Image via ABC/20th Television
Tim Allen’s ABC sitcom Shifting Gears is returning for its sophomore season on Oct. 1. When it does, fans of Allen’s popular 1990s ABC show, Home Improvement, are in for a treat.
Deadline has reported that three Home Improvement alums will join Allen in the season premiere of Shifting Gears. Slated to appear in the episode are Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn, and Debbe Dunning in guest-starring roles.
Richardson played Allen’s Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor’s wife, Jill Taylor, in all eight seasons of Home Improvement. Karn is known for playing Al Borland, Tim’s co-host of the fictional “Tool Time” show featured in the series. Dunning portrayed the “Tool Time” girl, Heidi Keppert, from Season 3 to Season 8 of the show.
While specifics on who Richardson, Karn, and Dunning will play in Shifting Gears, the characters are said to be supporting Allen’s Matt Parker character “in an unexpected way.” Shifting Gears is Allen’s third sitcom with ABC after Home Improvement and Last Man Standing.
The episode featuring members of the Home Improvement cast isn’t the first time Allen will reunite with former castmates in Shifting Gears. Last season, Nancy Travis, who starred alongside Allen in Last Man Standing for nine seasons, guest-starred in the show’s sixth episode titled “Valentine’s.” Additionally, former Tonight Show host Jay Leno, who had a recurring role in the final five seasons of Last Man Standing, guest-starred in a Season 1 Shifting Gears episode titled “Gummies,” in which he played himself.
Shifting Gears Has Been a Hit for ABC
Shifting Gears comes from series creators Julie Thacker Scully and Mike Scully and stars Allen as a widower who runs a shop specializing in classic car restoration. The first season saw Allen’s Matt Parker reunite with his estranged daughter, Riley, played by Kat Dennings. Matt reluctantly takes in Riley and her two children after she moves back home. The series co-stars Seann William Scott, Daryl Chill Mitchell, Maxwell Simkins, and Barrett Margolis.
When Shifting Gears premiered its first season on ABC, the show set an audience record for the network with its streaming viewership. In the first seven days after the show debuted on Jan. 8, 2025, the episode saw nearly 17 million viewers across ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+, and digital platforms. It also had a strong same-day audience with 6.2 million viewers.
The high numbers for its premiere made Shifting Gears the strongest debut for ABC since The Conners, a spinoff of the popular show Roseanne, premiered in 2018. The show garnered big ratings throughout its first season despite its 47% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Shifting Gears was considered to be “on the bubble” at ABC before it was officially renewed for a second season in April 2025. The renewal likely made fans happy, as the first season ended on a cliffhanger with Seann William Scott’s character, Gabriel, confessing to Riley that he had feelings for her.
Shifting Gears returns to ABC for its second season premiere on Oct. 1. Fans can catch up on the first season of the series on Hulu.
