• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, March 18, 2025

One show has been labeled “conservative” and the other “liberal,” so when the latter prepares to assume the time slot of the former -- but only temporarily -- a TV blogger looks for something to say about that.

The two shows are “Shifting Gears,” starring Tim Allen, and “The Conners,” not starring Roseanne Barr -- both on ABC.

“Shifting Gears” ends its first season Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern and then awaits word on its future -- either (a) renewal or (b) cancellation. 

Speculation in the trade websites is a little mixed, but leaning toward renewal based on strong seven-day results.

A week after the “Shifting Gears” season finale, on Wednesday, March 26, also at 8 p.m., “The Conners” has the first of six final episodes that will wrap up the series in May after six seasons.

With Tim Allen as its star, “Shifting Gears” has taken a position on network TV as the resident right-leaning comedy. 

This is mainly because some years back, Allen made comments in interviews that established him as a rare conservative in mostly liberal Hollywood. 

Thus, Allen, 71, is the one you call when you want a cantankerous older white guy to rail about social/cultural issues from a back-in-my-day perspective. 

He did this on his last show, “Last Man Standing,” and he pretty much does the same thing on “Shifting Gears.” 

This stereotype sometimes strikes me as unfair to cantankerous older white guys in general, but I will save that for a future TV Blog (or maybe not).

By contrast, “The Conners” -- which rose from the ashes of the Roseanne Barr debacle in 2018 -- has long been considered liberal in tone.

This is due mainly to the fact that the real Roseanne and the fictional character she played on the short-lived “Roseanne” reboot were both outspoken supporters of President Trump.

But her views were balanced, if not outweighed, by the liberal bent of the show’s other characters. 

A TV blogger in search of an angle or a “hook” for an opinion piece might position the situation this way: With the liberal “Conners” leaving the air and the conservative “Shifting Gears” in position for a likely renewal, it is tempting to say ABC is easing out a liberal sitcom in favor of a conservative one in the wake of Trump’s reelection.

But the accuracy of this thesis doesn’t really hold water. I watched this week’s season finale of “Shifting Gears” and next week’s new episode of “The Conners” and found no political or social subjects at all.

And yet, when you go online to read about “Shifting Gears,” you would think the show was on par with “All in the Family.” News flash: It isn’t.

On the left side, the same is true of “The Conners.” If this show is liberal in tone, then the tone eluded me, at least for this episode.

Big disclaimer: I don’t watch much of either show, so I cannot say with accuracy that neither show goes very far into hot-button issues, if they go at all.

If TV is plotting more shows -- both comedies and dramas -- for the new conservative-leaning era of Trump 2.0, then that would not be surprising.

To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the TV business has never needed a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.