Fans of the sitcom Shifting Gears, which returned to ABC earlier this week, were recently shocked when Tim Allen’s character Matt and Jenna Elfman’s character Eve broke up. Now, Allen is speaking out to address this breakup publicly for the very first time.
Allen Addresses Breakup
“Coming up, you’ll see it’s not over yet and it’s really a different thing for a comic to play this,” Allen, 72, teased of Matt’s potential future with Eve. “In the show, by design there’s more drama to lay the comedy on top of. It’s something I’ve always liked to do.”
Matt and Eve broke up after she took a job opportunity that would force her to be away from him for a few months. Though they tried to figure out a way to make things work, Matt ultimately decided that it was best for them to break up, for now at least.
“The reality of the story is that it was working and it was really romantic for the show,” Allen explained to US Weekly. “[While] they’re not really a couple yet, it just was really sad. Both of us really got affected by the writing of it and played it very well.”
Allen Portrays Widower For First Time
Shifting Gears is Allen’s third hit sitcom. He previously starred on Home Improvement from 1991 until 1999 before starring in Last Man Standing from 2011 until 2021. Shifting Gears marks the first time that Allen is playing a man who isn’t married. Indeed, Matt is a widower who is working to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter Riley, who is played by Kat Dennings.
“My preference wasn’t to get into a relationship this quick,” Allen said of playing a widower. “[With Jenna], serendipitously, it really worked — she and I together. I’ve worked with her before in a movie and I know her and the two characters are so opposite. It didn’t look like anything was going to happen — certainly from my point of view — because I said I wasn’t really ready for it, personally, in the show.”
Allen ended up being pleasantly surprised by Matt and Eve’s dynamic.
“It just emerged. As it turns out, we really connect on camera,” he stated. “So I had to compromise a bit and say, ‘This is moving along quicker than I thought it should.’”
Allen Challenges Himself As An Actor
Allen has pulled from details from his own life for his previous two sitcoms. Playing a widower like Matt, however, is a completely different story.
“I’m not a widower,” he acknowledged. “That’s the biggest change in this whole script is that when they pitched me to do a new show, I wanted to be a guy that’s dealing with grief and still active in life.”
Allen is set to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with wife Jane Hajduk this fall.
“The people in my life that I really am amazed at have gone through so much suffering and still show up every day and are good to other people and don’t get held down by grief,” he continued. “I wanted to honor that.”
“Then the studio asked, ‘Would you mind if eventually he could start dating?’ They thought it would be kind of fun to see Tim Allen in a romantic relationship,” Allen added. “We made a compromise and they allowed me to be a widower and allowed me to do that. That’s a big difference. I’m not in that genre anymore of romance in my personal life. I’m very different than the characters I play.”
‘Geniuses’ Behind Shifting Gears
Despite his previous sitcom success, Allen had no idea what to expect when he agreed to do Shifting Gears.
“On Home Improvement, I never thought of lineage,” he concluded. “On Last Man Standing, it was easy to see the growth. … This group of writers and the show-runner [on Shifting Gears], they are really geniuses. They keep coming up with stories.”
Shifting Gears airs on ABC on Wednesday nights at 8 pm ET. Episodes are then available to stream on Hulu the next day. If you love Allen as much as we do, be sure to check it out. You won’t be disappointed!