Development and casting Last Man Standing first appeared on ABC's development slate in late 2010 when writer
Jack Burditt received a
put pilot commitment from ABC under the original title
Man Up. In January 2011, ABC
green-lighted production of a
pilot episode under the title
Last Days of Man. On February 18,
Tim Allen, who had been attached to the potential series from the beginning, officially joined the project in the lead role. At the end of March,
Nancy Travis joined the cast in the leading female role as Allen's "smart and loving wife who doesn't miss much". Soon thereafter,
Héctor Elizondo came on board in a supporting role as the boss to Allen's character.
Shooting schedule On May 13, 2011, ABC picked up the pilot for the
2011–2012 television season under the new title
Last Man Standing. On May 17, 2011, ABC announced that the series would air on Tuesday nights at 8 Eastern/7 Central. It debuted on October 11, 2011, with the first two episodes airing in a one-hour premiere. On November 3, 2011, the series was picked up for a full season of twenty-two episodes. On January 12, 2012, the order was increased to twenty-four episodes. On May 11, 2012, ABC renewed the series for a second season set to air in the
2012–2013 season in November. On June 11, 2012,
Tim Doyle was hired as the new showrunner of the series. Doyle was the third showrunner that the series had since it entered production. Doyle replaced Kevin Abbott, who joined the staff as the showrunner mid-way in the first season. Abbott replaced series creator Jack Burditt, who was the showrunner for the first thirteen episodes. Unlike Burditt, who is no longer credited as an executive producer, Abbott continued to serve as an executive producer while showrunning the fellow ABC sitcom
Malibu Country starring
Reba McEntire. Both
Last Man Standing and
Malibu Country aired as a part of ABC's Friday night lineup for the 2012–2013 primetime television season. On November 8, 2012, Abbott re-joined the
Last Man Standing crew full-time, after a stint in rehab, and gave Nastaran Dibai full showrunning duties of
Malibu Country. On June 11, 2012, it was announced that
Alexandra Krosney (Kristin) was let go from the show for creative reasons. Krosney was replaced by
Amanda Fuller in season 2. On June 19, 2012, it was also announced that twins Luke and Evan Kruntchev, who played the role of Boyd in season 1, would not be returning; they were replaced by Flynn Morrison in season 2. The character of Boyd was also
age-advanced from two years old to five years old.
Jordan Masterson plays Ryan, Boyd's father, in a recurring role beginning in season 2. The role was previously played by
Nick Jonas, who guest-starred in one episode in season 1. On November 27, five more episodes were ordered to bring the second-season episode total to 18. On May 10, 2013, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on September 20, 2013, and ended on April 25, 2014, after 22 episodes. On May 10, 2014, ABC renewed
Last Man Standing for a fourth season, which premiered on October 3, 2014. Allen and Elizondo guest-starred as their
Last Man Standing characters in a crossover episode with the fellow ABC Friday sitcom
Cristela. On May 10, 2015, ABC announced the show had been renewed for a fifth season.
Last Man Standing had become a solid performer for the Friday night lineup at ABC, which with the help of
Shark Tank and
20/20 has become the top network among adults 18–49 for the night. Leading off Friday night for ABC, the sitcom averaged a 1.8 rating in adults 18–49 and 8.2 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen's Live+7 estimates. On May 13, 2016, ABC renewed the series for a sixth season, which premiered on September 23, 2016. The entire set of the show had to be rebuilt following its cancellation on ABC and subsequent revival on Fox in 2018, according to representatives of an unrelated studio company who visited the set and attended a taping of the show at
Radford Studio Center. On March 15, 2020, production on the series was shut down during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Cancellation On May 10, 2017, ABC canceled
Last Man Standing after six seasons, despite the series being the second-most-watched ABC sitcom during the 2016–17 season (based on Live+7 figures), with ratings remaining mostly steady during its sixth season. The cancellation caused the show's fans to question its motivation, and many took to
social media to voice their displeasure and petition for another network to pick up the show. It also happened some months after lead actor Tim Allen (who is also a real-life Republican) said in an interview on
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, that being a Republican in Hollywood is "like 1930s Germany. You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You'll get beat up if you don't believe what everybody believes". His comment was widely criticized, especially his comparing the treatment of Republicans in Hollywood with
Nazi Germany. A viewer petition on the website
Change.org calling for ABC to reinstate
Last Man Standing surpassed 380,000 signatures as of May 23, 2017. In a conference call with reporters earlier in May, ABC president
Channing Dungey stated, "
Last Man Standing was a challenging one for me, because it was a steady performer. Once we made the decision not to continue with comedy on Friday, it was just kind of that's where we landed." Dungey cited studio ownership, future creative direction, ratings, and viewer engagement as all factors in her decision. A year later, the petition's signatures had grown to 438,000. On May 20, 2017, Howard Kurtzman, president of
20th Century Fox Television, reportedly showed some interest in his studio continuing to produce the show. "We're starting to explore that," Kurtzman said. "... Jonnie and I are hopeful that we can find another home for it."
Variety also confirmed in an exclusive report that 20th Century Fox Television would shop the series to other networks and streaming services in hopes it would be picked up for a seventh season; another home was not quickly found, however. In August 2017, Allen expressed his appreciation for support by the show's fans to bring it back, and said the talent behind the show had much more to add.
Revival on Fox On May 3, 2018, Allen wrote that a return "just might be a reality" and prompted the show's supporters to "keep it up". The same day, TVLine reported that
Fox was "poised to" resurrect
Last Man Standing for the 2018–19 TV season, adding that Tim Allen is "officially on board".
Deadline Hollywood reported that Fox was in talks for another season, but it was "by no means a sure thing", suggesting it would depend on whether the actors could be re-signed "at reasonable salaries". On May 11, 2018, Fox TV's CEOs and chairmen announced that Fox had officially picked up
Last Man Standing for a seventh season. Dana Walden, chairman of Fox Television Group, later hinted that the return of
Last Man Standing was in part a response to the huge success of the
Roseanne revival on ABC earlier in 2018: "Obviously, I think everyone took a good, hard look at the performance of
Roseanne. It did so well, and it certainly did remind us that we have a huge, iconic comedy star in our Fox family in Tim Allen." On July 2, Fox announced that, in addition to Allen, series regulars Nancy Travis, Amanda Fuller, Hector Elizondo, Christoph Sanders, Jordan Masterson and Jonathan Adams had all signed on to appear in the season 7 revival. Molly Ephraim and Flynn Morrison both opted not to return for the new season, On August 6, 2018, it was announced that
Molly McCook and
Jet Jurgensmeyer would be taking over the roles of Mandy and Boyd, respectively. The article also stated that Kaitlyn Dever, who recently signed on to play a lead role in the 2019
Netflix miniseries
Unbelievable, would return as Eve in a recurring role only. For the seventh season, the show aired in the same Friday night time slot as for the last five of its six seasons on ABC; the show was renewed for an eighth season, and was moved to a new time slot, as Fox had signed an agreement to air
WWE SmackDown on Friday nights beginning in fall 2019. When the Fox schedule was released in May 2019,
Last Man Standing was placed in a Thursday night time slot, but only in weeks when Fox would not air
NFL or
XFL games. On October 24, 2019, it was announced that season eight had been scheduled to premiere on January 2, 2020, with 2 back-to-back episodes airing in an hour time slot for three weeks on January 2, 9 and 16, before returning to a one-episode-a-week time slot of 8/7c starting on January 23. On May 19, 2020, Fox renewed the series for a ninth and final season, which premiered on January 3, 2021. ==Release==