Tim Allen is well aware that as times change, so should sitcom characters.
“This guy is much different than what I’ve played before,” said Allen, speaking about his character in the new comedy SHIFTING GEARS – also starring Kat Dennings – which premieres Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. “As we find out more and more about him, he’s not what you think he is.”
Allen, of course, has a full acting resume that goes back multiple decades, and includes not only big Hollywood movie franchises, but also lead roles in two long-running sitcoms. He played Tim “The Toolman” Taylor in HOME IMPROVEMENT for eight seasons, and Mike “Outdoor Man” Baxter in LAST MAN STANDING for nine seasons.
In SHIFTING GEARS – which is followed tonight on CTV by a new episode of last fall’s #1 Canadian comedy CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING at 8:30 p.m. ET – Allen is Matt Parker, the stubborn owner of a classic car restoration shop whose wife passed away a year and a half ago. He hasn’t seen his estranged daughter Riley, played by Dennings (2 BROKE GIRLS), since the funeral, and they barely spoke then. But with Riley’s own marriage now falling apart, she packs up her two kids and moves back in with Matt.
A telling exchange in the first episode of SHIFTING GEARS goes like this: Riley pleads with her dad, “can’t we try to talk to each other like rational adults?” To which Matt incredulously replies, “have you watched the news lately? That’s not a thing anymore.”
Allen’s previous sitcom characters – Mike Baxter more than Tim Taylor, to be fair – often engaged in comically fractious conversations based on political differences. So with the real-life heat of those exchanges turned up all over the world, does Allen need to take a different approach to making people laugh in 2025, or does that thought never come into his head?
“It always comes into my head,” acknowledged Allen, who then offered an analysis of his own political philosophy, and how parts of it seeped into his characters, either accurately or inaccurately.
“What clarified for me over the past year is, I basically had to go back, and I got into all sorts of, I call them, ‘hemmed-in conversations’ a long time ago,” Allen continued. “I then got into this position where it became funny to me. I could get people irritated, and that’s kind of what comedy is about. But then the irritation didn’t really work. People got so irritated, they were angry. Even family members, and I would say, ‘wow, you don’t really know my politics.’ As my grandma always used to say after a couple of vodkas, ‘well, who’s going to pay for it?’ That’s basically where I come from. Either side never answers the question.”
Allen admitted that he “likes messing around with that stuff” in his shows, and it works best when things happen at different times that poke fun at both sides of the political spectrum. He said that viewers never really knew what Tim Taylor’s politics were – “he was more of a practical guy” – and Mike Baxter was written to be a man’s man at work, but then he had three daughters and a wife at home, all offering very different perspectives. So what about Matt Parker?
“I like the fact that this guy’s a realist,” Allen said. “I like the people that get stuff done. So this show responds to cars and restoration, the people that see something of value in something old, and say, ‘you know, wait, let’s not throw this out yet,’ whether it be relationships, or politics, or ideas, or soup recipes. How do we make this better? I stole this idea from It’s A Wonderful Life, when Jimmy Stewart can’t go to college because his dad had a heart attack, and he has to take over his dad’s business. Never really wanted to. I copied that idea. Matt Parker was on his way to the Rhode Island School of Design. He worked his way up through his dad’s machine shop. He made statues, and he’s just an artist. We’ll find out more about this. He’s a designer, and he gets stuff done. In order to get stuff done, you have to learn the word compromise. That’s what he’s going to represent. And underneath all of that is my smart-ass sense of humour.”
There’s also more of an emotional side to Allen’s character in SHIFTING GEARS than what was evident with his past sitcom roles. Even though Matt and Riley are quick with verbal jabs – part of the comedy lies in the fact that they have very similar traits – the loss of Matt’s wife/Riley’s mom is still raw for both of them.
At one point in the first episode, father and daughter share a hug of mutual sadness. Notably, the hug lingers, longer than most sitcom hugs. Many viewers are sure to choke up a bit.
“Very difficult time doing that scene for both of us, because we’re both comedians,” Allen recalled. “I hope everybody responds to that. I’ve done several movies where I had to be emotional, but I can’t imagine what (Robert) De Niro and the great actors, men and women, who get these scenes that are so emotional, how do you do that? How do you do five or six takes and then on the other side of it, not go to your room and cut your toes off? I don’t know how. That one scene really took it out of me, because it was sad. I didn’t feel well after that. I projected what it would be like to lose your beautiful wife. But then the guy gets better. These two have to deal with tragedy and loss. They have to move on, sometimes with a sense of humour, sometimes with a sense of purpose. That’s the germ of why I did this show.”
