Last Man Standing followed a sitcom couple played by Tim Allen and Nancy Travis for nearly a decade — but where would Mike and Vanessa be now?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Travis, 63, reflected on her and Allen’s characters, saying, “When we would film a scene on Last Man Standing, one would be as written and then we would joke around about what would be the most extreme version of this scene. We would call that version ‘when the door slams shut.’”
Travis and Allen, 71, always thought there were two versions of Mike and Vanessa’s story.
“If this show was on network TV, it would probably be Vanessa and Mike in rocking chairs bickering,” she quipped. “But who knows what it would be when the door slams shut if they were on cable?”
Last Man Standing has ended, but the show’s stars including Tim Allen, Nancy Travis and Kaitlyn Dever have remained on our screens. The sitcom started out on ABC and starred Allen as an executive at a sporting goods store chain in Denver, Colorado. Mike Baxter was a married father of three daughters and a grandfather […]
Last Man Standing, which aired from 2011 to 2021, centered around Allen and Travis playing a fictional couple: Mike and Vanessa Baxter. After Last Man Standing came to an end, Allen returned to the comedy space on the series Shifting Gears, which premiered last month. Allen was able to use the ABC sitcom to bring Travis back as his scene partner in a Valentine’s Day-themed episode.
“It was great not to play the wife [this time]. It was great. 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,” Travis told Us. “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.”
Travis enjoyed getting to share the screen with Allen again, adding, “Charlotte is a catalyst for him. It was fun to play the role of someone who has a shared experience with Tim’s character, which is true in real life. We shared the experience of making Last Man Standing and at the same time my Shifting Gears character is a stranger — just somebody that Matt meets who can inform his life.”
Despite playing a potential love interest for Allen, Travis admitted she’s not in a rush to be his sitcom wife for a second time.
“I do enjoy working with him but I think that it’s fun to explore new and different relationships between characters. It is very meta — maybe too meta,” she told Us. “I really like what they created, which is a soulmate friend. Maybe it’s like the ghost of his ex-wife — Vanessa — who comes in the spirit of somebody else. But I like the nuances of what they created with this different relationship.”
Travis went on to hint at a possible return to Shifting Gears. “Tim loves what he does and it’s almost like he’s the host of a party. But at the same time, he is very conscientious and really wants to tell whatever story it is in a very affecting way — comedically and emotionally and truthfully,” she explained. “So he’s a great scene partner in that way. Also everybody just has a really great time on set and it is like being at a party.”
The actress continued: “I showed up and there was such an inviting and warm feeling being there. We just had a good time working together and everybody enjoyed watching us. It was just a very kind, fun and warm group.”
Shifting Gears airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
Leave a Reply