The Last Man Standing won’t be soon, as Fox announced today that it’s granted one final season to Tim Allen’s exploration of manhood, standing, and the basic unkillability of a certain class of “Things were better before these got-damned smartphones” conservative smallness. The show will wrap up with its 9th season, which will also be its third on Fox, which picked the show up after it was canceled by ABC. (That was back in 2017, right around the time the network made the rage-inducing decision to simultaneously dump Brooklyn Nine-Nine.)
For those who’ve never seen it, Last Man Standing is all about Tim Allen’s character doing and saying Tim Allen things—sort of like Home Improvement, except without the terrifying neighbor ghost, or the tacit acknowledgement that the Tim Allen character is a hapless, dangerous boob whose ideas will likely end up killing everyone he loves. The series co-stars Nancy Travis as Allen’s long-suffering-by-default wife, and a rotating series of actors playing their various children. (Seriously, this show has churned through a lot of kids, at least in part because of that surprise revival.)
Allen made a statement today, noting that they’d considered ending the Last Man Standing saga after a mere 8 seasons on the air, but ultimately decided to knock one out for the fans, writing, “We had all considered to end the show after last season, but together with FOX, we decided to add a year so we could produce a full season to create the gentle and fun goodbye. I’m looking forward to a memorable and hilarious final season.” Because we’re small and petty people, we then assume he began grunting wildly, looking for a smartphone to smash.