The Time Rob Reiner Appeared in a Reba McEntire Video
Officially he wasn’t the actual director. He just played the director as a cameo in the video. The real director was Jon Small. But it was Rob Reiner who played the director in the big budget video for Reba McEntire’s #1 hit “Does He Love You” from 1993.
Country music fans are no different than the rest of the world that’s reeling from the news of the death of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele. They were reportedly stabbed in their home in Los Angeles by the couple’s son, Nick. It’s hard to fathom how such a institution of American film and acting has perished under such horrible circumstances. Remembering Reiner for his good-natured humor helps.
Reba McEntire’s song “Does He Love You” was critically-acclaimed, winning both a Grammy and a CMA Award, despite a rather schmaltzy, pop composition by Sandy Knox and Billy Stritch that paired McEntire with Linda Davis as a duet partner. The song is about two women vying over the same man in a love triangle. Similarly, the video is quite a glitzy affair, with Reba and Linda Davis dolled up and acting out different scenarios as a hunky guy slinks back and forth as the object of their desire.
Reba’s hair and costumes are quite elaborate throughout the video—almost over-the-top—including at one point where she’s wearing a full head hat and scarf almost like an Arabia queen. There’s a good reason for this though. Reba had a basal-cell carcinoma, or skin Cancer on her forehead removed right before the video, requiring the bandage to be covered in the scenes.
The video is a little unbearable to witness aside as a time capsule into the early ’90s … until the end when Rob Reiner makes his appearance. No spoilers, but it arguably makes suffering through the rest of the video worth it, and proves Reba, Linda, and everyone involved can laugh at themselves a little bit.
Rob Reiner and Reba first worked with each other on the comedy/drama/adventure film North released in 1994. That’s when the idea of the music video cameo came together, and the part with Reiner was actually shot on the North set.
Rob Reiner’s role in a Reba McEntire video was probably the least of his accomplishments in his storied career. But it illustrates just how much he’d become an unlikely cultural icon both in front and behind the camera, and why his loss comes so heavy on the heart.
“I enjoyed every minute I was around Rob Reiner,” Reba says. “I sure will miss him. What a gift he was to this world. Rest in peace, my friend.”
December 16, 2025 @ 1:00 pm
I had forgotten about this video. Personally, I don’t think the vid was unbearable. Clearly the label thought this was worth making a big splash over and it was exactly that. This was a cinematic, blow-out video from Nashville and was part of the video treatments that helped push Reba into the acting sphere in a real way.
The ending was kind of a bit odd given the over-the-top treatment that was given the video overall, but it worked. Rob was funny and he was a good sport for taking part in it given his stature in Hollywood.
Prayers for his family and friends after this astonishingly awful event on an astonishingly awful news weekend. We should all feel more humble and mortal moving forward. Let’s stay above the heat and noise…
December 16, 2025 @ 1:14 pm
I always assumed the tongue-in-cheek ending for the music video “Does He Love You” was to prevent it from being banned by CMT and TNN. Garth Brooks’ music video for “The Thunder Rolls” was banded just a couple years prior by the outlets. A funny ending may have landed softer on the executives.
Wynonna was supposed to be the duet partner in “Does He Love You.” For whatever reasons they couldn’t make it work and Reba’s backup singer who laid down the demo become a brief household name.
I guess I wouldn’t go as far as calling “Does He Love You” a “signature song,” but it was a concert staple for decades allowing any female opening act the opportunity to join Reba on stage. The last time I saw Reba in concert in 2008, she and Kelly Clarkson performed it together.
December 16, 2025 @ 1:19 pm
That’s actually one of my all time favorite music videos 😂
December 16, 2025 @ 1:35 pm
An all time favorite song/video! RIP, Meathead!
December 16, 2025 @ 1:55 pm
Rob Reiner, no matter what you think of him personally, is one of those people whose work is so impressive that if you only look at one thing he did he’s a legend. I mean, if he had decided to go into accounting after making The Princess Bride? Or Spinal Tap? When Harry Met Sally? A Few Good Men?
That it happened because we still don’t have any good and effective ways to treat addiction just makes it sadder.
December 17, 2025 @ 1:29 am
Misery?
Stand by Me?
And this was all AFTER 8 years as Meathead.
December 17, 2025 @ 3:13 pm
And the two years (or so) that he was a writer on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”.
December 16, 2025 @ 3:09 pm
This video is iconic and it is absolutely one of Reba’s biggest hits!! She won a Grammy with Linda Davis for this song. The video adding Rob Reiner was clearly there to lighten the ending to make it look like the whole thing was a movie shoot.
Reba has sang this song with Linda Davis, Dolly Parton, Kelly Clarkson, and so many more powerhouse vocalists!! The song was even covered by Liza Minnelli & Donna Summer. I’m not really sure with the author felt the need to slander the song & video. So strange.
December 16, 2025 @ 3:21 pm
Nobody “slandered” the song or the video. The arc of the opinion is that the video is very glitzy and over-the-top for a country music video (dot, dot,dot), UNTIL the part where the *spoiler alert* boat explodes, Rob Reiner appears, and it’s all tied together.
December 16, 2025 @ 7:37 pm
Linda Davis is a great singer.
December 16, 2025 @ 7:44 pm
Incredibly so.
December 18, 2025 @ 12:17 pm
I believe her daughter is Hillary from Lady Antebellum.
December 16, 2025 @ 4:43 pm
As for the song, I saw Reba and Linda perform it live back in the ’90s and it absolutely sizzled. One of the most charged performances I have ever seen. One of those where it seems like there’s electricity in the air.
December 16, 2025 @ 11:36 pm
I never saw the video before. Interesing that the director of the video cast Reiner to play the director rather than take the moment of glory for himself. Evidently, Reiner had already achieved such renown and “brand” as a director Smalls, was wise (and modest) enough to get that Reiner’s appearance in a 20-second cameo would scream “director” in a way that the “anonymous” Smalls’ appearance would not.
As a kid, I first saw Rob Reiner when he played Mike, the son-in-law and foil of Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker on the epic sitcom “All In the Family.” While the conservative and bombastic Archie would almost always get his comeuppance at the end of each episode of “All in the Family,” viewing some of the clips later, I can see that Mike Stivic–called “Meathead” by Archie–was played by Reiner as something of a caricature of an arrogant young liberal, himself.
At the time, Rob Reiner would almost invariably be indentified in news articles as the son of Carl Reiner, who was a famous comedian/producer and collaborator with Mel Brooks in the first generation of television entertainment shows.
Rob Reiner went on to achieve as much success as his legendary father did. Shocking–and sad–to see how differently things went for Rob Reiner’s own son, and how horribly it ended for Rob Reiner and his wife.
December 17, 2025 @ 7:18 am
Didn’t know Rob Reiner was in a Reba video (did he play her boyfriend?),but what happened to Linda Davis,who teamed with Reba in a couple of Country diva videos? RIP,Robbie,we will ALWAYS remember you!!!!
December 17, 2025 @ 11:07 am
I remember Linda Davis from even before this video, she was one of those acts who would be in decent rotation on the long music video blocks on TNN with her own songs, but just didn’t break through nationally on radio. Three Way Tie, Company Time… not great songs, but she had a nice voice and she was really good looking. I remember thinking the Reba duet might make her a bigger star, but that never fully panned out.
For what it’s worth, her daughter is in that band Lady Antebellum/Lady A. So that was probably worth sticking around the industry for…
December 17, 2025 @ 11:41 am
RIP, Rob. You will be missed.
December 18, 2025 @ 2:13 pm
He directed Spinal Tap. Had he dont nothing else he would be a legend. So sad he died liked this. His father lived to 98. We robbed of 20 more years of Rob Reiners awesomeness.
December 18, 2025 @ 2:36 pm
The man delivered one of the greatest setup lines in comedic film history with the straightest face. “Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?” I still laugh to this day every time I read it.
Ironically, the last movie I streamed last week was Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. It had some laughs and yucks, but you’re asking for the impossible. They gave it a good try though. RIP
December 18, 2025 @ 3:03 pm
I have an old Fender tweed amplifier. It goes to 12. So, there’s that.