logo
Jay Leno to Reunite With Tim Allen on Shifting Gears — Get a First Look

Jay Leno to Reunite With Tim Allen on Shifting Gears — Get a First Look

Yahoo12-02-2025
We all know Jay Leno loves cars, so it was only a matter of time before he paid a visit to Tim Allen's Shifting Gears.
Leno will make a cameo as himself in the March 12 episode of Allen's ABC comedy, TVLine has learned, with Leno bringing his car into the auto restoration shop run by Allen's character Matt for a repair.
More from TVLine
Matthew Rhys to Lead Widow's Bay Series for Apple TV+
TVLine Items: Sean Bean Is Sheriff of Nottingham, Bridgerton Star's Rom-Com Trailer and More
NCIS: Origins Casts Lauren Bowles as Wife of Patrick Fischler's SAC Cliff Wheeler (Exclusive)
ABC has released a first-look photo as well, which you can see here:
This marks a reunion for Leno and Allen, with Leno recurring on Allen's previous sitcom Last Man Standing as Joe, a mechanic at the sporting goods store where Allen's Mike Baxter worked. Leno and Allen both rose to fame as stand-up comics in the '80s as well, and share a love of cars, with Allen appearing on Leno's reality show Jay Leno's Garage.
Elsewhere in the March 12 episode of Shifting Gears, titled 'Gummies,' 'Riley is horrified when she finds weed gummies in Carter's pocket, prompting surprising advice from Matt,' per the official synopsis. 'Meanwhile, Eve inadvertently lands Gabriel and Stitch in hot water after asking them to donate to a charity auction.'
Shifting Gears is also bringing back Allen's Last Man Standing wife Nancy Travis for an episode airing this Wednesday (8/7c, ABC), and Raising Hope alum Lucas Neff joined the cast earlier this month as Jimmy, the estranged husband of Kat Dennings' Riley.
Happy to see Leno and Allen together again? Hit the comments to share your thoughts on the casting news.
Best of TVLine
Stars Who Almost Played Other TV Roles — on Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, Lost, Gilmore Girls, Friends and Other Shows
TV Stars Almost Cast in Other Roles
Fall TV Preview: Who's In? Who's Out? Your Guide to Every Casting Move!
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Ben Folds on the depth of the new ‘Snoopy Presents' animated musical and why he left Trump's Kennedy Center
Ben Folds on the depth of the new ‘Snoopy Presents' animated musical and why he left Trump's Kennedy Center

Los Angeles Times

time41 minutes ago

  • Los Angeles Times

Ben Folds on the depth of the new ‘Snoopy Presents' animated musical and why he left Trump's Kennedy Center

Snoopy is the superstar of the 'Peanuts' world, but Ben Folds is loyal to Charlie Brown. 'I'm going to have to go with Chuck because he's so emotionally compressed,' the singer-songwriter said when asked for a favorite. Folds didn't grow up poring over the Charles M. Schulz comics or memorizing the TV specials — 'I can't think of anything I really was a fan of outside of music' — but he loved Vince Guaraldi's music for the animated specials. He started studying Charlie Brown and the gang when he was hired to write the title song for 'It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown,' sung by Charlie's sister Sally in the 2022 Apple TV special. And he recently dove back into the world of these iconic characters when he returned to write the final three songs for 'Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical.' 'I think it's good that I came to fully appreciate the world of 'Peanuts' as an adult,' says Folds, although he adds that he was still starstruck about writing for Charlie Brown. 'It's a lot of responsibility,' he says. 'I was asking the Schulz family, 'Can I say this?' and they'd say, 'Yes, it's yours.'' Folds' best-known songs, such as 'Brick,' 'Song for the Dumped,' 'Army,' 'Rockin' the Suburbs' and 'Zak and Sara,' may seem too sardonic or dark for the sweet world of Snoopy and company. But he sees it differently. 'There's a lot of deep stuff there. 'Peanuts,' like 'Mister Rogers,' presents an empathetic and nuanced, not dumbed-down view of the world, and that is rare for kids programming,' he says. 'I was able to say stuff in my songs that kids will understand but that will go over the heads of many adults.' He also knows how to approach the storytelling aspect of musical writing pragmatically. Within the show's parameters, Folds is grateful to the creators for giving him his artistic freedom. 'They give me carte blanche and don't push back' Folds says, adding that when he puts in poetic imagery — 'I'm not calling myself f—ing Keats or anything,' he adds as an aside — director Erik Wiese would weave those ideas into the animation. 'That's really cool to see.' 'My ambition is to have them tell me that my lyrics meant they could delete pages of script,' he adds. 'That's what these songs are for.' Wiese says Folds was the ideal person to 'take the mantle' from Guaraldi: 'He brings a modern thing and his lyrics are so poetic; on his albums he always touches your heart.' Writer and executive producer Craig Schulz, who is Charles' son, was impressed by both Folds' songwriting and the responsibility the musician felt to the 'Peanuts' brand. 'He has a unique ability to really get into what each of the gang is thinking and drive the audience in the direction we want to,' says Schulz, adding that there was one day where the writers got on the phone with Folds to explain the emotions they needed a scene to convey 'and suddenly he says, 'I got it, I'm super-excited' and then he hangs up and runs to the piano and cranks it out.' The first song Folds wrote for 'A Summer Musical' was when Charlie Brown realizes that the camp he holds dear 'is going to get mown over in the name of progress. I wanted him to have the wisdom of his 60-year-old self to go back to 'when we were light as the clouds' to let him understand the future,' he says. So it's a poignant song even as he's writing about Charlie Brown looking through 'old pictures of people he met five days ago. That's the way kids are — they're taking in a whole world and learning a lot in five days.' (He did not write the show's first two songs, though you'll hear plenty of Folds-esque piano and melody in them because, Wiese says, 'We wanted it to sound cohesive.') In the final song, Folds' lyrics celebrate the saving of the camp (yeah, spoiler alert, but it's 'Peanuts,' so you know the ending will be happy), but he laces in the idea that these children are inheriting a lot of bad things from older generations, including climate change. But it's not cynical, instead adding an understanding that their parents did the best they could (with a 'Hello Mother, Hello Father' reference thrown in for the old-timers) and that this new generation will do the best they can and make their own mistakes. Folds says it's important for people in the arts and on the left to bring a realistic view but not to become doomsayers. 'I see how bad it could get, but there are two stories you can always tell that might be true — one way to talk about climate change will leave people saying, 'We're screwed anyway so I'll just drink out of plastic bottles and toss them in the garbage,' but the other way is to motivate people, to tell a story that shows an aspiration towards the future.' That does not mean, of course, that Folds is blind to the perils of the moment. He stepped down as the National Symphony Orchestra's artistic advisor at the Kennedy Center to protest Donald Trump's power play there. 'I couldn't be a pawn in that,' he says. 'Was I supposed to call my homies like Sara Bareilles and say, 'Hey, do you want to come play here?'' But he's focusing on the positive, noting that he's now working with other symphony orchestras with that free time. Folds has recently also tried countering the turmoil of our current era: Last year he released his first Christmas album, 'Sleigher,' and his 2023 album 'What Matters Most' opens with 'But Wait, There's More,' which offers political commentary but then talks about believing in the good of humankind, and closes with the uplifting 'Moments.' And obviously, Folds knows that a show that stars a beagle and a small yellow bird that defies classification is not the right place to get bogged down in the issues of the day. Even when the lyrics dip into melancholy waters, they find a positive place to land. 'In this era I don't want the art that passes through my world to not have some semblance of hope,' he says.

Denzel Washington and Spike Lee Reunite for ‘Highest 2 Lowest'—Here's How to Watch
Denzel Washington and Spike Lee Reunite for ‘Highest 2 Lowest'—Here's How to Watch

Elle

time2 hours ago

  • Elle

Denzel Washington and Spike Lee Reunite for ‘Highest 2 Lowest'—Here's How to Watch

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington reunite for the fifth time in Highest 2 Lowest, a modern reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's revered 1963 thriller High and Low. Set in present-day New York, Lee casts Washington as David King, a music mogul pulled into a high-stakes ransom plot. Today's theatrical release arrives after the film premiered at Cannes Film Festival, where it earned a six-minute standing ovation (and a rare Rihanna red carpet appearance). This marks Washington and Lee's first film together since 2006's Inside Man, a collaboration Washington says was built on deep mutual trust. 'There was only one person to do this. And I'm sitting next to him,' the actor recently told Vanity Fair. Lee approached the project as 'a jazz reinterpretation of a great film,' adding, 'I knew if I was to do this, it had to be a reimagining. And it was right up my alley—a big, fat, juicy one coming down the middle of the plate. And I feel like I knocked it out.' Washington sees the project as long overdue in his career. 'In [most of] the time I've been an actor, I wouldn't even have been allowed to play a part like this. No white directors were hiring us, and no studios were hiring us,' he told Vanity Fair. 'That's why I called Spike. I trust Spike, and he trusts me.' Lee hopes audiences catch the film on the biggest screen possible. 'No matter how big that TV on the wall in your home is, see it in theaters first,' he says. Washington added, 'In the theaters, in the theaters, in the theaters. I'll keep saying August 15.' Not yet, but soon. After debuting in theaters today, the film will land on Apple TV+ on Sept. 5, 2025, just 19 days later. Until then, you'll need to catch it during its theatrical run. Take it from Lee—it's worth seeing on the big screen. GET TICKETS

Emma Heming Willis was 'panicked' by husband Bruce Willis' dementia diagnosis
Emma Heming Willis was 'panicked' by husband Bruce Willis' dementia diagnosis

USA Today

time2 hours ago

  • USA Today

Emma Heming Willis was 'panicked' by husband Bruce Willis' dementia diagnosis

Emma Heming Willis is opening up about her private world with husband Bruce Willis. The advocate and model, 47, is getting candid in an upcoming interview with Diane Sawyer about the 70-year-old "Die Hard" actor's dementia diagnosis and how the family is handling it all. "I was so panicked, and I just remember hearing it and just not hearing anything else," Heming Willis told Sawyer in a teaser clip released Wednesday, Aug. 13. The actress' interview with Sawyer is set to air in full during the ABC special "Emma & Bruce Willis: The Unexpected Journey" on Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. ET. The legendary actor retired after being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023. Earlier this year, after the death of Oscar winner Gene Hackman and his wife and caregiver Betsy Arakawa, Heming Willis wrote in a vulnerable Instagram caption that "caregivers need care too. Period. Full stop. #supportcaregivers." On Father's Day, Heming Willis spoke out about what their "unexpected journey" looks like for her family. In an Instagram post on Sunday, June 15, she wished a happy Father's Day "to all the dads living with disability or disease, showing up in the ways they can and to the children who show up for them." She added that Willis teaches their children "resilience, unconditional love, and the quiet strength in simply being present." The couple share two daughters: Mabel, 13, and Evelyn, 11. The actor also has three adult daughters with his ex-wife and Oscar nominee Demi Moore: Rumer, 36; Scout, 34; and Tallulah, 31. But Heming Willis also shared that she was feeling "profoundly sad today," reflecting, "I wish, with every cell in my body, that things could be different for him and lighter for our family." She said the phrase "it is what it is" helps her "return to the acceptance of what is and not fight this every step of the way like I used to." On March 21, the couple celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary: "Today marks 16 years with the love of a lifetime," Heming Willis wrote in a heartfelt Instagram caption. "We've shared monumental highs and devastating lows, and through it all, we've built something timeless," Heming Willis wrote. "I'm so deeply grateful for every chapter I've had with him—and all the ones we'll continue to write, in our language of unconditional love."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store