinks he's going to cheat on her, she quickly snaps back, "Because my dad did!," saying that since infidelity came out of nowhere and ruined her parent's marriage, she's always afraid the same thing could happen to hers.
• Papa Wolf: Both Brock and Reba readily frighten a high school student for asking the then-middle school Kyra to the high school prom...until they hear from him he dumped her because she sounded like an intimidating adult.
• Parental Favoritism: Downplayed. While he loves his children equally, he seems to have a better relationship with Cheyenne than he does with Kyra and Jake, probably because of how similar they are.
• Punny Name: His full name is "Brock Enroll Hart", a play on "Rock and Roll Heart".
• Small Name, Big Ego: In order to feel more important, Brock rudely tries to get a certified handyman (vaguely hitting on Reba) to refer him as Dr. Hart just because he was fixing all the poor handiwork Brock did to the kitchen appliances. Later on, Brock repairs (wrecks) the ice maker which wasn't even broken in the first place.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: While there isn't a whole lot of swearing in the series, most of the swears that do show up are from either him or Van.

Barbra Jean Hart

Barbra Jean Hart (née Booker)

Played By: Melissa Peterman

Brock's mistress, second wife and former dental hygienist, who had an affair and a baby with Brock while he and Reba were separated (born in 1977). She insists she's Reba's best friend, much to Reba's annoyance. Though over the course of the series, Reba does eventually grow to tolerate her.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Subverted. Following Barbra Jean's weight loss in season six, Reba accuses her of becoming pushy, obnoxious and wanting to be the center of attention. Barbra Jean responds that she has always been those things and that Reba simply views her differently because she looks different.
• Alliterative Name: Assuming "Jean" is her middle name, her first name "Barbra" and her maiden name "Booker", both start with "B".
• Attention Whore: She always wants to be the center of attention everywhere she goes. Possibly as a consequence of having an overbearing Jerkass father and an Alpha Bitch sister.
• Awful Wedded Life: In the last few seasons, Brock and Barbra Jean had their marriage collapse. He moved back out, they were constantly arguing, and Brock felt the only real way to salvage it was to pull The Baby Trap on Barbra Jean (having his vasectomy reversed without telling her.) They ultimately ended up staying together.
• Betty and Veronica: She was the mistress (Veronica) to Brock (Archie) during his separation to his then-wife Reba (Betty).
  • Often she becomes the Veronica again whenever Reba starts dating again and she competes with said man over Reba. Other times, she competes with Reba over the affections of any man she likes whether it's her therapist or any other handsome men.
• Berserk Button:
  • Calling her "Blondzilla" is one of the few things that will make Barbra Jean stand up to Reba.
  • She tolerates Reba's barbs good-heartedly, but the one thing she doesn't like is when Reba insincerely pretends to be nice to her.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Based on her adulterous past. Reba herself even referred to her as "a handful of woman."
• Butt-Monkey: The most frequent target of Reba's snark, and occasionally violence.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: She is very lousy in keeping secrets under wraps from others. And if she barely hears said secret is a surprise, she will do everything to hear about it. Three particular occasions play this up more seriously.
  • When Kyra planned to move out with her and Brock at her new house. Barbra Jean could not stop giggling and laughing like crazy whenever she was questioned about her odder behavior until she broke.
  • When Reba and Brock tried to hide the Cayman incident from the Intimidating Revenue Service, neither of them told on the other. Barbra Jean, completely hysteric about the heavy pressure, nervously revealed the issue when one of the agents simply asked her if she'll like to have a cup of coffee outside their private conversations, landing them all in a heavy debt that almost forced Brock to move to Las Vegas.
  • When Jake didn't want Barbra Jean to know about his very complicated and elaborate Halloween prank on his mother, who considered Halloween pranks as a revered tradition in the family and lost faith in the lack of interest from everyone else. Everyone on the plan knew that Barbra Jean would have ruined everything from the start if she had known, so her obliviousness to the whole thing only added to it, albeit in her own exaggerated way.
• Catchphrase: "Yoo hoo! I'm here! And I'm thin!" Though it only appears in one episode.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Barbra Jean most definitely alongside her family (her brother Buzzard is just strange and violent just like their father being a Gun Nut).
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: In one episode where Barbra Jean goes on a diet. One example involves her making a comment about Jake: "When he runs, he kind of looks like a little chicken, don't you think?"
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Barbra Jean is usually good at cooking, but she falls into this in one episode where she bakes a sugar-free bran cake with cottage cheese as frosting. Van's reaction is: "Do you know what would go well with the cake? A hot cup of dirt." Barbra Jean isn't pleased by the comment.
• Dumb Blonde: The prime example of the show.
• Fat Idiot: More "mildly chubby" than outright fat (though she did balloon up in the fifth season due to Melissa Peterman's real life pregnancy.) but still counts, as she's a complete airhead.
• Formerly Fat: Melissa Peterman lost a lot of weight between the fifth and sixth seasons (both her pregnancy weight, and some she'd been trying to lose for a while prior), and it was incorporated into the series.
• Friendless Background: Barbra Jean doesn't have any friends, which may be the reason why she latches too much to Reba. A reason could be how she was always the target of bullying comments since she is a big Attention Whore and a Cloud Cuckoolander rolled into one.
• The Fundamentalist: She was a devout Christian in the first season. This trait is downplayed in the subsequent seasons.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Tried to correct Brock and Reba in the pilot when they'd curse. Ironically, she would end up dropping a few curse words herself later on.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She often suspects Brock of having affairs. Though all things considered, she has a right to be concerned.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: According to Barbra Jean, her father didn't have qualms beating her with the Bible to make her a disciple of Jesus.
• Huge Schoolgirl: She talks about how girls at her school would call her "Blondzilla" after her growth spurt.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • When Barbra Jean claims to be an excellent parent, count on her to have or make some parenting mistake for Reba to call her out on next (for example, if Henry isn't present, Reba would ask "Where's Henry?" and Barbra Jean would realize she left him alone at home and rush back to him).
  • She has also been suspicious of Brock cheating on her, while she shamelessly flirts with other men.
• Innocently Insensitive: More than half the stuff she says to everyone else, much more so during the first season.
• Meaningful Name: In the first season, any time someone called her BJ, there would be a short pause so the untold joke of a woman named BJ having an affair with a married man could land. After the show took a slight turn for the more lighthearted and goofy, she wasn't called BJ anymore.
• Morality Pet: Serves as one for Kyra, as Kyra is much nicer and less sarcastic towards her than everyone else, surprisingly enough.
• Noodle Incident: Barbra Jean has committed way too many noodle incidents in the past, including her upbringing, one too many Really Gets Around with doctors until she found Brock, felonies that stained her public record, and not to mention the scandalous things she did before she became an adult.
• Perpetual Smiler: Though often times it can slip into Stepford Smiler.
• Pushover Parents: She's not a very good disciplinarian, and often lets Henry and Kyra walk all over her. An entire episode ("Parenting With Puppets") dealt with BJ's inability to punish Henry and Reba calling her out on it.
• Really Gets Around: Let's just say Brock wasn't the first married dentist she slept with.
  Lori Ann, upon learning of Barbra Jean's past: The woman's a tooth tart!
• Serial Home Wrecker: In season one's "Every Picture Tells A Story", when Reba finds a picture of Barbra Jean in a group photo with Brock implying he was cheating on Reba years earlier, Barbra Jean admits she was in the photo but not with Brock — she was with somebody else's husband. She admits before she found God, she found many taken doctors including Dr. Turner, Dr. Baker, Dr. Martino, Dr. Simpson, Dr. Schneider, Dr. Gomez, Dr. Fisher and Dr. Hart.
• Statuesque Stunner: Melissa Peterman is 5'10" and she lost weight in the sixth season which turned her into quite the looker. Van even refers to her as "new pretty".
• Tricked into Signing: She was fooled into signing excused absence slips by Kyra, who pretended she wanted her autograph. The ruse wasn't discovered until the school informed Reba about how much school the daughter had been missing.
• Weight Woe: The season five episode "Hide Your Cake" deals with Barbra Jean having put on some weight and after a failed attempt at dieting, fears that Brock is losing interest in her. Reba counters this by pointing out Barbra Jean has always been a "handful of woman" and that Barbra Jean is the one who sees herself differently. Reba also gives Barbra Jean tips on how to regain her confidence.

Cheyenne Montgomery

Cheyenne Montgomery (née Hart)

Played By: JoAnna Garcia Swisher

The oldest child of Brock and Reba Hart (Born 1984). She was just a ditzy teenager until she ended up getting pregnant during her senior year of high school. Luckily for her, her boyfriend Van decided to marry her and help care for the baby and Reba and Brock provided them with as much assistance as they could. She was initially going to follow in her father's footsteps and become a dentist, but after a brief alcohol and tobacco addiction, she decided to instead become a drug and alcohol counselor.

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• The Alcoholic: Cheyenne constantly is drowning herself in alcohol after Van's football career was completely stopped due to his spinal condition getting worse, but she moves on after many pep talks and encouragement. She briefly falls into Smoking Is Not Cool to distract herself from drinking, much to Reba's chagrin.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has this with Van. They argue often, but there's no question about the authenticity of their love. One episode during Season 5 has each of them two taking turns complaining about the other in a therapist's office, embracing each other when they finish, and then getting told off for arguing soon after (in the waiting area of said therapist's office and at the parking lot outside).
• Berserk Button: Cheyenne being referred to as the smart one in high school and having lost the chance of being a homecoming queen.
  Cheyenne: I WAS ROBBED!!!
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The blond to Jake's brunette and Kyra's redhead.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: She showed signs of this early on, but she eventually pulls herself out of that trope and ends up becoming a good wife and mother.
• Break the Cutie: It's commented on multiple times that, for all the misery Cheyenne endured- her teen pregnancy, a bout with alcoholism, shouldering massive responsibility when Van's football plans are ruined by injury- she came out on the other side a much better person. Kyra comments how Cheyenne went from being a spoiled, shallow, superficial princess to a caring wife and mother. Later, when Cheyenne considers becoming a dentist, Reba tries hard to talk her out of it, believing she's irresponsible and flaky, only to change her mind when she sees how responsible Cheyenne is in taking care of Elizabeth. Later on, when she does abandon dentistry to become a drug counselor, it was portrayed in a sympathetic light as having her priorities change from "making a lot money" to "helping people."
• Catchphrase: "Shut up, Van/ Shut up, Kyra."
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Cheyenne is shown to be very insecure about Van talking to other women in "To Tell The Truth". Van mentions that she once got jealous when he did a high school paper on Margaret Thatcher. It's for this reason that he keeps the fact he had a (completely innocent dinner) with his team's publicist.
• Cute Bruiser: She's capable of taking down Van after only one self-defense class.
• The Ditz: Cheyenne is so ditzy that she doesn't know what "ditzy" even means.
• Dreadful Musician: Reba remarks, after hearing Cheyenne's singing: "No wonder Elizabeth used to cry after Cheyenne sang to her". Van, however, thinks she's good.
• Dumb Blonde: And she is a perfect match for the equally-dumb Van. For starters, both thought having sex just once every month would never make Cheyenne pregnant.
• Generation Xerox: Cheyenne takes after her father's vanity and subtle but dumb personality.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Cheyenne and Kyra have a pretty bad one. Kyra is jealous of the attention Cheyenne receives from Reba and Brock even in adulthood, and how it makes Kyra feel left out. Meanwhile, Cheyenne is annoyed by Kyra's sarcasm, selfishness and constant whining about her Middle Child Syndrome.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She has a very ridiculous level of this that Van isn't allowed to even write reports of already famous-but-deceased women. Her response to Van writing about Margaret Thatcher, "Why don't you have a baby with her?" Though it's deconstructed when we find out that the reason is because of her father's affair.
• Growing Up Sucks: The constant fear of becoming a responsible adult after high school continuously scares both Van and Cheyenne even after having a baby, always tempted to take the easy way out. Reba always puts them on the right direction and they manage to become responsible, if not a little too wacky.
• Insistent Terminology: Any time someone called Cheyenne a cheerleader, she was quick to point out that she was actually on the drill team, although they did wear similar uniforms and did similar routines. It was justified, however, since any time someone did refer to her as a cheerleader, it was almost always intended as an insult, carrying the "slutty bimbo" connotation.
• It's All About Me: She has moments of this, even after her Character Development. An egregious case happens in the sixth season, when Cheyenne worries that her second child might turn out exactly like Kyra as a form of Karma, so she arranges a "birthday" party for Kyra to try and make up for one she ruined. Kyra immediately realizes that Cheyenne is only doing this for selfish reasons and calls her out on it.
• Lethal Chef: Barbra Jean tries to teach Cheyenne to cook in one episode, and it backfires horribly; while drowning her sorrows at her complete failure, she mentions how she taught her niece how to cook lasagna when she was six years old and worked at a church summer camp where she taught blind kids to cook, and she still couldn't make any progress with Cheyenne. When Reba comes home and Barbra Jean explains it, Reba simply agrees and says she's been there. Van also takes jabs at her lack of cooking ability quite often.
  Cheyenne: Dog food is so gross.
  Van: I know, it's like you cooked it.
• Manchild: Shows this a lot throughout the series, even more by the Sixth Season where she finally admits she doesn't want to leave her mom despite being in her 20's and having a growing family.
  Cheyenne: I DON'T WANNA LEAVE MY MOMMY!
• Noodle Incident: Ask Cheyenne about her experience in competing for Homecoming Queen, and all you'd get to hear would be "I was robbed!!" for your trouble.
• Proud Beauty: She takes great pride in her looks and that's putting it lightly.
• Skewed Priorities: Cheyenne thought having her mom teach at her school was somehow more embarrassing than her being pregnant. Reba is not even a kind of parent that overly loves her children to embarrass them in front of others.
• Teen Pregnancy: She got pregnant at 17, and catches a lot of flack for it (primarily by Kyra) despite staying in school (something most teen moms in Real Life don't do) and going on to become a respectable, well-adjusted adult.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: While Reba loved Van and Cheyenne dearly and cared for them unconditionally, she occasionally mentioned how she hoped that they would get their situation straightened out (and therefore move) sooner rather than later.
• Too Dumb to Live: Her reason for changing studies from dentistry to elderly caretaker (which then makes her want to become a drug counselor later on) stern from the fact an old lady came rushing at her while driving...right before Cheyenne casually mentions, "so I hung up the phone and..."

Van Montgomery

Van Montgomery

Played By: Steve Howey

The dimwitted husband of Cheyenne, who was disowned by his parents after impregnating her at 17 and choosing to stick by her. Van was a star cornerback in high school and went on to have a successful career in arena football. All that came to an end after experiencing a Career-Ending Injury. Following a brief bout of depression, Reba hires him as her assistant and he quickly becomes one of the hottest real estate agents in his area.

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• Abusive Parents: Van's parents, especially his father, did nothing but bully him his entire life, and even bribed him in an attempt to get him to leave Cheyenne and move back home with them. He tries to reconcile with them a few times, but it never sticks.
• Adopted to the House: He ends becoming this to the Hart household after his own parents kick him out when he knocked up Cheyenne, with Reba even stating later that she views him as her son.
• Affectionate Nickname: Van (usually) calls Reba "Mrs. H" and Brock "Mr. H".
• The Alcoholic: Van never had an alcohol problem and initially was covering up for Cheyenne, but when he during a party tried to prevent Reba from drinking a single cup of alcohol all because she had taken a pill from Cheyenne's purse meant to discourage drinking instead of healing stress, Cheyenne asked him why not just toss the wine down the drain if he was feeling tipsy of drinking too much. Van really cannot pass up on drinking too much.
• Big Eater: He usually mentions food and being hungry whenever he's onscreen.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: He and Cheyenne argue often, but there's no question about the authenticity of their love. One episode during Season 5 has each of them two taking turns complaining about the other in a therapist's office, embracing each other when they finish, and then getting told off for arguing soon after (in the waiting area of said therapist's office and at the parking lot outside).
• The Chew Toy: He is a frequent target of abuse, both physical and verbal, from Reba, Cheyenne and Kyra (though only verbally from Kyra).
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Not as bad as Barbra Jean, but he does have his moments.
• Cool Car: Rhonda, his 1966 red Mustang.
• Deadpan Snarker: He can be surprisingly sarcastic at times, particularly towards the end of the series.
  • One example takes place during the fifth-season episode "Reba and the One", where Barbra Jeans drops in to check on Reba while she's out on a date (she's not, but her family doesn't know yet) when Van is washing dishes.
  Barbra Jean: Is she on a date?
  Van: No, she's back. I'm just prepping for surgery!
  • His reaction to Barbra Jean's "sugar-free bran cake with cottage cheese frosting" is priceless.
  Van: Do you know what would go great with that cake? A hot cup of dirt.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Bridget, a former high school classmate and romantic rival to Cheyenne (before Cheyenne's marriage to Van, of course), causes Van to stutter profusely and unable to speak straight despite him being already married to Cheyenne. (Ironically the woman was played by Sarah Shahi, Steve Howey's real life wife.)
• Dumb Jock: Only in the first season, as his stupidity was toned down after that. He and Cheyenne thought that having sex only once a month would prevent pregnancy.
• Extreme Omnivore: He eats garbage in one episode to prove that he had more "stones" than Reba. That experiment doesn't last long however.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Van's mother is just as scatterbrained as he is when the focus is only on her. Case in point, she won't eat Reba's food. She'll stare at it and comment it looks good, while also insulting her when commenting how Reba puts her children before her and doesn't care one bit about her own well-being. They are also very easily ordered around by others with stronger personalities like Van's father.
  • A later episode has Van realize he was starting to become like his overbearing father when he trains Jake to be a good soccer player by constantly being too intense during matches.
• Genius Ditz: He's a total doofus, but he has occasional moments of wisdom, such as when he told Kyra that she wasn't very different from the cheerleader-types that she looks down upon. Kyra had no retort other than to say she likes the "dumb Van".
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: He suggests the high school enemies Cheyenne and Bridgette to "hug and make up". A long Laugh Track and the women staring at his perverted look heavily implied this.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He is always overprotective of Cheyenne dating other guys that he's willing to kill them (one occasion was Played for Laughs but still). It gets a little worse when he's overprotective of Reba dating other guys to the point where it looks like he's married to her.
• Growing Up Sucks: The constant fear of becoming a responsible adult after high school continuously scares both Van and Cheyenne even after having a baby, always tempted to take the easy way out. Reba always puts them on the right direction and they manage to become responsible, if not a little too wacky.
• Informed Ability: The show frequently talked up Van as an incredibly talented football player. Due to the nature of the show, we never saw him play a single game.
• Informed Deformity: Various comments by Reba, Cheyenne and Kyra suggest that Van has a unibrow, even though he clearly doesn't.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Van is down after failing a history test and being unable to play football as a result. Cheyenne offers him a pizza and he declines. She immediately yells for Reba.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Often lets out a high-pitched scream whenever he's startled or attacked.
• Shrinking Violet: Before the last seasons, Van is so easily driven into a corner by people with higher authority that he starts spouting nonsense to save his hide. It's only after the last seasons that he starts growing a little bit of a backbone, especially when it comes to Reba and Kyra's bullying of him.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: While there isn't a whole lot of swearing in the series, most of the swears that do show up are from either him or Brock.
• Slasher Smile: Van's "winning smile" is incredibly creepy, and he's completely oblivious to that fact. Reba even lampshades it, telling him "Van, that's not a killer smile, that's the smile of a killer."
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: While Reba loved Van and Cheyenne dearly and cared for them unconditionally, she occasionally mentioned how she hoped that they would get their situation straightened out (and therefore move) sooner rather than later.
• Too Dumb to Live: Van is so terrified about becoming an adult that he canceled a very beneficial scholarship because of it. That's not to say how he thought having sex once a month prevents him from making someone pregnant.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the final season, he starts standing up for himself more often whenever Reba, Cheyenne and especially Kyra pick on him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Based on dialogue, Van loves pizza.
• Two Words: I Can't Count: In the episode "Reba the Landlord", Van says "let it go" and "paper plates" quickly and insists on claiming each phrase as one word. Reba tries to correct Van once before doing it herself (using the phrase "let it go") late in the episode.

Kyra Hart

Kyra Eleanor Hart

Played By: Scarlett Pomers

The middle child of Reba and Brock (Born 1989). She takes after her mother strongly, though is much more difficult to deal with. She often complains about being the middle child and loves to manipulate and bully others, but she does have a kind side. She has an interest in music and ends up forming a rock band.

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• Aloof Big Sister: Serves as this to Jake, whom she loves to torment.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The redhead to Cheyenne's blond and Jake's brunette.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: As much as she likes to rib on Cheyenne for being this, she ends up becoming a far worse example than Cheyenne ever was. She does tone it down a bit once she moves in with Brock and Barbra Jean.
• Deadpan Snarker: An even worse example than Reba. Cheyenne and Van are her primary targets, as is Reba when they get into arguments.
• The Dreaded: Barbra Jean, Cheyenne, Van ^note Though Van eventually starts snarking back at her near the end of the series when he has matured. and Jake are shown to be afraid of her. Even Brock sometimes shows anxiety when he's around her. There was also that geeky high school student (while she was still in junior high) who broke up with her all because she sounded like an intimidating adult.
• Emo Teen: She becomes this in Seasons 4, 5 & 6. Often dressing up in dark clothes and sporting black eyeliner, lipstick and nail polish. Even more since she became a singer and formed a rock band in Season 5.
• Fiery Redhead: Downplayed. While she's quite sarcastic and crude, she rarely, if ever, gets full-on angry and hysterical like Reba.
• Generation Xerox: In terms of personality, Kyra seems to be more like her snarky mother. Brock seems to be the most aware of it, blaming Reba because Kyra began insulting Barbra Jean like Reba did.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Cheyenne and Kyra have a pretty bad one. Kyra is jealous of the attention Cheyenne receives from Reba and Brock even in adulthood, and how it makes Kyra feel left out. Meanwhile, Cheyenne is annoyed by Kyra's sarcasm, selfishness and constant whining about her Middle Child Syndrome.
• Hates Being Touched: She often gets annoyed when people hug her (especially Cheyenne), but sometimes she'll allow it.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Subverted. One episode has Kyra get suspended for punching out a girl. Why? Because she called Cheyenne a slut. Kyra may make cracks about Cheyenne's Teen Pregnancy, but she won't allow others to. However, she later reveals that she did it solely as an excuse to get suspended in order to take a break from the bullying she received from the girl, who said Kyra was going to be exactly like Cheyenne.
• Informed Ability: Kyra's musical talent is often commented upon. The only time we see her doing something musical was strumming her guitar and making snarky comments.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Snarky, judgmental, and ill-tempered, but willing to sacrifice her time and dignity to help Barbra Jean through her depression after she and Brock separated.
  • She also does care about Cheyenne despite their tensions, in an early episode when Cheyenne isn't sure if she wants to return to high school, Kyra gives her a pep talk and convinces her that going back is the right thing to do with how much she's done for the school. In a later episode she also calms Cheyenne down about the prospect of her giving birth. In the first season finale, she also covers for Cheyenne when she goes into labor on the day of her high school graduation, since Cheyenne desperately wants to walk across that stage like everyone else and Kyra wants to see it too.
• Little Miss Snarker: Lampshaded by Brock:
  Reba: She's a 12-year-old girl.
  Brock: With a 35-year-old mouth.
• Middle Child Syndrome: The statement she gave to Brock below could serve as proof of how painfully aware she is of being left out.
  Kyra: In mom's family, it's Elizabeth first, then Jake, Van and Cheyenne. I'm always last. When Jake got a turtle, I moved down one spot.
  • Of course, it wasn't without merit. She mentioned that after some money that was raised to send her on a school trip to England had to be given to Cheyenne instead because she had dropped so many classes, she ran the risk of losing Elizabeth's spot in the school day care if she didn't enroll in summer school. Interestingly, in a rare case of this, Reba is painfully aware of it (most cases of this trope will have the parents be oblivious), as Reba told both Cheyenne and Kyra in a couple of gut-wrenching speeches. It was just that Reba only had so many hours in the day and Cheyenne and Van were such screw-ups, they required most of them, outright telling Brock "I have no other choice, she's the only other adult in the house."
• Out of Focus: Kyra in season 5 only appeared in two episodes out of 22 due to Scarlett Pomers going to rehab as a result of having anorexia, and the few episodes where she did show up she didn't have her own subplot. Some, however, have speculated that execs used her anorexia as a convenient excuse to not include Kyra for most of the season so that they could spend more time focusing on other characters like Jake.
• Pet the Dog: While she's unpleasant most of the time, she is capable of showing love and kindness to others at times. Usually to Barbra Jean whenever she and Brock were having problems.
• Precision F-Strike: She refers to Barbra Jean's sister Katie Ann a bitch (which she is).
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: It is all but outright stated that Kyra's difficult behavior is due to how hard it is for her handle the difficulties of her parents splitting up, her pregnant older sister and husband stealing attention away from her and so forth.
• Stepford Snarker: Her sarcasm is an obvious cover up for her struggles.
• Surrounded by Idiots: With her being a straight-A student on the honor roll, she tends to show annoyance towards the ignorance of the adults by snarking. One example is when she's watching PBS, both Cheyenne and Brock ask her why she's watching it, Kyra asks them both to say what PBS stands for before just giving up and leaving.
• Teens Are Monsters: Barbra Jean and Reba describe her as a "demon" in one episode, and in another, both Brock and Reba admit that she's a gigantic pain in the butt.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Kyra shows shades of this, as while she is tougher then Cheyenne, she also has some of the same interests like shopping.
• Trademark Favorite Food: A couple of episodes have mentioned her fondness for Macaroni and Cheese.
• The Smurfette Principle: In Seasons 5 and 6, she's the lead singer in her rock band and the only female band member.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She's a straight-A student on the honor roll and frequently comes off as more level-headed then the adults a lot of the time (in one episode Reba outright says that Kyra is "the only other adult in the family"). It's especially noticeable in season 1 when she's the one who ends up convincing Cheyenne to go back to high school and the one to help her calm down about the prospect of giving birth. She also points out that the reason Cheyenne and Van always run away and don't talk when trauma strikes is because that's what they learned from their parents and Barbra Jean, and that if things aren't talked out, nothing gets fixed.

Jake Hart

Jacob Mitchell "Jake" Hart

Played By: Mitch Holleman

The youngest child of Reba and Brock (born in 1994). He had very little personality for a while, mainly serving as the stereotypical cute kid, though he received more attention in the last couple seasons, and he's shown to be quite mischievous.

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• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The brunette to Cheyenne's blond and Kyra's redhead.
• Cheerful Child: His purpose during the show's early years. Not so much in the later years.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: After some encouragement from Van, he turns out to be an excellent tackle. So good in fact, that he gets banned from playing for a year because he hurt too many boys.
• The Chew Toy: He gets treated very badly by Kyra and sometimes Cheyenne as well.
• Dreadful Musician: In the Christmas Episode, Reba convinces Jake to sing loudly knowing Brock and Barbra Jean, who would take Jake to go Christmas caroling with them, would suffer from his singing.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: He had a bowl cut in the pilot, as opposed to the side part he'd sport for the rest of the series.
• Hollywood Genetics: He has black hair, when his parents and siblings are either blondes or redheads. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He tends to show these tendencies, such as wanting to build a volcano that shoots glitter instead of lava, wanting to own a pet pony, chasing butterflies and being mostly bad at sports.
• Out of Focus: He was the least developed of Reba's children up until around season five, which is when Kyra was mostly absent. (Some even believe that Scarlett Pomers' anorexia was just a convenient excuse so Jake could receive more development at Kyra's expense).
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Took one in the later seasons as he grew up and got more episode plots focused on him. Doing things such as lying to get Kyra in trouble, stealing charity money from his mom, selling sodas at school even though they're banned (though that time he had good motives, since he was trying to help his family out with the money he was making) and pretending to be disabled in order to play on a wheelchair basketball team because he sucks at regular basketball (though to be fair it only happened by accident but he still should've came out with the truth that he wasn't really disabled).

Recurring Characters

Lori Ann Garner

Lori Ann Garner

Played By: Park Overall

An old friend of Reba's who returns to Houston in the later half of season 1.

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• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Her beef with Brock probably stems from this since it's mentioned that they briefly dated before Reba and Brock married.
  Lori Ann: Must we bring up all our past sins?
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of her dialogue has her insulting Reba's family, usually Brock.
• Does Not Like Men: Despite having a promiscuous streak, she has nothing but utter contempt for men, constantly belittling them.
  Lori Ann: Men are pigs.
  Brock: Well, then you must love bacon because you keep marrying us.
• Jerkass: Where to begin? Aside from being very rude and condescending to everyone, she claims to hate men but can't resist dating/screwing them. Brock is the only one brave enough to call her out on her crap.
• Noodle Incident: She and Brock briefly dated prior to Brock and Reba's marriage. Considering that Brock doesn't bother mentioning it and Lori Ann herself gets defensive when Reba brings it up, it most likely went badly.
• Old Shame: She considers her brief dating history with Brock as this.
• Put on a Bus: Her last appearance in the show was in the season 2 episode "Switch". She's mentioned a few times after that and her absence is eventually explained as her moving away again.
• Really Gets Around: She frequently mentions dating/sleeping with men whenever she's onscreen. She hit on a priest, for crying out loud!
• Serial Spouse: She's been married at least four times despite her contempt for men.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Serves as one to Brock. After her departure, rival dentist Eugene fills this role, though he would also eventually stop appearing.
• Toxic Friend Influence: How Reba put up with her is anyone's guess. Not only did Lori Ann's presence make Brock and Reba's divorce much more painful than it should have been, but when Reba starts dating again, she also encouraged Reba to lie to men because she's "too boring". She isn't very polite to the children either.
• Volleying Insults: With Brock, who is the only one willing to do so.

Brian Collins

Brian Collins

Played By: Mark Thompson

Reba's boyfriend during season 2.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a very tolerant, mild-mannered guy, but when Van goes overboard with his insistence on protecting Reba's virtue, Brian pulls him aside and tells Van that he doesn't appreciate the insinuations, but understands the intention, thus he's going to let it slide...once.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: He is a filmmaker but since his documentaries don't sell, he does cheesy late night commercials to pay the bills.
• I "Uh" You, Too: On the receiving end of this from Reba on Valentine's Day. Reba says "I love you too" to him in the heat of the moment, but takes it back later. This hurts Brian to the point that they end up breaking up over it.
• Nice Guy: He really and truly loves Reba just the way she is and even tolerates her wacky family without complaint.

Terry

Terry

Played By: Leslie Jordan

A short, fun-loving jeweler who meets the family after taking football lessons from Van, who believed him to be gay (and vice versa). Later has a blind date with Reba.

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• Birds of a Feather: He and Reba both lost the spouses to extramarital affairs with a "big, blond, goofball" and once he drops the Casanova Wannabe persona, the two get along quite well.
• Camp Straight: He's effeminate enough that Van thought he was gay. He was married to a former Miss Houston and is later set up on a date with Reba.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The actor who plays Terry makes a cameo appearance as a jeweler in the episode "The Rings". Since Terry mentions in his official first appearance that he runs a jewelry store, it's likely that they are the same character.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He acts boorish and perverted during his "date" with Reba. Once she calls him out on it, he apologizes for his behavior and says that his wife left him for a man who acted like that and he thought that was what women wanted. After that, the two get along quite well.
• Mistaken for Gay: Due to his effeminate voice and mannerisms, plus mentioning having a partner (he was talking about his business partner) Van thinks he's a gay man who is hitting on him. Meanwhile, Terry thinks that Van is gay and was using the "football lessons" to find a partner of his own. Terry acknowledges the misunderstanding in his next episode, but not without teasing Van over it.
• The Nicknamer: He calls Van "Mary" and Brock "Betty" in a teasing manner.
• One-Steve Limit: There was another minor character named Terry Holloway, who was Reba's ex and a former friend of Brock's who was heartbroken over Reba leaving him. That Terry died before they could reconcile.
• Only One Name: Unlike the Terry mentioned above, this one doesn't have a last name.
• Troll: He continues to tease Van about their first meeting, calls Brock "Betty" much like he calls Van "Mary" and mentions that sometimes when he's bored, he likes to visit the big and tall store just to mess with their heads.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Terry is short and not very good-looking. While we never see his ex-wife, he mentions that she was a former Miss Houston.

Dr. Fisher

Dr. Eugene Fisher

Played By: Dan Castellaneta

A rival dentist to Brock and one of the many dentists to have previously dated Barbra Jean. Reba works for him for a brief period.

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• Bad Boss: Constantly tries to get Reba involved in his spats with Brock, often threatening to fire her if she doesn't take his side.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After getting into a scuffle with Brock that causes him to injure his spine, Eugene sues Brock and Brock eventually admits guilt in court. After Eugene gloats, Barbra Jean tells Eugene that she doesn't like what he has become and that she is happy with Brock now. Eugene drops the charges as a result.
• Jerkass: Not to just Brock, but he constantly tries to get Reba in the middle of their spats.
• Put on a Bus: He only appeared in a couple of episodes before disappearing. Justified since Brock closed his practice to become a professional golfer and Eugene fired Reba off-screen for calling him a "monkey's butt".
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Brock. Like Lori Ann, he is eventually put on a bus.
• We Used to Be Friends: Reba mentions that Brock and Eugene were friends at one point. Then Brock "stole" Barbra Jean from him and that friendship disappeared.

Dr. Morgan

Dr. Jack Morgan

Played By: James Denton

An attractive marriage counselor that Barbra Jean has a massive crush on. He later gets romantically involved with Reba.

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• Mr. Fanservice: Both Barbra Jean and Reba find him very attractive. Even Van seems to think so.
• Nice Guy: Very understanding and patient in dealing with Barbra Jean's advances. Though he does start seeing Reba before his divorce is final, which Reba does not take too kindly to (because, to her horror, it makes her another Barbra Jean).

Extended Family

Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Montgomery

Played by: Alena & Gabrielle LeBerger (seasons 2-4), Lila Braff (seasons 5-6)

The first child of Van and Cheyenne Montgomery (born 2002).

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• Living Prop: Elizabeth never had a plot that focused entirely on her, and was more or less there as a plot device for the adults. Even Henry got more spotlight than she did (though not by much).
• Named After Somebody Famous: Shares her name with the actress who played Samantha Stephens on Bewitched. Pointed out in the episode where Brock's mother visits.
• Silent Bob: She only speaks onscreen one time, in the episode "Invasion" where she's dressed as Underdog (presumably by Van).

Henry Hart

Henry Charles Jesus Hart

Played By: Alexander & Jackson McClellan (seasons 2-5), Jon Paul DeFabry (seasons 5-6)

The son of Barbra Jean and Brock Hart, who was conceived during an extramarital affair (Born in 2001).

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• A Day in the Limelight: "Parenting with Puppets" deals with how Barbra Jean fails to punish his bad behavior.
• Cassandra Truth: Reba's lamp was broken offscreen and Jake blamed it on Henry, who denied doing it. This, and Barbra Jean's refusal to punish Henry, angers Reba to the point where she aggressively throws Barbra Jean out of her house. Turns out, Jake was the one who broke the lamp and blamed it on Henry to avoid punishment. But then it's played straight when Barbra Jean reveals Henry has caused a lot of mischief that she and Brock had blamed on Van.
• Enfant Terrible: The kid causes a lot of (hilarious) grief to his parents that Barbra Jean thinks he's frightening.
• Spoiled Brat: Barbra Jean's reluctance to punish him results in him becoming an obnoxious brat.

Dan & Sue Montgomery

Dan & Sue Montgomery

Dan Played By: Sam McMurray (2001), Mark Tymchyshyn (2003)
Sue Played By: Carolyn Hennesy (2001), Robin Riker (2002-2003)

Van Montgomery's estranged parents.

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• Abusive Parents: Dan especially. In their debut appearance, they bribe Van with a new truck in order to convince him to leave Cheyenne and move back in with them. Van is so afraid of his father that he can barely even talk to him. It's not until Dan badmouths Reba that Van finally stands up to his father and calls him out on how he's done nothing but bully Van.
• Accidental Misnaming: Dan accidentally mispronounces Kyra's name as "Kie-ra".
• Hollywood Thin: Sue apparently aspires to be this. Despite being very fit for her age, many jokes are made about how she starves herself and exercises almost constantly, the latter of which she is usually shown doing whenever she appears. Case in point, she won't eat Reba's food. She'll stare at it and comment it looks good.
• The Alcoholic: Van remarks that his mom used to drink a lot when he was a kid. And in the present day, his dad is grumbling to himself and drinking a glass of whiskey.
• Insult Backfire: When Sue claims that Van isn't afraid of them, Reba retorts "Of course he's not afraid of you, he could snap you like a twig." Which Sue takes as a compliment on her figure.
• Put on a Bus: Despite patching up relationships with Van by their second appearance, both of them don't show up anymore, though it's implied by Van that they once more threw him out.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Both Dan and Sue became nicer and more willing to reconcile with Van following their first appearance. The fact that the second actor to portray Van's father looked smaller, younger and far less intimidating than the first, might have helped.