Nancy Travis and Tim Allen.
Michael Becker/FOXSurprises on ABC Gear shifting just keep on coming Tim Allen determined to be reunited with his own The last man standing The costar – and the wife of the screen – Nancy Travis.
Us Weekly can exclusively reveal that Travis, 63, has been cast in a guest role in an upcoming episode of the hit ABC sitcom. The actress plays a vivacious widow named Charlotte, who bonds with Allen’s character Matt.
“Nancy Travis’ story is really very clever,” Allen, 71, said exclusively us before reflecting on his off-screen friendship with Travis. “Nancy Travis once told me (something) after I called her for a long time The last man standing. I said, ‘Did you talk to the girls (who play our girls) over the summer?’ Then there’s a long pause and she says, “Tim, these aren’t our daughters and I’m not actually your wife.”
He said, “She was so great about it because sometimes when they were having trouble on the show, I’d say, ‘How do you think they feel?’ And she’d say, ‘Tim, they’re actors. We just read (what’s on the page, but) she’s not that sad.’”
of Gear shifting The reunion marks the first time Allen and Travis will share the screen since ABC The last man standing. In the sitcom, which aired from 2011 to 2021, Allen and Travis played a fictional couple: Mike and Vanessa Baxter.
after The last man standing came to an end, Allen returned to the comedy space with Shifting Gears, which premiered earlier this month. The show follows Allen’s character, who is a widower, as he reconnects with his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings).
Allen said before us he was intrigued by the shake.
“From the 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 just lost my wife, so I don’t see her.’ So I love where we are,” he noted. “I said, ‘If it happens over time and it happens organically with two people who don’t get along, then that’s OK. I’m just really careful about it. I just want it to happen where it’s organic and appropriate.”
Besides The last man standingAllen was also the headliner Home Improvementwhich ran from 1991 to 1999. The vast experience gave the actor the freedom to try something new this time.
Does everyone know what time it is? That was the famous catchphrase that came out of Home Improvement, the ABC sitcom that aired from September 1991 to May 1999. The 30-minute comedy followed Tim “The Toolman” Taylor (Tim Allen) as he hosted a home improvement show titled ” Tool Time,” although he is not at all a (…)
“I did Mike Baxter (in The last man standing) and Tim Taylor (in Home Improvement). So if I were to do it again, I laid out three things: I want a guy who’s recently lost his wife, so he’s dealing with grief; I want a guy with a family that doesn’t go well; And then he has a custom car shop,” he continued. “(Matt) is 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.”
Allen concluded: “I came from a large family run by women. So my perspective is very different for men. I don’t think we run things. So I want this to be that guy. He’s not a man in that term and he wasn’t trying to be anything other than what he does.”
Gear shifting airs Wednesdays on ABC at 8pm ET before airing the following day on Hulu.
