I Always Wanted To Play This Role

How the TV legend overcame his reservations about returning to the small screen for his new show

After starring in two of TVs most successful sitcoms — Home Improvement, which ran for eight seasons between 1991 and 1999, and Last Man Standing, which ended its nine-season run in 2021 — Tim Allen wasn’t sure he was up for a third. “I didn’t really want to do another one,” admits the 71-year-old. But Shifting Gears, his new ABC series about a widowed dad who reconnects with his estranged daughter (Kat Dennings) was enough of a deviation from his past roles to change his mind. At Tim’s suggestion, his character runs a classic car restoration shop — just like he does. (The set was even designed after the one the actor owns in North Hollywood!) “That’s what I’ve always wanted to play,” he says. “I get to be more of a creative guy in grief over a loss of a wife. It’s a comedy, though!” Here, the dad of two (he shares Katherine, 35, with his ex, and Elizabeth, 15, with his wife of 19 years, actress Jane Hajduk) talks to In Touch’s Lindsay Hoffman about his new gig, fatherhood and sobriety.