“It’s a New Experience for Me”: Kat Dennings and Tim Allen Cried While Making ‘Shifting Gears’

Even though Shifting Gears is a massive hit that makes ABC viewers laugh out loud every week, the sitcom doesn’t shy away from some serious moments that resonate with its massive audience. The jumping point of the show is pretty easy to relate to: Riley (Kat Dennings) is forced to move back into her estranged father Matt’s (Tim Allen), house with her two kids after getting a divorce and going broke.

In the very first episode, father and daughter confront each other about their past mistakes, and it gets emotional really fast. During an interview on the Not Gonna Lie podcast, Dennings revealed that both of them cried for real during filming.

On the podcast, Dennings talked about the experience of playing a mother for the first time in her career, even though she joked she’s still “12.” She revealed that trying something new was one of the reasons why she decided to jump into Shifting Gears. The bonus for saying yes was getting to act with Allen, and Dennings commented that he’s always “very present” and “really feeling these things.” She described their emotions in the first episode:

“We were both dreading it. We were like, ‘Oh God, we have to cry. What is this?’ It’s like, I looked at him and I started crying, he looked at me and he started crying. It was real. In the first episode, we both get emotional and it was real. It’s incredible to deal with him and the kids. I mean, everybody is really amazing. That just makes the funny parts even funnier and such a relief to do. It’s just been a very good, organic-feeling show to me. Which is new, it’s a new experience for me.”

Is ‘Shifting Gears’ Renewed For Season 2?

Whatever they are feeling, the audience seems to be feeling it too. Last month, viewership data from Nielsen revealed that Shifting Gears averaged more than 11 million viewers on Wednesdays, which is a lot more than tough competitors like CBS hit supernatural comedy Ghosts and Young Sheldon‘s sequel series Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.

Despite its immense popularity, ABC has not announced a Season 2 renewal for the sitcom.

What’s curious about Shifting Gears is that ABC hasn’t been clear on the series’ episode count from Season 1, and from the looks of it, the network only ordered 10 so far.

For a show this popular, an announcement of new episodes or new seasons would have been made at this point, but for now fans will have to wait and see what ABC has in store for the future of the hit series.

The next (and last?) episode of Shifting Gears is slated to air next Wednesday, March 19. You can stream the series on Hulu.