Grunt enthusiast and veteran network TV dad Tim Allen is once again insisting that ABC did him dirty when they canceled his sitcom Last Man Standing earlier this year. In Allen’s eyes, his Friday TV comedy alter-ego Mike Baxter was too dangerous for the network brass to handle.
The subject of Last Man Standing‘s cancelation came up when Allen visited Norm Macdonald Live on Tuesday. Upset supporters of the show (including James Woods) have claimed the show getting the heave ho from ABC was an act of political revenge against a program with a conservative bent. (ABC has said the cancelation was the product of a Friday night programming shift.) Allen, who likened being a conservative in Hollywood to being Jewish in ’30s Germany on national television, told Macdonald that there was “nothing more dangerous” in America than a conservative hero.
“I always wanted Last Man Standing to be like [All in the Family’s] Archie Bunker,” he said. “Archie Bunker pushed boundaries, but Carroll O’Connor was not that guy at all. I am a version of that guy. But there is nothing more dangerous, especially in this climate, than a funny, likable conservative character. He is mitigated on the show by a family of women who had a difference of opinions, but [Mike Baxter] was a likeable guy and a principled guy about work and ethics and all this stuff, I think.”
Allen feels ABC bungled the handling of the series.
“I have no idea why they did what they did,” he offered. “You couldn’t have handled this worse.”
At present, there’s no official word on if Last Man Standing will be revived elsewhere. CMT was buzzed about as a potential home for Allen’s homeless sitcom, but there doesn’t appear to be any forward progress on that front. Ball’s in your court, Fox News.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
