Tim Allen looks back on how Last Man Standing tackled politics: 'We really pushed a little bit'

Rosy Cordero
·2 min read
Tim Allen looks back on how Last Man Standing tackled politics: 'We really pushed a little bit'

Tim Allen will look back proudly at how Last Man Standing tackled the often polarizing topic of politics — by embracing the conversation.

"It's funny that this group, left and right among us, we didn't like when we were told early on by both networks [ABC and Fox] that we might want to avoid talking about [politics]," the actor and comedian said Thursday during Fox's summer press day panel. "I loved that we all are the type of people who said, 'Well, screw that, we're going to talk about it anyway.' What I've always appreciated about this group is that we have a broad range of attitudes. We really pushed a little bit, and I really admire that."

Executive producer Kevin Abbott agreed that the strategy worked well for the show because it "blended very different ideologies," both politically and otherwise, on both sides of the camera.

Michael Becker/FOX Tim Allen on 'Last Man Standing'

"Our attitude is that you don't have to agree with everything I say, but we should communicate and we should share our ideas in a respectful manner," Abbott said. "Which is not currently being done out there in the general public. We always wanted to represent that. The way I felt about it is, if everybody interacted the way some of our characters did, we'd probably all be a lot better off."

Due to the timing of production on the show's final season, Abbott said they delved into political issues less as the country was preparing to vote in the presidential election.

"There were a lot of issues that were dealt with over the years, but not as much in the last season because we're airing midseason," he said. "We started producing at a time when we didn't know who was going to win the election, so we had to veer away from a lot of things like current events that were changing every day."

He added, "I believe the show will be remembered for having some political content, yes. But not so much where we've been in the last year and currently because we steered away from that for practical reasons."

Last Man Standing will air its special one-hour finale May 20, starting at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.

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