TIm Allen has been a TV dad for so long that all of his Home Improvement “kids” are older than his current Shifting Gears offspring, as played by Kat Dennings. (I admittedly didn’t do the math for his Santa Clause rugrats.) With age comes wisdom, as it often goes, and Allen acknowledged that, while he had a great relationship with his trio of TV sons, he was able to serve as a better father-figure mentor to his Last Man Standing co-star Kaitlyn Dever.
With the already wrapped Shifting Gears Season 2 currently airing amidst the 2026 TV schedule, Allen talked with US Weekly about how his on-set presence behind the scenes has evolved over the years from project to project. He addressed his closeness with Dever, who actually stopped by the set of his latest sitcom in 2025, saying that their shared sense of humor was a stepping stone to taking a more active mentoring role. As he put it:
On Last Man Standing with Kaitlyn Dever, I was a mentor because I aligned myself with her comedy style. I really was all about encouraging her the best I could. She listened and I didn’t know that she was picking it up until every now and then in her scenes.
As a parent, one of the most rewarding feelings can be when a child utilizes past advice and wisdom without having made it obvious that they took it to heart. Dever obviously isn’t his real daughter — despite him amusingly referring to his TV co-stars as his wife and daughters — but that just makes it all the more meaningful that she made mental notes of his guidance. Kids are supposed to listen to parents, but not everybody gives their co-workers’ thoughts validation.
Allen talked about the difficulties that came when she exited the cast, as he did truly miss her like one would a close relation. Which just made her infrequent returns as Eve Baxter all the more celebrated on the set.
In contrast, Home Improvement turned Allen from a stand-up comedian popular on the talk show circuit into a household TV superstar. Understandably, it wasn't the most natural behavior to take any kind of a parental role at the time. As he put it:
It was new to me, and it took a while for me to be that [father figure]. I felt like more of a funny, mischievous older brother for quite a while — especially to the boys on Home Improvement.
Certainly worthy of noting is that Last Man Standing debuted in 2011, a whopping 22 years after Home Improvement took over the ratings with the Taylor family. Looking back to that point in his life and career, Allen wasn’t yet in the right headspace to bring any mentoring energy to the young cast.
Thankfully, it's not like it was either his or Patricia Richardson's responsibilities to raise Zachary Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas or Taran Noah Smith into upstanding citizens. Allen gave props to their real-life guardians in that respect, saying:
When it was easy to be a TV parent, it’s easy. When it’s difficult to be a TV parent, you really are of no value. [With the] Home Improvement kids, it was so long ago and I was brand new, and it was very difficult for me to be anywhere near a mentor. It wasn’t until later that I became more of a mentor. But they all had great parents.
Allen has indeed stayed close with Jonathan Taylor Thomas over the years, even as the former teen heartthrob shifted into directorial duties (on top of the occasional Last Man Standing cameo). He’s also interested in having him show up on Shifting Gears, but we’ll have to see if that happens. But what would be cooler than having Thomas and Kaitlyn Dever guest-starring in the same episode? Probably nothing.
Shifting Gears airs Wednesday nights on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET, with episodes streaming the next day via Hulu subscription.
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