So there we have it, ABC’s mid-season comedy line-up is all set with three rather than four shows going into early 2025.
Abbott Elementary continues yet another full season (Currently on Season 4) at the halfway mark while The Conners’ 7th and final season begins at the same time with six episodes to go, and now Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears joins the party as the next new sitcom for ABC since the recently axed Not Dead Yet back in early 2023. In case you missed it, its about Tim’s persona Matt going through a personal restoration of his own on top of his successful restoration car business when his teenage daughter moves in alongside her teenage kids following her divorce on what is going to be a long ride together from here.
That means, Ty Burrell’s Shifting Gears pilot unfortunately didn’t make it into the network’s plans – so no series order from them. Thought they would be up there after a year of in-development alongside someone who is well known for Modern Family before being given a pilot order a few months ago.
But then things began to go downhill I’m afraid when it comes to the pilot presentation after management got the chance to watch this for an assessment.
Although some of the bits and pieces were not bad including some crucial tweaks, such as the re-cast of Hank’s son in a bid to appease management. But again, the plot when being added on a video tape copy just couldn’t quite translate what the network wants to offer to their audience for TV.
It would’ve been great if a sitcom like this be on any one of the TV networks out there to tackle dementia in a positive way had this gone into a series for mid-season.
At the end of the day, it’s ABC’s decision – who doesn’t sound confident on showing a sitcom that would potentially upset some of the audience – about someone having dementia & wanting to make memories while he can that affects the elderly.
Especially when Forgive and Forget was filmed in front of a studio audience which is something the network wants to do to cut costs going forward. Probably another reason why Burrell’s project didn’t do well when his Modern Family success was via single-camera. Maybe ABC would’ve gave them another chance there instead in a different format, but then they’re less reliant on single-camera comedies & more into drama and reality/unscripted as said with their $$$.
To those who had the chance to watch the pilot, glad you saw it whereas the TV audience may not be able to ever since it’s going to be archived in a warehouse vault. But you never know what’s going to happen since these failed pilot lifelines being picked up by other networks are very rare as 20th Television is not forgiving and forgetting this one just yet.
And on Shifting Gears, we all know having this star power cast alongside a killer script/plot for Tim Allen’s next TV gig was easy enough for ABC to bring them in following their pilot presentation last month. Sure, it’s almost like a straight-to-series as always where their selection process is based on quality than quantity – see High Potential as a reference from early last year based on the hit French police dramedy, while they also had some off-set changes lately likewise with Burrell’s latest pilot.
But this is a project that’s still highly well regarded just to make sure all systems can go for the network to begin foster a good relationship with the viewers via Allen once again like it was in the past when you look back at Home Improvement and later Last Man Standing.
What will look like as said with their 2025 mid-season schedule, mainly on Wednesdays, is maybe they’ll start with 60-90 mins on reality from 8pm followed by 90 mins of comedy and maybe another half-hour from elsewhere.
That’s the plan going forward as keep an eye out on Shifting Gears over the next few months such as the key art, logo, pictures and the first look promo before they will finally make it on the air early next year. For now, congratulations to Allen with the call-up once again as we look forward to see him return to the Disney family on ABC & 20th Television soon enough.
Note: The Shifting Gears logo above was maybe via a pilot presentation screenshot on IMDB as this may not be the official one being implemented by ABC but we’ll see.
