During last week’s Last Man Standing Season 8 premiere, there was a surprisingly emotional moment for what is usually a light-hearted family sitcom. After the Baxter family celebrated the news that Kristin is pregnant again, Amanda Fuller‘s character made a heartbreaking revelation to her sister, Mandy (Molly McCook). Last Man Standing executive producer Kevin Abbott praised Fuller for bringing “emotional weight” to the scene.
In “No Parental Guidance,” Kristin told her parents and sisters she is expecting her second child with Ryan (Jordan Masterson). Many was disappointed that Kristin did not tell her before breaking the news to the rest of their family. Kristin said she wanted to wait longer to open up about the pregnancy because a previous pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.
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“It was really early in the pregnancy,” Kristin explained. “Miscarriages happen sometimes.”
“When you’re doing a comedy, you approach these things carefully,” Abbott, who wrote the episode, told TVLine of the emotional scene. “We want to be real and grounded, but we don’t want it to be maudlin or preachy in any way.”
“Because it was such an important topic to put out there, we wanted to make sure… that people would receive it the way that we meant it to be [received],” McCook added.
Abbott said he had a serious conversation with Fuller before filming, because he wanted “to be sensitive to the actress,” as Fuller was pregnant in real life when the episode was filmed.
“She wanted to keep it real, but not be pitying or anything,” Abbott explained. “She kind of hits it, gives it a little bit of an emotional weight, then says that it’s OK… We tried it a number of different ways during rehearsals to try and get that balance.”
McCook explained that it was important for both she and Fuller to have a say in how the lines were delivered, especially since they already know the characters so well.
“By the time we got in front of the audience, we were all on the same page,” she told TVLine. “It’s such a sensitive subject… It’s so important for people [who have gone through this] to feel like they’re not alone.”
The Last Man Standing writers decided to write Fuller’s real-life pregnancy into the show to avoid having to find some way to work around it. Fuller and husband Matthew Bryan Feld welcomed their first child in November.
Kristin’s second pregnancy comes at a very different time for the character. When she and Jordan welcomed Boyd (Jet Jurgensmeyer), they were not married. Now, the couple have their own home and stable jobs. The differences between the first and second pregnancies will play a big role in future episodes.
New episodes of Last Man Standing, which stars Tim Allen as Mike Baxter, air at 8 p.m. ET Thursdays on Fox.
Photo credit: Michael Becker/Fox
