How are you doing now that Last Man Standing is ending? Emotionally drained. We did our final show last night in front of an abbreviated crowd, what the Disney protocols would allow. It was the end of nine years and, for a guy not really that attached to these feelings except when you’re losing a loved one or a pet—and I cover that stuff pretty well—it was a very difficult four weeks because they kept going, “Oh, we’ve got three more.” When we got to three more, it started wearing on me. Then this ended in a gentle, wonderful way. Not ended, rather, as I stole from an astronaut friend of mine: mission accomplished. I remember when ABC first canceled Last Man Standing, you said there were more stories to tell. It was about three, four weeks after we shut down for the season [that we were canceled], and it was too sad. I was like the last person in the hospital room with the patient who was on life support. And they removed the life support. I said, “I don’t think this patient’s done yet.” And I really fought. I heard everybody say, “It’s over.” ABC wasn’t interested. It just didn’t feel like it was time to go. I said to myself, “It would have been great if they would have let us know we’re not coming back next season, then we could write ourselves out.” I’m sorry I said that. Because that’s exactly what Fox did out of respect for us, and it was a depressing year. Not only for that reason, but because COVID had shut the audience off. We did it though. Those guys, our production design team, and the producers, and the line producer did it. We did 21 episodes during this horrible time and we finished. We accomplished our mission. How emotional did it get filming the last few episodes? Every time we got into the family that lived in the sitcom, it got very emotional. When it got to be the actors looking at the characters they’re playing in a very sly way, it became funny. It was tough. It was tough because you’d drift in and out. There were a lot of speeches. I just explained this to my wife. You get into this business and you learn that projects come and go, and it’s best not to get associated too deeply with any project because another one comes along, and you’re asked to be friends with people and get involved, but everyone broke the rules on this one. When you get into this 10th year, adding the one year we were off that we weren’t off really because we were kind of online, we have had some relationships. There’s been births of children. There’s been deaths of crew members and family. There’s been real tough times, and all the way through it, for this big a group, it was a very close connection. Last Man Standing has always had fun with Mike’s role as a husband and a father. Will the finale end on a note about the importance of family? That’s exactly what it is. We didn’t want to leave a room and turn the light out. We’re paying homage to the sitcom world, we’re paying homage to family. There are a lot of winks and a nod to this family that has been together 10 years. It was very emotional. What are you proud of that Last Man Standing achieved? Sitcoms on network TV have rules. But within those rules, Last Man Standing was able to get funny stuff that you could do at your Thanksgiving table with all the kids. I walked away admiring the work that I got to be a part of. Already, I miss it. Watching your History channel series, Assembly Required, do you think more people are going DIY since they were home during COVID lockdowns? I went into that show because I wanted to celebrate that. I would always bring stuff in that breaks at my house. On Assembly Required, April Wilkerson’s just a great builder. When she was cast, I asked, “How do you know so much?” I will bring stuff to her and I’ll say, “Why doesn’t this coffeemaker work? I’ve taken it apart and I can’t figure it out.” I hate throwing stuff out. My stepfather, who passed away, explained it’s planned obsolescence. Eventually with capitalism, they realized if you build really good stuff, people will only buy it once, so it’s probably a good idea to not make it so well. They plan it to break. I resist that. Not only on an environmental level, but we just can’t keep buying stuff. I appreciate the people who fix things. And I encourage that in my family and friends. I’m not anti-capitalist or any of that. A little radio I had that was pricy broke because a tiny little wire deep in it had just come unglued. And then you’d throw the whole thing out. The manufacturer said—I hear it all the time—“It’s just cheaper to replace it.” Wow! A washing machine I had go out, they said the same thing. It was three years old, and I said, “What goes out in a big washing machine that makes it worthless?” And it turns out, it’s just difficult to get at the piece to fix. So, Assembly Required tapped into that. That’s what I wanted to do. Kate Fox and I, who created it, said, “Just celebrate watching people go solve problems.” The builders don’t ask too many questions, it’s just like, “Well, let me get at it.” They right away dive into the problem. That’s what I’m encouraging. I love the motivational shows. I love motivational speakers. I was in college. This came from my interest in honoring, and really appreciating and discovering what is the mindset of men and women that don’t ask why, they go, “Oh, give me a minute.” And they go right at it. I just love these people. What was it like to reunite on Assembly Required with Richard Karn from Home Improvement? Richard has helped me to do this. It’s long days and it’s adlibbed a lot, but not really. So it’s kind of a combination of television. It was really stressful for me because I come from stand-up, which is fully rehearsed. Theater, which is rehearsed. Movies, which is, of course, rehearsed. Sitcom, kind of rehearsed. I ad-lib quite a bit in mine, and this is a merging of all that. And then out of nowhere, I’d get mad. “This is nuts!” It was so much talking and walking. And then I’d watch these guys, because of COVID we had to go to their homes, they couldn’t come to a big studio, and I was amazed at these men and women, at what they do in their homes and garages. It got very motivational. They fix it and think of stuff. It’s everything I want it to be. How did you spend your time during the COVID lockdown? I worked on my cars. I’m in the production business, so I immediately looked at how to make my Zooms look better. And I’ve never spent so much time in a gym. It, literally, at my age, changed my body structure. People are going, “What did you do to your arms?” You’re used to performing in Las Vegas and comedy clubs, but they’ve been closed. Do you miss stand-up? More than I can tell you. The joy I get from making people laugh, I didn’t realize it. Now, of course, my promoter would love to hear this, I’d almost work for free. I love what I do. I love making people laugh. My life was changed when I saw Richard Pryor live. I ended up becoming friends with him over the years. And I said, what he did to me that night, I said I can’t tell you how much joy I get from about three quarters of the way through my act, it’s like the punch is coming. You don’t even know. If you think this s–t’s funny, wait ’til you see how I end it. I miss it terribly. I miss it for all my brothers and sisters that do stand-up, and adjacently, dancers, singers, Broadway. I can’t tell you how my heart bleeds for them, where it’s just one day you don’t do it. My opening act [Lowell Sanders] for almost 30 years, when we’re not on the road together he does cruise ships, and that just one day went away. All of my additional salary to him and all of the salary on his regular day job, if you will, went away. As Viktor Frankl’s wonderful book Man’s Search for Meaning asks, where do you focus your energy? What do you do now? For so many comedians, magicians, dancers, all of it just stopped. That’s how you express yourself. That’s how you find meaning in your life. When are you going to feel comfortable, literally on Broadway, sitting so close to each other with your mouths open, laughing or singing or whatever? And the same with me in Vegas or any of the big concert venues I’ve done, when are you going to feel comfortable sitting in a [large audience]? I had big concerts, as big as 55,000 in two big venues I love. I can’t imagine when that’s going to be. Might we see a return of Buzz Lightyear for Toy Story5? Tom Hanks and I talk about it all the time. They don’t need us in makeup for this. No matter how old we get, we can always do it. They’re suggesting they’re going to show a movie of a character called Buzz Lightyear that Toy Story’s based on. I’m not sure exactly what they mean by that. So, they’ll be doing a live-action film of some sort. The actual four Toy Story movies were only supposed to be two. Three was the magic one. Four, definitely, was a magic one. I found the end of that to be so sad, where “To infinity and beyond” was split between Woody and Buzz. Again, this is a big question. It was sad that Woody if you remember in, I think, Toy Story4, they weren’t playing with him anymore. He was starting to be left in the closet, and the only reason that she played with Buzz Lightyear was because she thought he was a mailman. Are toys relevant anymore to kids these days? You restore cars, is there something special you’re working on? My older kid and I are working on a classic, and I mean a beautiful classic hot rod that I bought out of the Detroit auto show many years ago. I found it in a garage. It’s a Ford Victoria coupe that’s been chopped and made into a hot rod. I’ve completely fixed all the hot-rod components, and I’ve taken out the combustion engine. And believe it or not, I’m making an electric out of it. I wanted to see how beautiful I could make electric motors. Can I make them organic to that ride? We’ll see. If you want to see it it’s on the Tim Allen YouTube channel. It’s called the Vic.
