More than 30 years after his iconic television series Home Improvement debuted on ABC, Tim Allen is finally returning to the network.
ABC has just issued a series order for the 71-year-old comedian’s new comedy series titled Shifting Gears, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While series orders are typically placed at each network’s upfront presentations in May, it was reported just before the presentations that the pilot would not be filming until June.
Original creators and showrunners Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully (The Simpsons) have amicably left the series, which will now look for a new showrunner.
It’s unclear when production on the series will begin and when the network might be considering a debut, though it seems most likely to arrive sometime midseason.
More than 30 years after his iconic television series Home Improvement debuted on ABC, Tim Allen is finally returning to the network.
ABC has just issued a series order for the 71-year-old comedian’s new comedy series titled Shifting Gears, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series will follow Allen’s character named Matt, a widower who runs a classic car restoration business.
His life changes radically when his adult daughter Riley (Dennings) comes back to live with him, along with her teenage children.
Also appearing are Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as Ed, a former Marine and mechanic at Matt’s shop, and Froy Gutierrez as Nick, Matt’s son and Riley’s younger brother.
Nick was said to work as a “game coder”, although he, “He put his life on hold to return home and help his father in the store.
The cast also includes Maxwell Simpkins and Barrett Margolis, who makes his acting debut and both play Riley’s sons.
The Scullys will continue to serve as executive producers on the pilot episode, which was directed by John Pasquin.
Allen will serve as executive producer alongside Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, Richard Baker, Rick Messina and Pasquin.
Shifting Gears was one of only two comedy pilots that ABC was developing for the 2024-2025 television season, along with Forgive and Forget.
The series will follow Allen’s character named Matt, a widower who runs a classic car restoration business.
His life changes radically when his adult daughter Riley (Dennings) comes back to live with him, along with her teenage children.
Allen will serve as executive producer alongside Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, Richard Baker, Rick Messina and Pasquin.
Forgive and Forget, starring Modern Family’s Ty Burrell, also filmed its pilot in June, though ABC will not move forward with that series.
The show would have followed Burrell as a man who received an unexpected medical diagnosis and tries to reconnect with his adult son (Sean Rodriguez Marquette).
When Shifting Gears eventually joins ABC’s lineup, it will be only the network’s third comedy series, alongside Abbott Elementary and The Conners, to air its final season in 2025.
Most recently, Allen starred in The Santa Clauses and the comedy series Last Man Standing, which debuted on ABC in 2011 and ran for six seasons before being cancelled and eventually saved by Fox, where it ran for another three seasons.
