TVLINE |You’ve said before that Bobbie and Emmett’s relationship progressed faster than you expected. Once you introduced that ticking clock in Season 2 with Emmett’s secret about Isabella, did it free you up to let them become a couple earlier, knowing it wasn’t going to stick and that the bigger picture is still a slow burn?
Yes, that’s exactly right. Once that happened, and we knew about the secret, we knew we were going to have to deal with it, so we wanted to let them have some fun for a while, go to the good side of relationships because we knew… we were going to blow it up. The timeline on this relationship has been a little bit different than I kind of envisioned it from the very beginning, but I’m pretty happy with it, and I’m pretty happy with where we’re going, I think.
TVLINE |Emmett’s secret and the fallout from it gave you a clear beginning, middle, and end for the season — something multi-cams don’t often have. Did having those goalposts feel more like a creative challenge or a reward?
I always arc out the characters before we start the season. I really like that. I call it fencing the yard for the writers so that they know there are going to be areas that we can hit… we’re going to want to do this or that. The old “Reba” show, when I came in to take it over in the second season, I pitched to Reba I’d like to have the end of the season be Kyra wants to move out, and that meant that we could get a bunch of stories out of that — showing Kyra was the low man on the totem pole, that she had to get closer to Barbara Jean, and all that other stuff. That kind of thing works well for me. I like to be able to explore the small story. So if we know we’re going somewhere with a big pivot, we can always build towards that.
Last season was a challenge just because we only had the [initial] 13 [episode order]… and we got the [back] five so late that it was much harder to actually build to the places that I wanted to get to. So this season was much better that way.
TVLINE |You start the season with Bobbie and Emmett together, break them apart at midseason, and by the finale, she’s ready to forgive — only for him to pull back after ending things with Monica. Is Season 3 the slow road back to each other, or are you playing an even longer game?
I’ve got a couple of ways to go, and I’m weighing, number one, which do I think is the most interesting, but number two, what’s going to yield us the most interesting stories. I’d like to not think of it in terms of just an arc. If the dynamics we’re playing with these characters are going to change, then that’s a big swing for me. That’s a big move.
I want to make certain that we’re not wasting anything, and that it’s going to give us something on both sides of it, leading up to and then on the switch in the dynamic. So I haven’t quite decided yet, but it’s going to be, once again… I mean, Reba’s the star, and I do enjoy those two, and I enjoy both sides of their relationship. So I’d like to keep exploring it in different ways. In a month or so, I will have to make a decision. But the problem is I’ve got a couple of things I really like, but they don’t line up, so I’m going to have to make a choice. When I get the writers together, I’ll kick it around a bit, and that’ll usually lead us somewhere. But yeah, I’m not sure where it’s going to go yet, but it’s going to still be a big part of the show. We’re not putting it out there just to leave it alone.
TVLINE |If Bobbie had explicitly asked for another chance, do you think Emmett would have been open to it in that moment? Or was he already too closed off, regardless of how she approached him?
I think if I were writing that story, Emmett would still say he needed time. He’s a guy who has kept his emotions close to his chest his whole life. He’s been a bit closed off. He finally opened himself up and got burned pretty bad, and in a way that he can justifiably say, “I don’t think I deserve this. I don’t think I deserve being punished and having my heart broken for this. If I had to do it over again, I’d do the exact same thing.” There was no real option, no choice for him. So yeah, I think when Emmett says, “i broke that girl’s heart the way you broke mine,” it builds up. The fact that Bobbie broke his heart is something that would have to be won back. It’s not the love, it’s the trust. It’s the willingness to put yourself out there that I think Emmett is reacting to.
