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‘Last Man Standing’ Star Proud of How Show Tackled Current Events: ‘You Don’t Have to Agree with Everything’

As Tim Allen and the rest of the Last Man Standing family celebrates the end of an era, the comedian and actor is proud of the way the show tackled politics head-on.

For those who don’t know, Tim Allen plays the role of Mike Baxter in the show. He is a marketing director for an outdoorsman retail store. As we have come to learn from Allen over the years, it seems that he is at his best — and his funniest — when he is thrust into the role of “family man” who doesn’t always have all the right answers.

And speaking of not having all the right answers, Allen admitted Thursday during Fox’s summer press day panel that he is proud of how the show tackled polarizing topics like politics.

“It’s funny that this group, left and right among us, we didn’t like when we were told early on by both networks [ABC and Fox] that we might want to avoid talking about politics,” Allen admitted. “I loved that we all are the type of people who said, ‘Well, screw that, we’re going to talk about it anyway.’”

If you have ever watched Last Man Standing for yourself, you probably know that some moments in the show definitely press the issue. But looking back, that is something that Allen can appreciate.

“What I’ve always appreciated about this group is that we have a broad range of attitudes,” he said. “We really pushed a little bit, and I really admire that.”

‘Last Man Standing’ Executive Producer Agrees With Tim Allen

Last Man Standing executive producer Kevin Abbott had similar takeaways as Tim Allen. He says that the show was able to walk the line on politics very well. Abbott believes that was the case thanks to having a set of “blended very different ideologies.”

“Our attitude is that you don’t have to agree with everything I say. But we should communicate and we should share our ideas in a respectful manner,” Abbott said. “Which is not currently being done out there in the general public. We always wanted to represent that. The way I felt about it is, if everybody interacted the way some of our characters did, we’d probably all be a lot better off.”

“There were a lot of issues that were dealt with over the years. But not as much in the last season because we’re airing midseason,” Abbott continued. “We started producing at a time when we didn’t know who was going to win the election. So, we had to veer away from a lot of things like current events that were changing every day.”

Meanwhile, Abbott doesn’t believe the show should be remembered specifically for having political content.

“I believe the show will be remembered for having some political content, yes,” he added. “But not so much where we’ve been in the last year. We steered away from that for practical reasons.”

Tune in on May 20 to catch the special one-hour season finale of Last Man Standing. It will air on Fox beginning at 9 p.m. ET.