Tim Allen tends to play leading men on the best TV shows about a fictional business such as “Tool Time” on Home Improvement and “Outdoor Man” on Last Man Standing. It looks like Allen portraying characters that mix business and family hasn’t strayed away from heading back to TV with the 2025 TV premiere series Shifting Gears. Considering what a sitcom legend the stand-up comedian actor is, working with Tim Allen on his new show is apparently harder than it looks.
Shifting Gears brings Tim Allen head-to-head with another sitcom vet Two Broke Girls Kat Dennings. She plays his estranged daughter reconnecting with her father to help care for her kids and rebuild their family. Just like with Allen’s previous shows blending business and family, we see the TV star repairing cars as well as his family. With all of the sitcom history The Santa Clause actor has, Shifting Gears’ showrunner and executive producer Michelle Nader tells The Wrap what makes working with Allen harder than it looks:
I was a fan and know his work and stuff, but it’s different with writing and he has a very specific voice. And it’s deceptively hard to capture. He’s obviously very funny, but he’s such an interesting actor. He’s doing stuff that I really don’t even see until it’s on film, which is crazy. He is involved in all of it — getting stories and looking at outlines — every stage of the process. And then he acts it. And it all comes together. The show is about the restoration of cars, as you know, but also about this relationship. That’s the theme we’re really chasing, our North Star. Healing the relationship between Matt and Riley.
With what a sitcom legend Tim Allen is, it’s no surprise he’s got a creative vision for Shifting Gears being heavily involved in the story process. You can argue that the American comedy series provides beautiful symbolism that Tim Allen is trying to capture. The sitcom’s main character, Matt Parker, is a pro at restoring cars. But keeping a family together with a daughter he hardly heard from in years and grandchildren he barely knows is difficult. As we’ve seen with Allen’s previous sitcoms like Home Improvement and Last Man Standing, the Toy Story voice actor truly has a “specific” voice in blending good humor with heartfelt family moments that make his shows all the more memorable.
It’s clear that Tim Allen is more than an actor headlining his shows. He’s a visionary force with a distinct idea of what he wants to deliver to audiences. As an executive producer for Home Improvement, Last Man Standing, and now Shifting Gears, that means Allen is responsible for the creative and financial decisions of his shows. Not to mention, he’s been the creator of the most Home Improvement competition series ever Assembly Required and More Power working with former co-star Richard Karn. Through the Golden Globe winner’s TV series, he’s demonstrating his personal interest in tools, building, and bonding with his co-stars.
After watching the first episode of Shifting Gears, Tim Allen’s fingerprints are understandably all over. As the show first hit a snag when the ABC sitcom parted ways with the original writers/executive producers Mike and Julie Thacker Scully, this might have given Allen more creative influence over his new show. Not only are the Jungle 2 Jungle actor’s reoccurring themes of building and family coming into play, but a cool BTS fact about Shifting Gears revealed he rented his own personal collection of cars to the show. However, he had to reverse the restoration of some cars to make them look like works-in-progress. Now, that’s quite the dedication Allen put in his new series.
It’s understandably challenging to work with a sitcom legend like Tim Allen due to his intense creative vision on each show he works for. But, his hands-on approach involving himself in every stage of production is key to ensuring Shifting Gears gets a fair blend of cars, comedy, and heartfelt family moments audiences will love. You can watch the American sitcom every Wednesday live on ABC or the next day on your Hulu subscription.
