‘Last Man Standing’ Ending Leaves Tim Allen With ‘Difficult’ Emotions

Last Man Standing star Tim Allen is just one week away from saying goodbye to the show for good. Even though he has been here before, it does not make saying goodbye any easier. In an interview with Deadline, the former Home Improvement star admitted to having “problems” with saying leaving Mike Baxter and his family behind.

The series is wrapping up with an hour-long finale on Thursday, May 20 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox. That’s just five days shy of the 22nd anniversary of Home Improvement‘s series finale airing. This is also the second ending for Last Man Standing, as the show was canceled after six seasons on ABC. It was then brought back by Fox for another three seasons. This time, the show is going out on Allen’s terms.

“To be very honest, I have had problems letting go of this one,” Allen said during a press conference Thursday, reports Deadline. “It’s just been three or four weeks and I’m literally just feeling better. Never have I enjoyed, outside of Home Improvement and maybe moments of Galaxy Quest, one of these jobs. This crew, from the guy at the gate to Radford inside to people we ate with, I loved every second of this experience.”

Allen said the past few weeks were more difficult than the last days of Last Man Standing‘s original run, which came as a surprise at the time. This time, Allen knew the end was coming and savored every moment. “This set, I looked at every set piece. I walked through every hallway over and over again, always looking around. It didn’t help. Having this pulled from us several times like that, you get used to sudden death and for some reason, I prefer that,” Allen explained. “For whatever reason, this was the end of the nine-year stretch on this. [It’s] very difficult on me.”

The Last Man Standing finale starts with “Baxter Boot Camp,” which features Mike (Allen) teaching Kristin (Amanda Fuller) about how to balance her work at Outdoor Man with her life outside work, while Vanessa (Nancy Travis) and Mandy (Molly McCook) teach Jen (Krista Marie Yu) a thing or two about camping. In “Keep on Truckin,’” the Baxter family rallies around Mike when his beloved truck is stolen just after he finally finishes restoring it. The episode will feature the return of Eve (Kaitlyn Dever), in just her third appearance of the season.

Fox and Allen announced that Last Man Standing would end this season in October. It will finish with a whopping 194 episodes overall. “I’ve been one lucky dude,” Allen said in October. “I so appreciate the incredible support from our fans over this near-decade of work… I admire and feel grateful for all the hard work our wonderful cast and crew have done. We had all considered to end the show after last season, but together with Fox, we decided to add a year so we could produce a full season to create the gentle and fun goodbye.”