Warning: SPOILERS for the pilot of Shifting Gears.
Shifting Gears premiered January 8 on ABC and will drop new episodes every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. The show is led and executive produced by sitcom legend, Tim Allen, who plays the “stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop.” However, the official synopsis teases that “when Matt’s estranged daughter and her kids move into his house, the real restoration begins.”
In addition to Allen, Shifting Gears stars Kat Dennings as Riley, Seann William Scott as Gabriel, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as Stitch, Maxwell Simkins as Carter, and Barrett Margolis as Georgia. The pilot sees Matt and Riley have a heart-to-heart as they open up about the loss of their family member. Their emotional conversation serves as a jumping-off point for the series, with the father-daughter duo deciding to compromise and work alongside one another.
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ScreenRant interviews showrunner Michelle Nader about what drew her to Shifting Gears, Tim Allen and Kat Dennings’ familial chemistry, and the upcoming introduction of Jimmy.
Dennings’ History With Nader Helped Shape Her Shifting Gears Character
“I know her voice, and so I could plug into something and have a shorthand for it going in.”
ScreenRant: Since you came on board after the pilot was written, what drew you to Shifting Gears?
Michelle Nader: I watched the pilot. I will preface it by saying I love Kat Dennings. I am clearly destined to work with her because we continue to work together, and why would I work with anyone else? But that aside, I saw the pilot, and I saw the chemistry between Tim Allen and Kat Dennings, and I thought, “That’s the special ingredient in a show that could run a really long time.”
That dynamic and their relationship was magical. It resonated with me as real, and so I thought I could do this. I would only want to do something that I knew I could do. And obviously, I always want to work with Kat, but it was that. The chemistry of those two made me know that this was something that I should do and could do.
As you said, you’ve worked with Kat Dennings before, so did having that history shape her character going forward?
Michelle Nader: Yeah, I think so. I think that I know what Kat is great at, which is a lot of stuff. Anybody could write for Kat because she’s so good. But I think that I know her voice, and so I could plug into something and have a shorthand for it going in, even though I hadn’t done the pilot. I think that helped us in terms of just speeding to a place where we were dialed into the character sooner than it takes a lot of first-season shows.
Matt And Riley’s Emotional Scene In The Shifting Gears Pilot Was Nader’s “North Star”
“That’s one of the scenes that I saw that made me know that this was something that I wanted to be a part of.”
One of my favorite aspects of the show is that it takes place in a car restoration shop. What does that setting offer from a storytelling perspective?
Michelle Nader: I love cars, and my dad used to sell used cars, and then he manufactured brakes. I was automatically just drawn to the coolest car because Tim Allen has an incredible fleet of his own cars. We use a lot of those cars in the show. But thematically, the show is about Matt Parker restoring classic cars and that metaphor is so perfect for their relationship being restored. It’s about the restoration of a family as well as his restoring cars.
And to extend that metaphor, in terms of sitcoms, what he does in his shop is RestoMod, which is restoring and modernizing cars, and that’s what we wanted to do with the sitcom, basically. Restoring and modernizing a classic form and to make it run as fast as we can in 2024. I think that people sort of went away from sitcoms because it wasn’t the cool form anymore, but I think it can be. I think it has so many qualities that people really respond to and resonate with.
The premise of the show is based around a loss, and there are some heavy moments. I thought you did a wonderful job balancing that with the comedic aspect, so in the process of finding the perfect formula, were there times when you thought, “We’re not addressing their grief enough,” or “We’re leaning too heavily into it”?
Michelle Nader: I like those emotional moments on television, especially when you have to code-switch really quickly from comedy to really deep emotion. Sitcoms are theater at some level, and you’re just looking at these characters in their raw state. That’s the idea. And I think that that’s another thing that drew me. Exploring grief in a sitcom is really like, “Wow, can we do that?” And Tim is such a good actor.
I keep saying that he is showing all these different emotions in this show that I think are really beautiful. Like that last scene in the pilot with the flour sifter, and losing his wife, but then gaining his daughter back. He’s in this really vulnerable place, which I think is really a different Tim Allen character than we’ve seen before.
Speaking of that scene between them, it was a very emotional moment. Can you talk about the importance of that?
Michelle Nader: That’s one of the scenes that I saw that made me know that this was something that I wanted to be a part of because their chemistry was so good, and it felt so real. What I’m told is that that was real. There were real tears there. I’ve said this to Tim—that was the north star for me going forward, which is, “Let us be able to get to those moments.” Not every show, but that it’s possible that we could go there and be that real and that emotional.
Viewers Will Meet Riley’s Ex In Shifting Gears Season 1
“He and Matt have a very antagonistic relationship, as you could imagine, and it’s incredibly funny.”
Matt and Riley have very different opinions on parenting just in the first episode. How much is that going to play into this relationship they’re trying to mend as the season goes on?
Michelle Nader: That conflict is the bread and butter of the show—the generational differences in their perspectives. And it happens to be true for a lot of families that they are grappling with that too. Their parents have a certain way of thinking, and they have a certain way of thinking.
And the interesting thing to me is that, when you have to be a parent and a child in the same house, and that’s Riley’s character, I think that that is really a fun exploration. What is juicy in this is that they have to find a compromise. That’s what I think people are looking at in their own lives, and people have been so polarized in the last few years. This idea of restoring a family is interesting to us.
We’ve heard a lot about Jimmy. It’s early on, but given that he is Carter and Georgia’s father, is that someone that we will meet down the line?
Michelle Nader: Yes. We actually did the Jimmy show last night. It’s called “Jimmy,” and he comes back to try to win his family back. He and Matt have a very antagonistic relationship, as you could imagine, and it’s incredibly funny, but to what our point is in terms of the emotion of it, they have a really great scene in which they have a real conversation about their history, and it gets emotional. So it’s great. I think that Lucas Neff, who plays Jimmy, did a great job. It’s a difficult character to play because no one likes this guy, but he did such a great job, and I think we will see him again.
About Shifting Gears Season 1
Created by Mike Scully And Julie Thacker-Scully
Shifting Gears stars Tim Allen as Matt, a stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop. The real restoration begins, however, when Matt’s estranged daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) and her kids move into his house. The show also stars Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, Sean William Scott, Maxwell Simkins, and Barrett Margolis.
Check out our other interviews with the Shifting Gears cast:
Shifting Gears airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Matt, a widowed and stubborn owner of a classic car restoration shop, has his life turned upside down when his estranged daughter, Riley, and her teenage children move in with him.
- Release Date
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January 8, 2025
- Character(s)
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Matt
, Riley
, Ed
, Carter
, Georgia - Seasons
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1
- TMDB User Rating
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0
.0
