One Thing That's Been Tough For Nancy Travis About How Last Man Standing Ended
It’s been a weird year for TV productions in general as they adjusted to new safety norms and odd ways of filming on sets. However, for a veteran show like Last Man Standing, a show which found out it would be ending in the middle of all of these changes and adjustments, things are even harder. As the longtime sitcom was ending, actress Nancy Travis revealed one thing that’s still tough about how Last Man Standing had to say goodbye on Fox.
In general, given Last Man Standing had several months of filming left between the announcement the series would be ending that came in October of 2020 and the ultimate filming of the finale -- which didn’t happen until 2021 -- Nancy Travis, Tim Allen and co. did have the opportunity to adjust to what was impending. However, it’s one thing to know the end is coming and another to experience it and 2021 was a particularly tough year for shows that ended. As Nancy Travis put it:
Typically when sitcoms end -- and I think Modern Family was a great recent example of this, you have a big wrap party. There’s lots of hugging. There’s lots of crying. There are social media posts. Sure, we did get some touching comments from Tim Allen and the cast and the ending of Last Man Standing has felt final, but it wasn’t typical by any means. And from what Travis told ET, it was tough to do the ending this way.
In fact, she also used to joke that when the ending came, she’d be the first out the door, but by the time Last Man Standing wrapped at the end of Season 9, it seems like she changed her tune a little bit. The actress says she’s still having quite the time letting go of Vanessa Baxter as she shifts back into her regular life and starts looking toward her next role.
The whole ending of Last Man Standing felt a little odd. The show had already been cancelled once before and seemed to be in a place where it could go as long as it wanted. Then again, a lot of veteran comedies were axed at the end of this TV season, so it was far from alone in its ending. Still, there's clearly interest in the show and potentially doing a Last Man Standing Season 10, as showrunner and executive producer Kevin Abbott even told CinemaBlend recently. It sort of hasn't even sunk in for me yet that the series is over, so it's easy imagine how Nancy Travis, Tim Allen and the rest of the cast are having a bit of a rough time.
Still, life goes on. They'll all doubtless have a slew of upcoming projects on the horizon and we'll keep you updated every step of the way. In the meantime, you can see what is returning this summer with our full 2021 TV premiere schedule.
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Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.