Yahoo Lifestyle Tim Allen Talks Playing a Very Different Type of 'Curmudgeon' on 'Shifting Gears' (Exclusive)
Tim Allen’s TV claim to fame has been playing curmudgeonly, conservative, blue-collar family men who, in reality, love their kids. Just tune in to an episode of Home Improvement or Last Man Standing, and you’ll get the drift.
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Now, he’s back playing Matt, the widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop, on ABC’s Shifting Gears, who gets thrown a monkey wrench when his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings), and her two adolescent children unexpectedly show up ready to move in with him because they have no place to go after Riley's divorce.
It’s obvious that the series was written especially for Allen as it incorporates his signature characteristics. But even so, he says there are differences between Mike Baxter, his character from Last Man Standing, and Matt.
“Last Man Standing was a wonderful family that had very little discord,” Allen tells Parade. "It was the differences as they were growing up and doing things. [Matt] is Wonderful Life-ish. Before he could get to Rhode Island School of Design, his dad had a heart attack. And he had to come back to North Hollywood to help take care of his dad’s business. Cut to: Two kids and all of this. This is not a Mike Baxter-type guy. I think of Bob Fosse every time I’m on set screaming about stuff.”
Allen also credits the fact of Matt’s being a widower with his being curmudgeonly. That and the reality that he never got to express himself through design, just classic car restoration.
Related: Get an Exclusive First Look at Tim Allen's New Shifting Gears Comedy
“I’ve gotten to meet some great people that create things, and they all have a weird personality,” Allen continues. “I’m not sure what they are, right, left, center. I’m not sure philosophically what creative people are. This guy we’re going to find out as we get to see with the stuff he’s designed. Some of the stuff he’s designed is very, very interesting. I’ve never played that.”
Another difference between Shifting Gears and Last Man Standing is there will be discord. Riley left home because once her mother died, she and her father were at odds about almost everything. And when the show opens, it makes it a point to tell the audience that neither one has changed.
“She’s just cut for me,” Allen says of working with Dennings. “I swear, the conversations we’ve had on set anyway, different human beings. But we got into it right away, interrupting each other. The character, Riley, made some decisions early in her life because she was pissed at me. You do a lot of stuff because your parents keep saying, 'Don’t do this, don’t do that,' and you just do it because you’re sick of hearing, ‘Don’t do it.’ She goes, ‘Is getting into a relationship just because my dad’s pissed at the guy a good reason to get into a relationship?’ That’s so much what this is about. I said, ‘Bingo, we’ve got it.'”
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It's established in the first episode that, because Matt is Riley’s dad, he’s not going to throw her out. And then the rest of the season–and the series, if it continues–will be the two seeing if they can find a way back to each other.
"[The first episode was] difficult to do because we’re two comedians and both of us going, 'This is some serious crap we’re doing here,'” Allen says. “It really reminded both of us of some of the actors and actresses that I admire that I can’t believe do this stuff for a living where they’re really dramatic all day. How do you do that and not have a mental breakdown at the end of the day? With comedy for some reason, it’s a release. Kat was a blessing really.”
Shifting Gears premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Streams next day on Hulu.
