One of the pleasures of watching network TV is seeing how the show shifts and changes as the creative team sees what is working and what is not. Less frequent but also compelling is watching how a sitcom’s sets change and evolve, as the home does in ABC’s “Shifting Gears.”
ABC’s most-watched series premiere on streaming platforms, “Shifting Gears” stars Tim Allen and Kat Dennings as an estranged father and daughter who find themselves living together with her two children. And that means heavy play for that classic of all sitcom tropes: a living room set.
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”There’s a growth curve,” production designer Stephan Olson told Indiewire. “It’s just a huge learning process for the characters [and] what the house is like. The house changes with these new characters in it.”
One thing that gradually changes is what Olson called “sitcom clutter.” When “Shifting Gears” begins, Matt (Allen) has been living alone after the death of his wife. And what is quickly clear is that he hasn’t touched the decor; a resolutely “man’s man” like Matt definitely didn’t pick out that fluorescent-colored fridge.
“That is one of the things we talked about, that he would not have changed anything,” Olson said. “They had sort of a minimal lifestyle. They were empty nesters. And that was a conscious choice on everybody’s part, to not have that sitcom clutter. We had to do some convincing because I think the network sometimes would like to see it look more comfortable and more inviting, and Tim’s answer to that was, ‘The kids [characters] are gonna bring that.’”
“Shifting Gears” also featured more growing pains than most sitcoms, with the departure of the initial showrunners when ABC picked the pilot up to series, along with recasting a role and eliminating another. All far more complex problems to solve than finding the perfect couch or what art to hang on the stairwell — though that, too, was a process. And in the case of the art, one that took several episodes to resolve, as eagle-eyed viewers can attest. (Olson said they’ve now landed on one.)
‘Shifting Gears’Disney
Olson’s extensive sitcom experience (including production designing “How I Met Your Mother”) stood him in good stead in creating the worlds within “Shifting Gears,” from Matt’s home to his repair shop. Notably, Olson knows how much a set benefits from depth; from the study on the other side of the hallway visible from the living room to a media room off the kitchen, Matt’s house feels like a real home.
“That was an early idea that I pitched, and it kind of went away for a while during the process,” Olson said. “Then we were walking on the sets, and we’re like, ‘Boy, it would really be nice to have that.’ So we built it back again. The directors like to play the depth. It gives them the chance for a lot of movement.”
The repair shop evolved a little faster once they decided that Matt was reasonably successful (otherwise, how could a family of three comfortably move in with him?). And as it happens, they had an on-set resource for vintage cars for the first few episodes.
‘Shifting Gears’Disney
”We’re very lucky because Tim is a car guy, and he has his own collection of amazing vehicles,” Olson said. “[So far] they’re Tim’s cars, and we have a transportation department and a car consultant team. And so they know what cars are going to come in each episode, and what will be the progression of [the characters’ repair] work, if any? That’s a whole department that you normally don’t have.”
Allen’s involvement is hardly surprising; he’s called Matt the character closest to him in his entire career. And with 30 years of successful sitcoms behind him, Allen knows a thing or two about how to make a network half-hour work. “Tim, he’s got the last word on everything,” Olson said. “He’ll go through a dressed set, and he’ll go, ‘Not that, not that, I like that, move that over there, can this rug be turned? I don’t like those pillows.’ And so we get new pillows.”
“Shifting Gears” premieres new episodes on ABC at 8 p.m. ET every Wednesday.
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