Tim Allen is headed back to ABC, the network that made him a star with his breakthrough series Home Improvement. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, ABC has just ordered a new sitcom to series, Shifting Gears, with Allen in the lead and Marvel star Kat Dennings (WandaVision, Thor) as his daughter. The multi-camera sitcom, a rarity on television these days, will be Allen’s first sitcom since Last Man Standing wrapped at Fox in 2021.
Allen plays Matt, a widower and headstrong owner of a classic car restoration workshop. When his estranged adult daughter Riley (Dennings) is separated from her husband, she and her teenage children move back in with her father. According to an official description of the sitcom, that’s when “the real renovation begins.” The series is expected to premiere on ABC in 2025, and ABC is hoping it will be another Home Improvement-like hit, as the network has few hit sitcoms outside of Abbott Elementary and The Connors.
Kat Dennings had her breakthrough role in 2001’s Raising Dad. She starred in a string of comedy hits, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Charlie Bartlett, The House Bunny, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. She starred as Max in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls for six seasons, winning a People’s Choice Award in the process. She also starred in the Hulu series Dollface, and hasn’t ruled out a return to the MCU.
Also starring in the series is Daryl “Chill” Mitchell (Fear the Walking Dead) as Ed, Maxwell Simkins (The Mighty Ducks: Game Changes) as Carter, and Barrett Margolis as Georgia in her television debut. The sitcom will be a Galaxy Quest reunion of sorts, as Mitchell starred in the film with Allen, playing Tommy Webber, an actor on the Star Trek-like series featured in the film. Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully (The Simpsons, Duncanville) wrote the pilot and acted as showrunners, but are moving into executive producer roles for the series.
Shifting Gears Adds to Tim Allen’s Comic Legacy
Tim Allen is not only a comedy legend, he has demonstrated a staying power in an industry that is always looking for the next big thing. He made the leap from stand-up to television with Home Improvement in 1991. The show’s success made him one of television’s biggest stars of the 90s, and soon after, he was headlining Disney family films like Jungle 2 Jungle and The Santa Clause.
From Buzz Lightyear to Santa Claus, Tim Allen has brought his affable everyman self to many movies and shows, and these are his best.
In 1995, he provided the voice for Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s Toy Story, which kickstarted an Oscar-winning, billion-dollar film franchise that transformed Disney. He continued a strong run of family films with Christmas with the Kranks and The Shaggy Dog, and starred in the sci-fi comedy classic Galaxy Quest. He returned to network sitcoms with Last Man Standing in 2011, lasting six seasons on ABC and moving over to Fox for three more. He reprised his role as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus in the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses.
