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The surprises on ABC’s Shifting Gears just keep coming with Tim Allen set to reunite with his Last Man Standing costar — and onscreen wife — Nancy Travis.
Us Weekly can exclusively reveal that Travis, 63, has been cast in a guest role on an upcoming episode of the hit ABC sitcom. The actress plays a spirited widow named Charlotte, who connects with Allen’s character, Matt.
“The Nancy Travis story is really, really clever,” Allen, 71, exclusively told Us before reflecting on his offscreen friendship with Travis. “Nancy Travis once told me [something] after I called her during Last Man Standing. I said, ‘Have you talked to the girls [who play our daughters] over the summer?’ Then there’s this long pause and she goes, ‘Tim, these aren’t our daughters and I’m not actually your wife.’”
He quipped: “She was so wonderful about it because sometimes when they were having trouble on the show, I’d go, ‘How do you think they feel?’ And she would respond, ‘Tim, they’re actors. We just read [what is on the page but] she’s not really that sad.’”
The Shifting Gears reunion marks the first time Allen and Travis will share the screen since ABC’s Last Man Standing. On the sitcom, which aired from 2011 to 2021, Allen and Travis played a fictional couple: Mike and Vanessa Baxter.
After 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 mourning his late wife, as he reconnects with his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings).
Allen previously told Us he was intrigued by the shakeup.
“From the very 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’ve just lost my wife so I don’t see it.’ So I love where we are,” he noted. “I said, ‘If it happens over time and happens organically with two people that do not get along then it is OK. I just am really cautious about this. I just want it to happen where it’s organic and proper.”
In addition to Last Man Standing, Allen was also the lead on Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999. The extensive experience allowed the actor the freedom to try something new this time around.
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“I’ve done Mike Baxter [on Last Man Standing] and Tim Taylor [on Home Improvement]. So if I do this again, I pitched three things: I want a guy that lost his wife recently, so he’s dealing with grief; I want a guy with the family that doesn’t get along; 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 huge family run by women. So my perspective is very different about men. I don’t think we run things. So I want this to be that guy. He’s not a man’s man in that term, and he wasn’t trying to be anything but what he does.”
Shifting Gears airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
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