It's been almost three years since Tim Allen's long-running sitcom Last Man Standing was cancelled. The veteran actor has managed to stay busy since then, though, with his more recent gig being a streaming production. Now, it would seem that those who've been eager to see the TV icon back on the small screen won't have to wait too long. Allen is reportedly returning to ABC -- which housed both LMS and Home Improvement -- for a new multi-camera comedy.
Per Deadline, the network has issued a pilot order for a family comedy headlined by the actor-comedian. The series -- which has the working title of Shifting Gears -- would see the star play Matt, the stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop whose world is upended when his estranged daughter and her teenage kids move into his house. The show will be written and executive produced by Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully, who previously served as exec producers on LMS.
It goes without saying that Tim Allen's collaborations with the alphabet network stretch back decades. His latest popular sitcom Last Man Standing aired its first six seasons on the channel from October 2011 to March 2017. It was ultimately cancelled and moved over to Fox for three more seasons, before ending in 2021. And, of course, the "darkly" funny comic famously played Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the beloved sitcom Home Improvement for the same network for eight seasons from September 1991 to May 1999.
This news of the actors return to network TV comes after much talk of a Home Improvement revival, which has been discussed often during the two decades since Tim Allen hung up his tool belt. Many of his HI co-stars popped up as guest stars on Last Man Standing, including Patricia Richardson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (who also directed episodes of the sitcom) and Richard Karn. (Karn also collaborated with Allen on the History Channel reality competition series Assembly Required.) Allen even reprised the role of Tim Taylor in the show's 2021 episode "Dual Time."
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It's unclear whether any members of the Taylor clan or the larger Home Improvement crew will be similarly showing up on Shifting Gears. But, given the evidence, we'd put our money on it. There's no information yet on when Shifting Gears will debut on ABC, as the success of the pilot will determine whether or not the show ends up getting a full season order. And, if it does, it will likely be during the 2024-2025 TV season. We'll be keeping our eyes on the 2024 TV schedule just in case.
In the meantime, Allen fans can check out the TV icon as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus on the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses, which dropped its second season on the streamer in November 2023. (You can catch up with a Disney+ subscription.) Along with starring on the show, which counts Elizabeth Mitchell, Kal Penn, Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, Eric Stonestreet and, yes, Bernard himself, David Krumholtz among the cast of the first two seasons -- he also serves as an executive producer. There's no word yet on whether or not the Christmassy series will be returning for a third season.
And if you're worried that Tim Allen won't be able to do both The Santa Clauses and Shifting Gears at the same time, don't fret: both series are produced by the same studio, 20th Television. That would theoretically mean that so long as the filming schedules stay clear and organized, the performer will be able to work on both TV shows. But, again, we'll have to wait and see if the latter show actually gets the green light.
