Before ABC brought back “Roseanne,” its lineup included “Last Man Standing.” The network’s decision to cancel the popular sitcom in the spring 2017 was interpreted by conservatives as a politically motivated decision to purge its network of a show that treated center-right families fairly.
Tim Allen disagrees. Allen, the star of “Last Man Standing,” which was picked up by Fox and will premiere again this fall, reflected on the surprising cancellation during a Thursday panel. “I’ve worked for ABC for years … I don’t really believe it was a political decision. I think it was a financial decision … I thought it was done very poorly, that’s my point of view. I was heartbroken,” he said.
The show’s cancellation seemed suspect to some since it had been pulling in pretty impressive ratings for the network. It was attributed at the time to ABC’s decision not to air comedies on Friday nights.
Whatever the reason, ABC still greenlighted “Roseanne” that same year. As a longtime friend of Roseanne Barr’s and a comedian with decades of experience, Allen offered reflections on that controversy too. From his perspective, the tweet that got Barr fired and her mega-hit canceled seemed out of character. “I go way back with Rosie and that’s not the Rosie I know. She was the most diverse and tolerant woman I’ve ever known for a long time. Whatever got in her head isn’t the Roseanne I know,” Allen remarked. His point is an interesting one because Barr did have the reputation for years as a markedly progressive, even subversive, voice in comedy.
As to why she was ultimately fired, Allen seems to fault a culture of hypersensitivity. “It’s a very icy time,” he said. “I’ve been a comedian for 38 years and I’ve never seen it, like Lenny Bruce said at the Purple Onion, ‘We’ve gone backwards.’ There are things you can’t say. There are things you shouldn’t say. Who makes up these rules? And as a stand-up comic, it’s a dangerous position to be in because I like pushing buttons. It’s unfortunate.”
“They had to do what they had to do and it’s their decision,” he said of ABC’s cancellation of “Roseanne.”
“Last Man Standing” seems poised to do a decent job filling the void left in the wake of “Roseanne’s” departure from prime time. Allen says his character is pro-Trump, but “probably doesn’t defend him.”
“I think the guy is a centrist … he’s probably pro-Trump. He probably doesn’t defend him. He’s for whatever is good for his business and for the state of Colorado,” Allen mused. Unlike “Roseanne,” showrunners said on Thursday the sitcom won’t explicitly touch on Trump. “At its heart, it’s a family comedy,” an executive explained.
In the culture wars, a family comedy with a conservative bent can be more powerful than a political comedy with one. But to wield any real power, “Last Man Standing” will have to retain and build on its previous successes in the ratings game. We’ll have a better idea as to whether that’s possible when the show premieres on Sept. 28. The show’s finale drew just over six million viewers in its last season on ABC. By comparison, the final episode of “Roseanne” this year attracted more than 10 million.
