Tim Allen's 'Last Man Standing' Teaser Hits Back at ABC Network for Canceling Series
"Last Man Standing," a hit sitcom starring Tim Allen and Nancy Travis, will return to television later this year, but fans will have to find it on a new network.
Allen and Travis poked fun at the show changing networks in a recently released teaser.
The two are shown sitting around a campfire when Travis spots a fox out of frame. Allen asks his TV wife to identify what she's seeing two more times, prompting her to say "fox" twice more in response.
Allen then gives a knowing look to the camera just before the teaser concludes.
The show began airing on ABC back in October of 2011, but after a near six-year run on the network, executives made the decision to not renew it for a seventh season.
At the time, ABC cited economics as the reason for show's cancellation. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey acknowledged that the sitcom was performing well in terms of ratings, but the economic factor and the decision to move away from airing comedies on Fridays led to the cancellation.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, one of the critics of the show's cancellation, noted that there are people who suspect that ABC's corporate owner, Disney, made the call to end "Last Man Standing" as a way for "punishing" Allen for his political beliefs.
One year after the show's sudden cancellation, news broke that it had been picked up by a new network, Fox.
In a statement regarding the return of the program, Allen said, "I did a fist pump so hard I threw my back out."
Allen also recognized the role fans played in the show being brought back. He said, "I could not be more grateful for the fans who wrote petitions and kept up the passion and incredible support for the show."
Commenting on picking up the show, Fox Television Group chairmen and CEOs Gary Newman and Dana Walden said that they have wanted to bring the sitcom back ever since its last taping. Newman and Walden also credited Allen and the fans for not letting up until the show was brought back.
"Last Man Standing" follows the lives of Mike Baxter (Allen), his wife Vanessa (Travis) and their daughters Kristin (Amanda Fuller), Mandy (Molly Ephraim) and Eve (Kaitlyn Dever).
Though the show's absence from television will be a year-and-a-half by the time it returns in September, Allen teased that changes could be coming, saying that "a lot can happen in a year."
The seventh season of "Last Man Standing" will begin airing on Fox on Sept. 28.