Tim Allen is standing up for Roseanne Barr.
The 65-year-old actor-comedian spoke out in favor of his longtime friend at Fox’s TCA press tour event on Thursday. His comments came months after Barr's racist tweets led to the cancellation of her ABC show, Roseanne.
“I go a ways back with Rosie and that’s not the Rosie I know,” Allen said of the 65-year-old comedian following the TCA session for Last Man Standing -- as was reported multiple outlets. “She was the most diverse and tolerant woman I’ve ever known for a long time. Whatever got in her head isn’t the Roseanne I know.”
The former Home Improvement star also spoke more about the current political and social climate, calling it “a very icy time.”
“I’m a veteran comedian for 38 years and I’ve never seen it, like Lenny Bruce said at the Purple Onion, ‘We’ve gone backwards.’ There are things you can’t say. There are things you shouldn’t say,” he said. “Who makes up these rules? And as a stand-up comic, it’s a dangerous position to be in because I like pushing buttons. It’s unfortunate.”
Allen -- whose show, Last Man Standing, was cancelled at ABC and later picked up by Fox -- ultimately thinks the decision to ax his own show was a financial, not political, one by the network.
“I’ve worked for ABC for years… I don’t really believe it was a political decision,” Allen said. “I think it was a financial decision… I thought it was done very poorly, that’s my point of view. I was heartbroken.”
Despite Allen’s support for Barr, he revealed that his show’s upcoming season will avoid all talk of President Donald Trump.
“I think the guy is a centrist,” Allen said of Mike Baxter -- his conservative character -- a sporting goods entrepreneur whose traditional values often clash with that of his friends and family. “This guy’s a practical guy. He owns a big business. If it’s helping his business, he’s probably pro-Trump. He probably doesn’t defend him.”
Allen continued, “I don’t know that it’s going to be that, I think he’s going to be more of a centrist. Whatever’s good for his business and good for the state of Colorado or any policies that he does he’s going to go with."
Showrunner Kevin Abbott concurred with Allen’s statements.
"I don’t think we’re going to specifically comment on Trump. Mike Baxter is a conservative Republican. He holds those ideals, but the character himself, I don’t think we’re going to address [Trump] one way or the other,” Abbott said. “... The Roseanne reboot handled a lot of topical issues; they were [doing] the issue-of-the-week kind of thing. We don’t really do issues of the week. We consider ourselves a family show with a traditional character at the center of it, which is only unusual in today’s environment.”
Back in May, Allen revealed to ET that Last Man Standing will pick things up in real time, about a year or so after the events of the finale.
"There's some big surprises and good stuff coming," Allen promised. "All of you ... man, I'm telling you... we would not be standing here [without the fans]. It's gonna be a better show because of all you people that did this and I just hope we... I want to deliver. We will deliver for you."
Here’s more on the show:
RELATED CONTENT:
