• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, January 6, 2025

Tim Allen returns to prime time Wednesday night on ABC with an act last seen on “Last Man Standing.”

The new show is “Shifting Gears,” a generational family comedy in which Allen, 71, plays the widowed owner of a body shop that restores and modifies classic cars.

On “Last Man Standing,” he played a 50-something (or maybe 60-something) guy with conservative values and points of view.

The character he played -- the head of marketing for a chain of manly sporting goods stores -- was a stereotypical grumpy older man who railed against modern-day social trends and issues -- or, in a word, wokeism.

Labeled as a conservative, the character and Allen were derided by many for these views, although they were presented gently, humorously and inoffensively.

But the criticism was meaningless. “Last Man Standing” ran for nine seasons, six on ABC and three on Fox.

Cut to the present day, and “conservative” for many is synonymous with “common sense,” which means “Shifting Gears” might find a warm welcome in much of the country.

It is an example of great timing, which is a hallmark of successful comedy. Although “Shifting Gears” was likely produced weeks or months before Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election in November, the show stands to benefit from the coming new era of Trump.

The situation in this comedy has to do with Allen’s relationship with an estranged, grown daughter played by Kat Dennings (both pictured above).

When she suddenly appears at his doorstep with two children seeking shelter in the old family home, Allen’s character, “Matt,” has to “shift gears” to readjust his life from living alone (and liking it just fine) to supporting a family.

Matt’s world view is established at the outset of the show and continues throughout Episode One, which the TV Blog previewed.

In the first scene he enters, a co-worker detects that Matt is upset about the world. “Lemme guess, the world’s going to hell in a handbasket!” says the co-worker.

To which Matt replies: “We don’t even make hand baskets in the U.S. anymore! You know what we do make? Excuses, quitters and diabetes!”

A few minutes later, his newly arrived daughter snidely mentions that Matt still hides a house key under a “Reagan” garden gnome, as if this is wrong somehow.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking: A President Reagan garden gnome? I wonder if they have that on Etsy!

Matt even issues a short diatribe about TV news when he enters the kitchen area of his home and sees that the TV is on.

“This is exactly why I hate the news!” he declares. “One person tells you the news and three others tell you what you’re supposed to think about the news -- like I’m too stupid to form my own angry opinions!”

Hey, wait a minute. I’ve written this opinion here about a dozen times! I love this guy!

Despite these great shining moments in which Matt tells it like it is, “Shifting Gears” is weaker in its sitcom attributes.

The situation of the estranged grown son or daughter returning home after a series of failures and missteps to start over in the ancestral home has been seen before. So have Matt’s two grandchildren.

One is a teenage boy who is addicted to social media -- itself a sitcom cliché -- and the other is a younger girl of seven or eight who is a precocious feminist.

But here again, great swaths of American TV households love these kinds of old-fashioned sitcoms.

If they loved “Last Man Standing,” they won’t have to shift any gears to like this one either.

“Shifting Gears” premieres Wednesday, January 8, at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC.