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Tim Allen revealed whether there are plans for the former Home improvement costar Jonathan Taylor Thomas to appear in his new sitcom To change gear.
“Everything is a possibility,” Allen, 71, shared exclusively in the latest edition of We weekly. “He just came back [to the last episode we filmed]. He showed up on set.”
Allen said he would love nothing more than to share the screen with Thomas, 43, adding: “He is literally my child. I raised that kid on Home Improvement for eight years. These are all my children and I’m a little sick of this.
Before leading the cast of ABC’s To change gearAllen continued playing Home improvement side by side from 1991 to 1999 Thomas, Patricia Richardson, Taran Noah Smith, Zachery Ty Bryan, Richard Karn And Debbe Dunning. Thomas left the series early to focus on school, eventually making the decision to step away from acting completely.
Allen and Thomas eventually reunited on screen for four episodes of Last man standing. Thomas also directed three episodes of the sitcom. Although Thomas has remained out of the public eye, Allen continued to find success as America’s favorite sitcom dad with his roles as Mike Baxter in Last man standingthat ran from 2011 to 2021, and now Matt Parker comes in To change gear.
“[My former onscreen wife] 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] during the summer?’ Then there’s a long pause and she says, “Tim, these aren’t our daughters and I’m not really your wife,” he joked. “She loved it so much because sometimes when they had problems on the show I would ask, ‘How do you think they feel?’ And she replied, ‘Tim, they’re actors. We just read [what is on the page but] she’s not really that sad. ”
On To change gearAllen plays a widowed father opposite an estranged daughter, played by Kat Dennings. The duo shared how they formed a connection “instantly” after being cast on the show.
“The director wanted to see how we were doing. It never stopped. The kismet was crazy. We were both born on the same day, many years apart,” he said Us. “We are different in so many ways. But our attitude towards comedy is very similar. She’s destroying me and I’m not easy that way. Cat can [deliver these lines] with a straight face. Her anger – what she played on 2 broken girls – is very similar to the sharpness that Mike Baxter was able to get into now.
Allen continued: “When we argue on screen, it’s funny that we interrupt each other, and it comes very naturally. I don’t know where it comes from. I already love this person. She and her husband [Andrew W.K.] are great people. It’s like I’ve known her for years, as have most of this cast.
Dennings, 38, felt the same way about her bond with Allen.
“We hit it off pretty quickly. We had lunch after I accepted the role and I immediately felt like I could trust him for some reason,” she said in an exclusive interview with Us. “And he opened up to me very quickly. So me [was] like, ‘Okay, this guy wants to let me in.’”
The confidence on set allowed Dennings and Allen to take their comedic skills to the next level. “It felt very organic,” Dennings recalls. “And if [filming has] progressed, our scenes are so funny, if I do say so myself. The arguments are my favorite scenes to play because I have no fear. There is no fear for either of us. We just go for it and it’s so much fun.”
The winter TV schedule is packed with highly anticipated premieres and comebacks, including The Pitt, Severance, The White Lotus and more. HBO’s The Pitt, premiering in January, marks Noah Wyle’s return to medical dramas, 15 years after his role as John Carter on ER. The series is described as “a realistic examination of the […]
While Allen enjoyed working on it To change gearhe wasn’t initially sure he would come back to sitcoms, narrating Us“It was a complicated decision. I did Disney+’s Santa Claus series at the time and I said, ‘I really can’t think about this right now.’ Do I want to do linear TV? I was so depressed about how streaming has hurt television. So once I’ve done it, I want to take it to the next level.
To change gear airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8pm ET before streaming on Hulu the following day.