After sitcom success with Home Improvement and Last Man Standing, Tim Allen wasn’t exactly planning to return to network TV, that is until Shifting Gears pulled up.
“It was a complicated decision. I was doing Disney+’s Santa Claus series at the time and I said, ‘I really can’t think about this now,’” Allen, 71, whose Zoom name coincidentally is Santa, exclusively revealed in the newest issue of Us Weekly. “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.”
The actor specifically pointed to his past experience on the small screen, adding, “I’ve done Mike Baxter [on Last Man Standing] and Tim Taylor [on Home Improvement]. 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.”
Allen enjoyed playing a character that was “not like the other guys” he brought to life.
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“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 noted to Us. “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, which premieres on Wednesday, January 8, follows widowed father Matt (Allen) and his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings), as they find themselves living together and working to repair their relationship. The ABC series comes three years after Allen’s previous sitcom, Last Man Standing, wrapped its nine-season run. Before Last Man Standing, Allen was known for playing Tim “The Toolman” Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999.
“This is a new character and it’s much closer to [who I am]. I’ve been through grief in my life with losing my father,” he shared. “I’ve been blessed to be a comedian and so that’s who this [character] is. If I did it again, I wanted to get as much closer to the [man] that I am.”
Allen also loved getting the chance to share the screen with Dennings, 38.
“It was immediate when we [met]. The director wanted to see how we got along. It never stopped. The kismet was crazy. We’re both born on the same day — many years apart,” he said. “We’re different in so many ways. But our attitude about comedy is very similar. She cracks me up and I’m not easy that way. Kat can [deliver these lines] with a straight face. Her anger — that she played on 2 Broke Girls — is very similar to the sharpness that Mike Baxter could get into now.”
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He continued: “When we argue on screen, it’s funny that we interrupt each other and it comes quite naturally. I don’t know where it’s coming from. I adore this person already. She and her husband [Andrew W.K.] are great people. It is like I’ve known her for freaking years, same as most of this cast.”
In addition to Allen and Dennings, 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.
“From the very beginning, [the creative team has said] that we’ve never seen Tim Allen in a sitcom with a romantic interest. And I said, ‘Well, I’ve just lost my wife so I don’t see it.’ So I love where we are,” Allen told Us about Elfman, 53, potentially playing his love interest. “I said, ‘If it happens over time and happens organically with two people that do not get along then it is OK. I just am really cautious about this. I just want it to happen where it’s organic and proper.”
Shifting Gears premieres on ABC Wednesday, January 8, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
