Shifting Gears Reunites Tim Allen, Nancy Travis After Last Man Standing

The surprise on ABC’s Shifting Gears just keep coming along Tim Allen set to reunite with his The Last Man Standing costar – and wife on screen – Nancy Travis.

Us Weekly can fully reveal that Travis, 63, has been cast in a guest role on an upcoming episode of ABC’s hit sitcom. The actress plays a ghostly widow named Charlotte, who hooks up with Allen’s character Matt.

“The Nancy Travis story is very clever,” Allen, 71, says in full Us before reflecting on his off-screen friendship with Travis. “Nancy Travis once told me (something) after I called her during The Last Man Standing. I said, ‘Have you spoken to the girls (who play our girls) over the summer?’ Then there’s this long pause and she says, ‘Tim, these aren’t our girls and I’m not really your wife.'”

He said: “She was so great about it because sometimes when they were struggling on the show, I’d go, ‘How do you think they feel?’ And she would respond, ‘Tim, they’re actors. I just read (what’s on the page but) it’s not that sad.’”

The Shifting Gears a reunion marks the first time Allen and Travis will share the screen since ABC’s one The Last Man Standing. On the sitcom, which aired between 2011 and 2021, Allen and Travis played a fictional couple: Mike and Vanessa Baxter.

After The Last Man Standing After that, Allen returned to the comedy space with Shifting Gears, which premiered earlier this month. The show follows Allen’s character, who is a widow, as he reconnects with him his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings).

Allen said before Us he was curious by the shakeup.

“From the very beginning, (the creative team has said) 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 him.’ So I love where we are,” he noted. “I said, ‘If it happens over time and happens organically with two people who don’t get along, it’s fine. I’m just very careful about this. I want it to happen where it’s organic and appropriate.”

In addition to The Last Man StandingAllen was also the conductor on Housing Improvementwhich ran from 1991 to 1999. The extensive experience allowed the actor freedom try something new this time around.

Related: ‘Home Improvement’ Cast: Where Are They Now?

Does everyone know what time it is? That was the famous phrase that came out of Home Improvement, the ABC sitcom that aired between September 1991 and May 1999. The 30-minute comedy followed Tim “The Toolman” Taylor (Tim Allen) as he hosted a home improvement show of’ the name “Tool Time,” although it is not at all in (…)

“I’ve done Mike Baxter (ar The Last Man Standing) and Tim Taylor (ar Housing Improvement). So if I do this again, I proposed three things: I want a guy who recently lost his wife, so he’s dealing with grief; I want a guy with a 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 playing with people in a good way.”

Allen concluded: “I came from a huge family run by women. So my point of view 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 season, and he wasn’t trying to be anything but what he’s doing.”

Shifting Gears airs Wednesdays on ABC at 8 pm ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.