Tim Allen's sitcom Last Man Standing is a very mediocre sitcom which would not merit its own thread were it not for the shenanigans going on with the production. Despite good ratings it was cancelled by ABC after Tim Allen badmouthed the network claiming he was discriminated against for being conservative. Since then, Allen has gone around claiming that they canceled it because he was conservative, rather than because he bit the hand that fed him.
A few months ago, following on the success of the Roseanne revival, Fox decided to revive Last Man Standing. The middle daughter, formerly played by Molly Ephraim, declined to join the revival and will have to be recast, while the younger daughter, played by Kaitlyn Dever (who also Loretta McCready in Justified), is reportedly in negotiations to appear in a recurring role but will not be back full time.
The premise of the show is that Tim Allen is a conservative outdoorsy manly man whose job previously took him away from his family most of the time, but who now has to spend time at home with his wife and three daughters who include a liberal teen mom, a girly-girl, and a tomboy who he does not try to hide is his favorite.
While I like the show well enough, one thing that has always annoyed me is that the actress playing the oldest daughter was fired after the first season and her role recast. The original actress, Alexandra Krosney, did a great job portraying a struggling young single mother. The new actress, Amanda Fuller, came across as overconfident and obnoxious, and in five seasons I have not warmed up to her at all.
I have long wondered whether Tim Allen replaced Krosney because he wanted his liberal foil to be more annoying. What little character growth she has displayed on the show pretty much amounts to her coming around to her father's political views on some issues. I recently got to watch Fuller play a character in Orange is the New Black where she is supposed to be annoying and does a good job of it, but also supposed to be intimidating and falls flat. (She also has the worst fake Boston accent I have ever heard.) Several people have commented that she did a terrible job in the TV movie The Brittany Murphy Story. I have come to the conclusion that Fuller may not be acting when she plays annoying characters, she may be a bad actress who is genuinely annoying.
Despite the recasting of Kristin's role, I enjoyed some of the other interactions on the show enough to keep watching. With the exception of the relationship between Allen's boss on the show, Ed Alzate, and Allen's employee/son-in-law, Kyle, all of the dynamics that I enjoyed involved the other two daughters in some way. Since one is being recast (in this case it is Ephraim's choice) and one will be only a recurring character, I kind of suspect that the show will descend from annoying to awful.
Has anyone else watched Last Man Standing? What did you think of the recasting of Kristin, and what you you think about the coming revival?