The Office and 25 TV shows that were never supposed to be hits
By Kareem Gantt
4. Last Man Standing (ABC/FOX)
Series run: 2011-Present (7 seasons/139 episodes)
When it premiered in the fall of 2011, Last Man Standing was supposed to be a “filler show.”
A “filler show” is a program that networks put on the schedule to flesh out a season roster, and these shows, normally, aren’t expected to make it to a second season, but there have been a few exceptions to this rule over the years.
One of them was The Goldbergs, and the other was Last Man Standing.
The series revolves around Mike Baxter, played by Tim Allen, who is the director of marketing for a sporting goods store in Denver. The series follows a theme that Allen’s previous comedy, Home Improvement, perfected, and the family-friendly sitcom was, in a lot of ways, the opposite of ABC’s hit sitcom, Modern Family.
It can be said that ABC didn’t go out of its way to promote the series, but over the years, the show gained a huge following, especially among conservative viewers who were not too knee on Modern Family’s liberal ethos. The show outlasted its “filler’ label and was a mainstay on Friday nights for six years until ABC axed the program in 2017.
Fans of the show were irate at the move, as Last Man Standing, despite its less-than-ideal timeslot, had consistently solid ratings. Making the move even more questionable was the fact that it was actually the second-most-watched sitcom of the 2016-17 season, beating out the declining Modern Family.
But it got cut anyway, and it looked like the unorthodox ride for Last Man Standing was over. Until Fox stepped in and revived the show for a seventh season, and well-deserved because Last Man Standing is truly one of the last pillars standing for traditional sitcoms.