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Censors Up in Arms Over Tim Allen’s Rebooted ‘Last Man Standing’ as Sitcom Aims for Archie Bunker Territory

Nov 1, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Censors at Walt Disney are on the alert over a more controversial version of "Last Man Standing," the ABC comedy starring Tim Allen, reports the New York Post.

The new version of the series is targeting more sensitive topics, such as racism and homosexuality, with the show’s return for its second season. Allen said the show is aiming to be a modern-day "All in the Family," according to the story.

“When didn’t you talk about what Archie Bunker said?” Allen said. “Maybe you didn’t agree with him. But you couldn’t help but like his passion — or his ignorance. We think we can reboot that."

With new showrunner Tim Doyle, Allen is hoping to draw more viewers to the show, the piece adds. Doyle said ABC felt Allen’s character didn’t have a strong enough point of view during the show’s first season.

Among the lines that have already been cut is one in which Allen’s TV daughter calls a classmate gay, the story says. Another episode features Allen’s character having mixed feelings when the first African-American family moves onto their block.

"There are several jokes in there that were red flagged as being ‘too far,’” Allen said.

11 Comments

  1. Mr. Allen, I applaud you. I have seen none of the new ones but you know you can only recycle your old material so much.
    Disney (and nearly all others) don’t like you to write about real issues in contemporary terms with the same ignorance/edge that we all hear nearly every day. I can hear the executives already: “Dumb it down, dammit! And while you’re at it, gloss over the touchy stuff. That’s how you make a hit!” The bad part about hearing that is that these three sentences take hours of meetings and hundreds of emails to say the same thing.
    Am I right people?

  2. I know racism has not gone away but really, having and African-American family move onto the block is a storyline from 20+ years ago, not 2012! Comedy should move forward, not backwards. What a bad, bad decision they are making.

  3. Smokegurl,
    You’re having a reaction that is normal. We all know racism is still, and will forever exist with humans, but you are forgetting or perhaps never knew, that the subjects brought up by Archie were real and were moral passion plays. The Archie/blind ignorance is ALWAYS wrong. This show among all others is what really started the melting pot as a practice, not a theory. Again, if the writing is good, the show will be also.

  4. The Tim Allen show “Last Man Standing” is a great show and will be be even greater if ABC gives it an opportunity to grow…But one thing stands out this season more than last year…Who decided to replace the oldest daughter with this new actress…The oldest daughter fed off her fathers character like no other sitcom that I can remember…She was funny and witty and should not have been replaced…This new star doesn’t have that certain something that the audience is dying for and that is personality….She just doesn’t have it….I guess it’s to late to switch back.

  5. I am currently watching this show for the first time, and already can see that this show is at least mildly racist. The black neighbor lady is running for shook board, and wants to put signs in the lawn, which Tim’s character is against, which is fine. I’m sure there’s a non-racist reason the character hates the black family, but when his wife inquires where the support sign went, Tim responds, “I don’t know, maybe it moved on up to the east side.”

    • I realized it was racist when Allen’s character said “…It’s (Immigration) what made our country great. That, and assimilation.” Speaking as someone who is (partially) of Native American descent, (Cherokee and Choctaw), one of my first thoughts were, “Oh of course the white guy approves of assimilation.”

  6. Best show on TV. Sick of the PC police.

  7. This is America and it seems the only people not Allowed to our right to free speech Are White, heterosexual Christians!

  8. Great show & very funny. I’m sick of hearing how racist something is because white people are expressing their opinions.

  9. Keep it going Tim Allen. You have great ideas on every day life situations. Jokes are funny and appropriate. The black neighbor dishes out jokes equally as great. Best show ever!

  10. The new black neighbor episode is a stone cold laugh riot, with Tim and the new guy trading racially tinged jabs, and several subsequent episodes do the same.

    It’s comedy, people. Comedians make fun of body type, religion, families, occupations, tastes, gender, vegetarians, diseases, politics and a million other very personal things. But for some reason a handful of races/nationalities are off limits, whiles dozens of others aren’t? Grow up and brush the giant chip off your shoulder.

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