ABC picks up new Kat Dennings sitcom with Tim Allen

Bryn Mawr-raised Kat Dennings is returning to sitcoms with Shifting Gears, a new series from 20th Television, with Home Improvement’s Tim Allen. According to Variety reports, the show was just picked up by ABC.

Dennings, whose recent credits include Hulu’s Dollface and Marvel’s Thor movies, will play Allen’s adult daughter, who moves in with her widowed father and her teenage children. The title is a nod to Allen’s character, who runs a car restoration shop.

ABC originally ordered a pilot earlier this spring but staffing changes led to a delay. Writers Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully left the series (in a reportedly amicable departure) and Allen, an executive producer, is now searching for a new showrunner.

Dennings, also a producer on Shifting Gears, is best known for starring in CBS’s 2 Broke Girls with Lancaster-born actor Beth Behrs. The comedy ran for six seasons before being canceled in 2017. Lately, Dennings has been partying with fellow Philadelphia-area celebs Questlove and Quinta Brunson (creator and star of ABC’s mega-hit Abbott Elementary) at the Roots drummer’s legendary game nights. When Dennings announced the Shifting Gears news on Instagram this week, Brunson voiced her support and commented, “KAT TIME.”

As a kid, Dennings was home-schooled and she’s previously joked about growing up in a forest. Though she now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, musician Andrew W.K., she has fond memories of bowling at Wynnewood Lanes and visiting the Head Nut, the Ardmore nut, candy, and coffee store.

With Shifting Gears, Dennings will be the second actor from the Philadelphia area to star in a car-related comedy recently, following Mechanicsburg-born Shane Gillis’ Netflix show Tires.