Yes, you are seeing double.
Tim Allen reprized his role as Home improvementby Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor during Thursday Senior man standing. In the episode, Vanessa hired the first Tool time host (who was wearing a vintage Binford Tools T-shirt) to do a series of home repairs. The half hour ended with a rather objective conversation between Allen’s alter egos, which also alluded to the end of the fast-approaching Fox sitcom series.
Below, showrunner Kevin Abbott discusses the unlikely crossover event (which paid tribute to a Home improvement cast) and reveals how Mike and Tim’s discussion will make the head of Outdoor Man think about his third act.
TVLINE | Let’s start at the beginning. When Allen came up with the idea to reprise his Home improvement Occupation?
We had already broken the first seven episodes when Fox, as they always do, asked, “Hey, is there a big event or something attractive that you can have as a debut?” And I just hate That [episodes]. I tend to think of our show as a small show, you know? We tell little stories – so, by definition, something big and impressive doesn’t really happen on our show. that was [our writer] Jon Haller who said, “We had many Home improvement people continue, and the only important character we didn’t have is Tim Taylor, “and I said,” This is brilliant. You will start getting paid, sir. ” [Laughs]
TVLINE | After the idea was launched, was it as simple as writing the episode? Or did you have to get permission to use the Tim Taylor character?
There were some legal issues to resolve, believe it or not. I thought, well, this is going to be easy because I know Tim [will be into it], but we had to jump over some obstacles. But [Home Improvement creators] Matt Williams, David McFadzean and Carmen Finestra were very kind and very generous, and they allowed us to use the character and some of the parts, and we had a lot of fun.
TVLINE | How protective was Allen of Home improvement legacy?
I would say very protective. I made him a promise that we would respect him. I really loved Home improvement, so I didn’t want to do anything that could disparage that character and that franchise, I didn’t want to make fun of it in any way, shape or form. I wanted to be careful. Maybe they will do something with [the ABC sitcom] in the future, a reboot or something, I don’t know, so I didn’t want to pin them on anything either. And Tim and I had several long discussions about where Tim Taylor would have ended at this point. We changed the plot a few times to try to get to a place that felt great.
TVLINE | The episode featured a scene that paid tribute to Tim Taylor’s longtime neighbor, Wilson, and his portrait artist, the late Earl Hindman. Allen offered his opinion?
He wanted to make sure that his affection for the character Wilson and Earl was present and that he was honest. It was interesting, because the whole episode touched Tim. He was affected by that. He said to me: “You captured some of the things that we are all going through, which is looking at our race here, moving on and recognizing how good things have been …” I think he brought a lot of personal emotions [to the episode], and it was really very powerful.
TVLINE | Much of what Allen told you about the episode came from that last conversation between Mike and Tim. Does that conversation get Mike to start thinking about his retirement?
Yes, that’s exactly what drives you. He is at this stage and asks himself: what should he do next? Where does your life go next? Is his life on the path he wants? And the fear, when you’ve done well in life, of trying something new, or taking a different direction and maybe not succeeding. We discovered that it is a rich territory that we will continue to explore this season.
TVLINE | Soon, you will be writing Last manin Series Final. Now that Tim Taylor exists in the Last man This excludes a final scene that mirrors Newhart, where Tim wakes up next to Patricia Richardson’s Jill Taylor again after a long sleep?
[Laughs] We talked about some scenarios, but I don’t know. I can’t decide if I want to be a little crazy or more sincere, but we’ll find out.
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