Watch: Tim Allen Sends Fans Emotional Message as ‘Last Man Standing’ Comes to an End

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Actor Tim Allen’s top-rated sitcom, Last Man Standing, came to an end Thursday after nine seasons, 194 episodes, and two networks. And after the broadcast, Allen and the crew of the show sent his loyal fans a goodbye message thanking them for watching.

“I don’t want to wrap up this story,” Allen admitted in the tribute video posted to Twitter. And explaining why his show was a hit during every one of its nine seasons, Allen added, “We honor family, we honor relationships, it gets the best of all of us.”

Allen told Fox News that it was hard not to succumb to tears while filming the last half hour entry which aired Thursday, May 20.

“Our prop guy said, ‘Which of these did you want to take?’ and it was pictures of the family from the hallway that was going away. I walked in and looked at Nancy and [I’m] literally surprised I got through that scene,” Time Allen said. “She really looked at me [and said], ‘Are you OK?’ and I was not OK.”

Last Man Standing is one of a few hit shows that not only spanned a decade but also spanned more than one TV network. The conservative-minded comedy was infamously canceled by ABC in 2017 because it didn’t fit in with the network’s slate of shows. But Fox immediately picked it up and the show saw another three hugely successful seasons.

Along with its new characters and sitcom situations, the show also made sport of Allen’s previous hit comedy, Home Improvement, another family sitcom that ran for eight seasons on ABC. Not only did Allen bring back actors from the previous show — and gave eyewinks to the audience while doing so — he even brought himself back by doing a double exposure trick where he portrayed both Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and Mike Baxter in one of the final season’s episodes. The series also featured jabs at ABC after the show moved to Fox in 2018.

Indeed, after Last Man got canned by ABC and moved to Fox, it was a ratings bonanza for the second network. In its season seven premiere, Allen’s family sitcom pulled in a whopping eight million viewers in 2018.

Many fans were suspicious of ABC’s decision to dump the show in 2017. While running many liberal-leaning sitcoms such as The Conners, ABC seemed to have no room for the conservative-minded show or for Tim Allen’s conservative comments outside the show.

Allen is well-known for his right-leaning philosophy and his many positive comments about President Donald Trump. In 2018, for instance, Allen said that President Trump was accomplishing great things for America, despite the “drama” and the “theater” around his administration.

“He doesn’t do it very attractively but you don’t even realize the economy is doing better. Is it? There’s so much drama,” the veteran actor said of Trump’s presidential style. “Maybe it took this type of guy to get stuff done because it was so stuck in the mud. I’m just watching the theater of it and trying to keep my personal opinions out of it. What difference does it make whether I like him?

He also took aim at the left-wing cancel culture and lamented that comedy is falling victim to the left’s speech codes.

Not long before ABC cancelled his series, the 65-year-old actor said, “You’ve gotta be real careful around here. You get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes.”

“This is like ’30s Germany. I don’t know what happened. If you’re not part of the group, ‘you know what we believe is right,’ I go, ‘Well, I might have a problem with that,'” Allen added.

Allen also slammed ABC for firing Roseanne Barr from her own hit sitcom, Roseanne.

“It’s a very icy time,” Allen said of Roseanne’s termination. “I’ve been a comedian for 38 years and I’ve never seen it, like Lenny Bruce said at the Purple Onion, ‘we’ve gone backwards.’ There are things you can’t say. There are things you shouldn’t say. Who makes up these rules? And as a stand-up comic, it’s a dangerous position to be in because I like pushing buttons. It’s unfortunate.”

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