Last Man Standing will be welcoming back a character,it has not seen in a while. Carol Larabee will return to the Fox sitcom. She was last seen in Season 6. Now she is making her way to Season 7 with a change: the role has been recast.
Tisha Campbell will take over the role of Carol Larabee from Erika Alexander, per Deadline. Earlier this year, Campbell appeared on Fox's music drama Empire. No stranger to sitcoms, Campbell memorably played Damon Wayans' wife on the long-running sitcom, My Wife and Kids. She will now recur as Carol on the current season of Last Man Standing.
The reason for the recast stems from scheduling issues. Original actress Erika Alexander is currently busy with recurring roles on The CW's superhero drama Black Lightning and HBO's acclaimed comedy Insecure.
Scheduling issues have been a recurring issue facing Last Man Standing being able to reunite the original cast. It presented itself multiple times in the early stage of Last Man Standing's revival. In response, the show has had to make some changes to the ensemble.
Originally airing on ABC, the Alphabet Network ended up cancelling the popular sitcom. Their loss was eventually Fox's gain as the network picked the show up for a seventh season, which meant big things for the original cast.
While Last Man Standing was cancelled, some of the cast had to move on to other projects. This made the task of getting the entire original ensemble back together tricky. As fans will recall, Mike's middle daughter Mandy was recast. Molly McCook took over the role from Molly Ephraim.
The role of Mike's grandson also got recast with Jet Jurgensmeyer taking over the part of Boyd. It is surprising even more were not necessary. Carol needing to be recast is the latest instance. The report did not mention when Tisha Campbell will make her debut on Last Man Standing.
The good news is that Carol will be back soon. In Season 6, she went off-screen after accepting a job opportunity in California. Thus, leaving her husband, Chuck, and best friend, Vanessa, in Denver. The job was set to end after a year, leaving the door open for her eventual return.
She will soon be making it! Since Tisha Campbell is set to recur on Last Man Standing, fans can rest easy about Carol's future job plans. She should be around indefinitely. Last Man Standing has been handling all of its big changes without losing a huge audience.
The show has performed well for Fox, dominating with its ratings return. If Last Man Standing gets renewed, all of the recasts the show has had to deal with in making the ABC-to-Fox transition could be a thing of the past.
Last Man Standing Season 7 continues Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. It has been among many shows airing new episodes this fall. Even more shows await viewers in the midseason and throughout the new year.
