Good things are always too good to last, especially on television. Especially if there’s any hint of a plot with a right-leaning character not being evil. Firefly, with its strong libertarian themes, didn’t get out of its first season. Jericho, a show where one episode literally handed every adult and many teens an evil black rifle, was fortunate to get a second season.
So, I guess fans were lucky that Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing got six seasons. Unfortunately, that run is now at an end.
Tim Allen’s sitcom has been canceled by ABC after six seasons.
The long-running comedy has been something of an anomaly. Due to modest ratings, Last Man Standing has been considered “on the bubble” for a renewal every season since it launched in 2011. Yet the Friday night show always managed to squeak into another year — until now.
The show’s final season averaged 8.1 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49.
The show focuses on character Mike Baxter (Allen) as the only man in a house full of women but has been unique among primetime television in that Baxter is an unrepentant conservative and an unabashedly masculine male who isn’t treated like a buffoon.
Instead, Baxter navigates the world with some successes and some failures.
Last Man Standing wasn’t what many liberals might think of as the ideal conservative sitcom, either. Mom still worked–first as a geologist and later as a teacher. The eldest daughter got pregnant in high school and had a son shortly before the show begins. The middle daughter is a Kardashian wannabe, and the youngest daughter is a tomboy. More importantly, he loved each and every one…jokes to the contrary notwithstanding.
Through it all, Allen’s Baxter managed to keep audiences laughing and giving right-of-center viewers something to watch that wasn’t dripping with leftist ideology.
He was a father that dads could respect since, while far from perfect, he wasn’t always tripping over his own feet.
With Last Man’s cancellation, a void is created in primetime television for a fairly wholesome show that doesn’t skirt around the issues but doesn’t feel the need to ram the Democratic Party’s platform down your throat every few episodes.
Will another show fill that void? That’s unknown. Netflix’s The Ranch may come the closest, but the language the streaming service uses may run off many looking for family entertainment.
In the meantime, we have the rest of this season to enjoy and a whole lot of reruns.
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