Sitcom staple Tim Allen returned to ABC together with his latest comedy Shifting Gears hitting the 2025 TV schedule, the place his car-restoring widow is tasked to seek out widespread floor together with his estranged daughter and the grandchildren he barely is aware of. It’s fairly a change from the household life his character Mike Baxter loved on Final Man Standing, with Nancy Travis as Vanessa, spouse and mom of their three opposite-of-estranged daughters. And Allen apparently took his TV fatherdom fairly critically at instances.
Because the slapstick comedian himself put it, he generally spoke (and possibly nonetheless speaks) of his youthful Final Man Standing co-stars — Kaitlyn Dever, Molly Ephraim and Amanda Fuller — as in the event that they had been legitimately a part of his instantly household sooner or later. When speaking to US Weekly about his continued relationship together with his House Enchancment TV son Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who popped up for a number of LMS episodes, Allen mentioned:
Nancy Travis as soon as advised me [something] after I referred to as her throughout Final Man Standing. I mentioned, ‘Have you ever talked to the women [who play our daughters] over the summer season?’ Then there’s this lengthy pause and she or he goes, ‘Tim, these aren’t our daughters and I’m not truly your spouse.’
For all that it’d sound hyperbolic for Tim Allen to instinctively consult with his Final Man Standing daughters as if he was the actresses’ precise father, it speaks to the on-set relationship that he has with co-stars. Not less than on broadcast sitcoms, since he was referred to as out by a Santa Clauses actress for impolite conduct.
It apparently wasn’t solely a one-off occasion, both, as he additionally mentioned this about Nancy Travis:
She was so great about it as a result of generally once they had been having bother on the present, I’d go, ‘How do you assume they really feel?’ And he or she would reply, ‘Tim, they’re actors. We simply learn [what is on the page but] she’s probably not that unhappy.’
Maybe if this had been a status cable or streaming drama with extraordinarily mature and trauma-triggering material, Allen’s fatherly instincts would possibly really feel extra justified. However regardless of any downer story beats that affected the Baxter daughters Kristin, Mandy and Eve, none of Final Man Standing‘s had been that affecting, a minimum of in my reminiscence. However dads, even ones with purely fictional ties, are gonna fear whether or not it is sensible or not.
To that finish, although, Tim Allen has talked about his real-life relationship with Kaitlyn Dever mirroring the kinship that Eve and Mike had throughout Final Man Standing‘s run. Which, in flip, made her exit all of the extra painful, and made Dever’s occasional returns as Eve all of the extra celebratory, particularly with all of the scheduling hurdles concerned.
Allen’s anecdotes about Nancy Travis are fairly attention-grabbing to listen to about at this early level in Shifting Gears‘ run, since he beforehand revealed so as to change into the “Tom Brady of sitcoms,” he actually needed to play a personality coping with the grief of dropping a partner, since that wasn’t a route he’d taken beforehand. However possibly his ulterior motive was simply to have fewer co-stars that he would possibly mistake as being his actual relations.
Take a look at how Shifting Gears‘ Matt continues to revive relationships and automobiles when new episodes air Wednesday nights on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET, and stream the following day with a Hulu subscription.