‘It’s funny and it’s sad and it’s getting better and better … We love it’
After his sitcom Last Man Standing ended its nine-season run in 2021, Tim Allen swore he was done with TV.
That pledge was short-lived when Disney called and invited him in 2022 to reprise his role as Santa Claus in a streaming series based on a trio of films that featured him as Jolly Old St. Nick.
Following a two-season run on The Santa Clauses, the longtime actor-comedian, who also voices Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s Toy Story movies, started mulling another offer he had gotten around the same time when network exec Carolyn Cassidy had caught Allen’s standup set at the Mirage in Las Vegas.
After multi-season runs playing Tim “The Toolman” Taylor on Home Improvement and a Conservative-leaning marketing director at the Outdoor Man store in Last Man Standing, Allen thought it could be nice to tackle a story about a father dealing with the loss of his wife who has to restore a fractured relationship with his daughter.
“I said, ‘Listen, the only way I’d do that is if I could do something with restoration.’ I’ve done construction with Home Improvement, I’ve done outdoor equipment with Last Man Standing, both of those were my pitches. I said if you can come up with a story about people who restore things … a story about guy who’s recently lost his wife, and has a very disconnected relationship with his daughter … I said, ‘Let’s go there.’”
The series casts Allen as Matt, a headstrong widower and owner of a classic car restoration shop whose life is thrown into disarray when his estranged daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) and her two kids move in with him.
“It’s so different from streaming,” Allen says of the wholesome plot. “Streaming is literally like legal porn. You can see the worst stuff on that … I mean, I love it. You watch that series The Boys and I’m looking around and wondering, ‘Is it OK to watch this?’ Ours is not like that … This is fresh produce. The shows you’re seeing have all been taped in the last month-and-a-half.”
In addition to Dennings and Allen, other cast members include Seann William Scott, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, Maxwell Simkins and Barrett Margolis.
“I’m crawling home because I’m broke and need a place to stay until I figure out what the rest of my life looks like,” Riley admits in this week’s season premiere.
Exploring how Matt and Riley’s relationship will deepen was a storyline that Allen felt was one he would enjoy diving into.
“It got real emotional,” he recalls of reading the scripts for the first batch of episodes. “(Matt) has to deal with the loss of (his) wife. It can’t be a joke. I’ve always respected the people in my life that have lost someone close to them and they somehow find a way to move on,” Allen continues. “I’m always amazed at that and I wanted to project that with this guy. The love of his life is lost and he moves on, and he will move on. And he’ll move on to repair his relationship with his very angry, disconnected daughter, played by the brilliant Kat Dennings.”
The show isn’t political, but the writers have leaned into Allen’s conservative ideals as Matt and his daughter spar over their differing viewpoints.
“Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?” Riley asks early on in their reunion as Matt jokingly responds, “Have you watched the news lately? That’s not a thing anymore.”
In the past, Allen has spoken about being a conservative in Hollywood, saying on Norm Macdonald’s podcast in 2017: “I think there’s nothing more dangerous now than a likable conservative character.”
After ABC yanked Last Man Standing, Allen implied that his character’s politics (Mike was a “man’s man” who hated President Barack Obama) had an impact on the show’s cancellation before it was revived by Fox.
But Allen’s less worried about ruffling feathers this time around. “It’s funny and it’s sad and it’s getting better and better,” he says. “We love it. Everyone on set loves what we’re doing.”
Of course, he’s now back exactly where he didn’t want to be, filming 12-hour days on a set. “Some of my family ask me, ‘Why do you keep doing this?’” Allen says grinning. “And I’m not sure what I was thinking. But there’s a moment when I’m on set that I’m so happy and grateful.”