Tim Allen is staging another reunion on his ABC sitcom Shifting Gears — but this time it is with fellow comedian Jay Leno.
ABC announced that Leno, 74, will make a cameo as himself on an upcoming episode of Shifting Gears, which will air on Wednesday, March 12. The comedian is bringing his car into Matt’s (Allen) Parker Customs auto shop for a repair.
“Leno’s going to be on there as Jay Leno because the guy is able to make custom hot rods in Hollywood,” Allen, 71, exclusively told Us Weekly about the exciting onscreen reunion. “So there’s a lot of profile people in Hollywood that like cars. They’ll be popping in and out [of the show] and there’ll be other elements of other shows.”
Before their Shifting Gears reunion, Allen and Leno worked together on multiple seasons of Last Man Standing. Allen got his start in sitcoms when he played Tim “The Toolman” Taylor on ABC’s Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999. He moved on to Last Man Standing, where he played Mike for nine seasons on ABC. Shifting Gears, meanwhile, follows widowed father Matt (Allen) and his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings), as they find themselves living together and working to repair their relationship.
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In addition to Allen and Dennings, 38, Shifting Gears also stars Seann William Scott, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, Maxwell Simkins and Barrett Margolis. Jenna Elfman, meanwhile, has been cast in a recurring role as spirited choreographer Eve Drake, who owns a dance studio across from the classic car restoration shop run by Allen’s character.
Us exclusively revealed last month that Shifting Gears is hosting a reunion between Allen and Nancy Travis. The duo previously shared the screen on Last Man Standing, where Travis, 63, played Allen’s onscreen wife.
“It was a complicated decision [to do Shifting Gears]. I was doing Disney+’s Santa Claus series at the time and I said, ‘I really can’t think about this now,’” he told Us last month. “Do I want to do linear TV? I was so depressed at how streaming has hurt television. So if I did it, I want to elevate it.”
It was his experience in the comedy space that eventually caused Allen to reconsider. “I’ve done Mike Baxter [on Last Man Standing] and Tim Taylor [on Home Improvement],” he noted. “So if I do this again, I pitched three things: I want a guy that lost his wife recently, so he’s dealing with grief; I want a guy with the family that doesn’t get along; And then he has a custom car shop.”
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Allen was thrilled to try something new when it came to bringing Matt to life.
“He’s more like me. I’m more of an artist. I was a design student and a philosopher and my standup comedy is really about messing with people in a good way,” he added. “I came from a huge family run by women. So my perspective is very different about men. I don’t think we run things. So I want this to be that guy. He’s not a ‘man’s man’ in that term, and he wasn’t trying to be anything but what he does.”
Shifting Gears airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
