This LAST MAN STANDING Reunion Shocks Tim Allen in the Best Way

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 06: Tim Allen attends the Disney+ Original Series “The Santa Clauses” Premiere at Walt Disney Studios on November 06, 2022 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Momodu Mansaray/Getty Images)

By Michaela Gordoni

Tim Allen got a little surprise from one of his former co-stars, Kaitlyn Dever, while filming for SHIFTING GEARS.

ABC shared a behind-the-scenes clip of Allen walking around the corner into the kitchen while filming a take, where he catches Dever scouring the set fridge. He laughed in surprise and gave her a hug. The live audience also laughed and clapped.

Dever played one of Allen’s three daughters on his sitcom, LAST MAN STANDING, which ran from 2011 to 2021.

In October, Allen shared a photo of them embracing and said, “Kaitlyn Dever stopped by my taping tonite [sic] at SHIFTING GEARS. Such a lucky man. Truly blessed to have worked and loved so many of my cast.”

Allen’s TV wife from LAST MAN STANDING, Nancy Travis, guest-starred in both seasons.

“It’s going to be a counseling session that I join. And it’s people that have lost something in their lives, because I lost my wife, and so it’s going to be very spectacular and very clever and very fun,” Allen said of the episode she appears in in Season 2.

Travis said of her appearance in Season 1, “You wonder how Nancy Travis is going to come back into this SHIFTING GEARS world and I think it’s a unique and clever way that they’ve engineered this. I will say — even on LAST MAN STANDING — it’s almost like a trademark of Tim’s shows where there are winks. Because the people that have followed his career from HOME IMPROVEMENT, his stand-up comedy, LAST MAN STANDING and now SHIFTING GEARS, they know the details of these stories and these characters so deeply.”

Travis added, “It was really fun to be able to just come in and have a whole wealth of knowledge and rapport working with Tim. In terms of comedic rhythm, knowing how to set up a joke and how to tell a story together, it was great to be able to take that and apply it to Charlotte.”

Season 2 of SHIFTING GEARS is currently airing on ABC. The Hollywood Reporter said Pamela Adlon will guest star in the next episode, “Nutcracker,” which comes out today, Dec. 10 on ABC and Hulu.

Adlon will play a feisty single mother. The episode’s logline reads, “This holiday season, the Parkers discover that romance isn’t always a smooth ride as Matt (Allen) and Eve (Jenna Elfman) are on thin ice, Gabe enlists Riley (Kat Dennings) to help Amelie (Carson Fagerbakke) impress his mom (Adlon), and Carter (Maxwell Simkins) seeks help with his ‘promposal.’”

SHIFTING GEARS’ first season premiere had 7.57 million viewers over its first 7 days, averaging slightly under 4 million viewers in its initial first shows.