Shifting Gears showrunner Michelle Nader spoke to ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese about ABC’s new sitcom. The hilarious show, which is headlined by Tim Allen and Kat Dennings, will premiere on Wednesday, January 8, at 8 p.m. ET. It will stream on Hulu the next day.
“Shifting Gears stars Tim Allen as Matt, the stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop. When Matt’s estranged daughter (Kat Dennings) and her kids move into his house, the real restoration begins,” says the synopsis for Michelle Nader’s Shifting Gears.
Tyler Treese: You worked on 2 Broke Girls, and you had a great time working with Kat Dennings. How is it reuniting with her and getting this chance to make some more sitcom magic with a familiar face?
Michelle Nader: [Shifting Gears] is magic. Because I worked with Kat on 2 Broke Girls, and then we did Dollface together, and then we wrote a pilot together. I love her. She’s incredibly talented, . I only wanna work with her, clearly. But this was divine intervention because I did not do the pilot. I was doing something else. Then there was a change in the leadership of the show, and so when I saw the pilot, I saw Kat and Tim together, and I was like, “Oh, this is really special. Their dynamic is rare.”
It’s all about that chemistry, and certainly for comedies. It was like all the signs were pointing that this was the right thing for me to do. So, and of course, reuniting with her ’cause when I saw that she was doing this, I was like, “Oh my God, Kat’s gonna do something without me. That’s gonna be sad.” But then here it happened. So I don’t know who or what good witch intervened, but I’m grateful.
One element that really impressed me watching these early episodes was that the laughs are delivered, but you can tell that there’s a lot of heart between the father and daughter relationship that we’re exploring. There’s that exploration of grief as well. Could you speak to just adding these layers to the show because this seems to have more going on than just the laughs?
Yes, exactly. That’s again, the thing that I saw in the pilot, that scene, that last scene with the flour sifter that was kind of my north star in this, that I wanted to explore grief in a sitcom in a way that I hadn’t seen before. Also, repairing a relationship between an estranged daughter and father, again, spoke to me personally, and they were so real in that scene. I thought, well if I’m gonna watch a sitcom, that’s what I wanna see. The hard laughs and then the real emotion.
I thought, well, these are the right people to do it. They have the skill set to do it. Then the stories that we can tell can really bring that out. So I think, yes, that’s exactly what we do. What we’re going for moving forward is exploring grief. There’s actually, one of the episodes is about them exploring the grief of her mother and his wife. We really do that. Then they also have to like, get along, figure out the relationship. That’s hard. That’s real. So there’s a lot of real issues that I think people will resonate with people.
Tim Allen is just a master of his craft. Especially within the sitcom space, there’s few that just have that timing. How’s it working with somebody who really has that experience where you expect greatness from him? Did anything surprise you about working with him?
Yes. That’s so funny that you say that because I say to him too, ’cause I work with him, and we talk about and collaborate with the stories that we’re doing, the scripts, and all of it. Then obviously shooting. So you would think I just get to know what he’s doing. Every time I see a cut of him, he’s doing stuff that is so specific, and it is so surprising when I see it. This guy is, I’m gonna say it, he’s talented. He is. No, he really is. He has that complexity that is so deceptive because you think he’s just being funny, but there are so many layers there.
In the show, Tim gets to go on some pretty patented rants, like the “Jesus didn’t Uber” line really had me laughing. When you’re working on these episodes, how’s it really just giving him the space for those moments? Because fans definitely want and expect that and you deliver on that.
Yeah, it’s fun. Even with the one that we did … he brings up pickleball. Like, who’s gonna rant about pickleball? But it’s really funny that he has a perspective on everything, and I think a lot of people will relate to it. Like, yeah, pickleball is kind of dumb. The fact that he’ll go off on [everything from] politics to pickleball, that’s what people wanna see. His daughter, Kat’s character, will just have the opposite reaction to all of that, which is kind of generationally true. So I think a lot of families will relate to this.
You figured out the generational aspect, which I really like because Kat is giving as much as she’s taking here. There’s a great back-and-forth between them. Could you speak to those differing viewpoints? Because they both see the world very differently, and that creates some conflict. But you also see something similar, and they’re both very outgoing and willing to share their opinions.
Yeah. They’re the same person. They just have different perspectives on the same thing. That’s what I think is the fire in their relationship. But it’s also, I think what we’re trying to do as well is sort of find the common ground. Everyone does seem very polarized now; we’ve been living in that polarized world, and I think that these two represent the polarity, and if they can come together and find some middle ground, well, then can’t we all do it?
It’s a good message, for sure.
No, yeah. But it’s not even the packaged sitcom-y thing. It’s like they really argue, and they really don’t think the other person is right. That’s really true. So I think it’s just about not hiding in the shadows of that and not talking about stuff. It’s like, let’s go for it, let’s do it.
And then I, I was curious, because you have these two great sitcom stars with Kat and Tim, um, and people know, you know, what they like about them, and, and people also like to be surprised. So how is it finding that balance of using their strengths while not making it a retread of their previous work?
Like you said, they’re both, I think, some of the best sitcom stars that we’ve seen, certainly in this millennium. While I think that they have similar voices to their other characters, and some of it is because of just who they are. I think the newness is this dynamic. Because I feel like you haven’t seen two formidable people in the same sitcom. Like they’re really like Godzilla versus Mothra. They’re big people, and you’re like, who’s gonna win? Like, I’m scared.
Brenda Song makes a great, early guest-star appearance. How was it working with her again?
Oh my gosh. So me, Kat, and Brenda, we’re all on Dollface together, and, for me, I’ve worked with so many talented people, and to call Brenda and say, “Will you do this?” She’s down for it, and she’s so busy, she’s killing it out there. That’s what we wanna do is just draw some really talented people to this form again. I think we will. Jenna Elfman is coming on as well. I think everybody’s ready for a network comedy in the way that we used to love them.
Thanks to Shifting Gears’ Michelle Nader for taking the time to talk about the new sitcom.
