In an upcoming episode of Senior man standing it will look like Crisis in Infinite Series when Tim Allen meets Tim Allen. In the episode, Allen Last Man Standing character Mike Baxter will come face to face with Allen Home Improvement character Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. It is not the first time the series has crossed paths with Allen’s 90s sitcom, previously casting his Home Improvement co-stars Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Patricia Richardson and Richard Karn for roles in the series. While Last Man Standing and Home Improvement are all under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Company, it took several different entities to approve the idea for it to become a reality.
“The first obstacle you have to jump is getting Tim to sign,” showrunner Kevin Abbott revealed to TheWrap, saying the idea came to them after Fox asked them to design a “big promo event”. “I want to make sure he wanted to play him – what he did, he totally embraced the idea, with the proviso that we would honor that character, we would not make fun of him or anything, which we would never do.” I really liked ‘Home Improvement’ and Matt Williams and David McFadzean and Carmen Finestra, who created ‘Home Improvement’, were very kind and generous in allowing us to use the character and certain iconic symbols from the show and pieces. So we were going to bend over to give them no reason to regret allowing us to do that. “
After that, it was necessary for Fox to obtain permission from Disney, which controls the rights to Home Improvement (although 20th Century Television is owned by Disney, Fox’s broadcast remains a separate entity). Passing through these channels took some time, however, with Abbott confirming “legal obstacles bigger than you think” in front of them.
“It was the day before the reading of the table that I was allowed to actually proceed with the episode,” said Abbott. “And that was just because I threatened, ‘I’m reading it anyway.’ So, they finally agreed to that. “
Abbott also revealed the circumstances of where Tim Taylor is now in the episode, Home Improvement having ended more than 20 years ago. Taylor, having left his TV series “Tool Time” at the end of the 1999 series, now works for Binford Tools, a company that sponsored Tool Time and whose products were used frequently (not to mention that they appeared in episodes Last Man Standing) Taylor now “travels through quality control on various Binford tools” according to Abbott, and when visiting a Denver area store, she finds out about a man “looking the same”, scheduling the meeting.
Senior man standing The season will debut in a special slot on Sunday night on January 3 at 8:30 pm ET. The rest of season 9 will air on its regular schedule on Thursdays at 9:30 pm ET. No premiere date for the crossover episode has yet been set.