Nancy Travis isn’t just reuniting with Tim Allen on Shifting Gears — she will also play an important role on the newest season of NCIS.
Season 23 of the CBS series is going to introduce Travis, 63, as Alden Parker’s (Gary Cole) sister, Navy Vice Admiral Harriet Parker. The siblings will reunite to grieve following their father’s shocking murder.
“The Alden Parker that we know and see now is not what Alden Parker was as a child,” showrunner Steven D. Binder told TVLine on Thursday, August 21. “We’ve gotten into his history a bit — he was a troubled kid, he was in a juvie home, he stole things — and that’s the dynamic that his sister grew up with. He was the ‘bad’ kid and she was the good kid.”
Harriet’s introduction should give viewers more of an idea as to who Alden is outside of the workplace.
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“They’re going to relive that between the two of them,” Binder added. “She’s this super squared-away Navy admiral, and then you’ve got Alden Parker, who’s got this ‘bad kid‘ seed. Those two are going to come to a head, and what’s funny about that is it’s one thing to have it happen over Thanksgiving dinner, it’s a whole other thing to happen in the middle of a global crisis! The bickering is, I might say, very NCIS.”
In addition to joining NCIS, Travis is also reprising her role as Charlotte on season 2 of Shifting Gears. The project reunited her with former sitcom husband Allen, 72, after they worked together on Last Man Standing from 2011 to 2021.
“Tim is nothing if not loyal. So it was great to walk on that set and see most of the crew was from Last Man Standing,” Travis exclusively told Us Weekly in February. “The director John Pasquin did so many episodes of Last Man Standing and is a personal friend. It was just so great to feel this sense of reunion.”
Travis didn’t rule out more Last Man Standing alums making cameos on Shifting Gears. “I wouldn’t be surprised if everybody from Last Man Standing shows up on Shifting Gears in one way or another. If Tim has his way, he’ll make sure that everybody from [costar Kat Dennings’ show] 2 Broke Girls comes on too,” she added.
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At the time, Travis explained why she didn’t see herself reprising her role as Allen’s wife.
“It was really fun to be able to just come in and have a whole wealth of knowledge and rapport working with Tim,” she continued. “In terms of comedic rhythm, knowing how to set up a joke and how to tell a story together, it was great to be able to take that and apply it to Charlotte. I do enjoy working with him, but I think that it’s fun to explore new and different relationships between characters. It is very meta — maybe too meta.”
Shifting Gears returns to ABC Wednesday, October 1, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu. NCIS returns for season 23 on CBS Tuesday, October 14, at 8 p.m. ET.
