Tim Allen is using the Shifting Gears season 2 premiere as a way to reunite with his Home Improvement — and Last Man Standing — costars.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive first look at the Wednesday, October 1, premiere, Allen, 72, is all smiles while with Patricia Richardson, Debbe Dunning and Richard Karn, whom he shared the screen with in Home Improvement. While details about Richardson, 74, Dunning, 59, and Karn, 69, have yet to be announced, ABC previously teased that their characters “show up to support” Matt (Allen) in “an unexpected way.”
Joining them is Nancy Travis‘ character Charlotte, who was originally introduced in season 1. Sitcom fans, however, remember Travis, 63, as Allen’s former onscreen wife from Last Man Standing. This isn’t the first time Allen has found a way to reunite with costars across multiple shows.
Allen got his sitcom start playing Tim from 1991 to 1999 on Home Improvement. He went on to play Mike in Last Man Standing, which aired from 2011 to 2021, and featured guest appearances from Home Improvement alums Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Richardson and Karn.
Every ‘Home Improvement’ Alum Tim Allen Reunited With on ‘Shifting Gears’
Allen has since marked his return to TV in Shifting Gears alongside onscreen daughter Kat Dennings. Before Shifting Gears premiered in January, Allen spoke to Us about forming close bonds with his former costars over the years.
“[My former onscreen wife] Nancy Travis once told me [something] after I called her during Last Man Standing. I said, ‘Have you talked to the girls [who play our daughters] over the summer?’ Then there’s this long pause and she goes, ‘Tim, these aren’t our daughters and I’m not actually your wife,’” he quipped at the time. “She was so wonderful about it because sometimes when they were having trouble on the show, I’d go, ‘How do you think they feel?’ And she would respond, ‘Tim, they’re actors. We just read [what is on the page but] she’s not really that sad.’”
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Shifting Gears showrunner Michelle Nader, meanwhile, previewed what viewers can expect when it comes to fun cameos in season 2.
“We’ve all been doing this for a long time and we are lucky to know a lot of people from different times on [different] shows. For instance, Kat and I have worked together since 2 Broke Girls and so we called Brenda Song last season. This season we’re doing the same and we’re extending it out to other people,” Nader teased earlier this month. “So Tim’s people from Home Improvement are going to be in this big and very funny scene for them. It was just exciting to see them all together. The frequency just shifted because it’s classic TV.”
She continued: “Then there’s Lilly Singh, who I worked with on Dollface with Kat. Then of course we had Mookie Betts, which was insane. So there’s more to come. But I’ll leave it at Mookie Betts.”
Shifting Gears returns to ABC on Wednesday, October 1, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
