History Series / LastManStanding2011

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: Even though they're listed as main characters, Boyd, Ryan, and Chuck do not appear in episodes where they are not an important part to the plot.

* AbsenteeActor:
** Kyle does not appear in five episodes during season four.
** The Baxter daughters all missed one episode each (Kristin in "The Ring", Mandy in "Tanks for the Memories" and Eve in "Papa Bear"). In Eve's case, it was because Creator/KaitlynDever was busy wrapping up ''Detroit''.

* PantyShot: Mandy (Molly Ephraim) as Annie Oakley in "Buffalo Bill Day". Her white, lacy panties are flashed as she struggles to get out of a stagecoach.

* AdultFear: Vanessa does not approve of Eve's military ambitions as she's afraid of the latter getting injured or killed if she were on duty.
** "Free Range Parents" discusses the ongoing trend of parents not allowing their kids to ride the bus or walk to school, but be driven both ways by them, due to increased media attention on child abduction. Ryan is terrified for Boyd's safety, but his efforts to still feel in control when Boyd is allowed to walk home from school backfire.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the early episodes, Mike had some BumblingDad tendencies that were eventually phased out. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because he was adjusting to being at home more often and taking a bigger role in raising his daughters so he was prone to making mistakes.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad:
** InUniverse, Mike feels this way about some aspects of modern society along with some of Ryan and Kristin's actions regarding raising Boyd.
** "Precious Snowflakes" tackles this head on when Mandy asks Mike to give a speech at her college. Mike learns the school has to review his speech before he gives it, to ensure he doesn't say any micro-aggressions that may offend people. Their list includes typical ones such as "man" (which may offend non-binary people) but then goes on to say calling America "a place where anyone can succeed" is one because not every single person succeeds. Naturally, Mike gets riled up about it and refuses to speak.
** Ryan is guilty of this in "Gift of the Wise Men," when he and Kyle are given the task of setting up a nativity scene, and Ryan convinces Kyle to create an "inclusive" display that consists of a sign reading "Your God Here" and an arrow. The problem is that this is a nativity scene for a ''church,'' for which a non-religious display is inappropriate. One wonders how Ryan would respond if a nonbeliever insisted on a watered-down "inclusive" display at a synagogue, mosque, or other (non-Christian) house of worship.

** Ryan is his Democratic counterpart who plays this painfully straight. He embodies the "bleeding heart liberal" to a T. He's also a vegan, pacifist, [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad overly politically correct]], borderline hippie SoapboxSadie who blames the 1% for every problem suffered by the working class and wants socialized medicine, benefits, and wages. The final season, while still keeping his character very much left-leaning, has him undergo CharacterDevelopment thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic, making him realize he has to sacrifice some of his beliefs to better take care of his family. [[spoiler: This leads him to sell his pot store to a multi-million dollar company, and become a top-ranking executive, something that even Mike is impressed with.]]

While the show was never a hit with critics like its predecessor, it did well enough in the ratings to warrant six seasons and over 100 episodes and was one of the most notable [[AvertedTrope aversions]] of the FridayNightDeathSlot in this age of television...[[ScrewedByTheNetwork until ABC cancelled it in 2017]]. However, Fox picked it up over a year later and a seventh season began airing in fall of 2018. The series managed to continue for another three seasons before ending with it's ninth season in May 2021 with a one-hour series finale.

* Stacey'sMom: Vanessa is a very beautiful matriarch causing her neighbour Bill Calhoun to become infatuated with her when she wears a sexy pirate outfit in 'Last Halloween Standing'.

* StaceysMom: Vanessa is a very beautiful matriarch causing her neighbour Bill Calhoun to become infatuated with her when she wears a sexy pirate outfit in 'Last Halloween Standing'.

** InUniverse, Mike feels this way about some aspects of modern society along with some of Ryan and Kristin's actions regarding raising Boyd. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we're gonna say about that.]]

Considered a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Series/HomeImprovement'' due to being an Allen vehicle where he plays similar characters as a father obsessed with preserving and passing down manhood and has a public forum as part of their jobs to share their views on the episode's subject matter. While this show has never been a hit with critics like its predecessor, it has done well enough in the ratings to warrant six seasons and over 100 episodes and is one of the most notable [[AvertedTrope aversions]] of the FridayNightDeathSlot in this age of television...[[ScrewedByTheNetwork until 2017 when ABC cancelled it after six seasons]].

However, Fox picked it up starting with its seventh season. The show's ninth and final season is set to air January 2021.

** [[spoiler: In the Season 9 premiere, "Time Flies," the series only depicts pandemic life in the present day for the first few minutes. Afterwards it fasts forward with a sequence of the Outdoor Man vlogs with Mike having a longer beard with each vlog alternating with ExplodingCalendar cut scenes until coming to a future, post-pandemic timeline where Mike's beard is gone.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** In the first Christmas episode, Mandy gets fed up with the way she and the other workers playing Santa's helpers at Outdoor Man are being treated and compensated, and leads a strike. Eventually, she lays out their demands to Ed, including company perks and bi-annual cost per living increases. Ed just stares at her and points out that they're seasonal workers and their jobs end once Christmas is over. She promptly revises it to just giving them five-minute breaks every hour.
** After Kyle accidentally lets a bear inside Outdoor Man, he decides to fix the problem himself by shooting it with one of the store's tranquilizer guns. However, US law prevents a store like Outdoor Man from selling animal tranquilizer, just the gun and the darts. Therefore, Mike has to stop Kyle from shooting the bear with an empty dart that will do nothing except make it angrier.
** A rather depressing example happens in season four. Ed gets Wendi pregnant but they decide to keep the baby. [[spoiler:"Three Sundays" reveals that she ends up having a miscarriage. Given that women of her age have a slim chance of being able to carry a baby to full term, this was almost inevitable.]]
** Kyle is not a particularly competent employee, but really good at interacting with people, which leads to Mike and Ed giving him an unofficial position as a "floater," doing odd jobs around the store at the discretion of management. Several years later, they recognize that making up an original job like that means he has no room for promotion, and they can only give him so many meaningless titles like "executive floater." After a time trying out some other positions, they find a new place for him in Human Resources.

* NotSoDifferent:
** Despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum, Mike and Ryan actually share the same opinion on some issues (government surveillance, drugging kids diagnosed with ADHD, etc.).
** In "Kyle's Friend," Mandy helps a homeless woman with a makeover to land a job hoping that doing so will convince her parents to buy her a new car. During the session, she learns that the woman got pregnant at 17, which was the same thing that happened to Kristin. In contrast to what happened with Kristin, the woman was kicked out of her parents' home and she struggled with alcohol, leading to losing custody of her daughter, who was put into foster care. The situation hits home to the Baxters and they all become more sympathetic to homeless people (especially Mandy and Eve).
** In the seventh season Ryan took over Grandpa Bud's pot store, and now running a small business made him end up complaining about the same government overreach that Mike talks about. In turn Mike had to deal with a larger company poising to buy Outdoor Man and he has to make some personal sacrifices to keep the store and protect his employees, which is the stuff Ryan always talks about.

''Last Man Standing'' is an American sitcom starring Creator/TimAllen and Creator/NancyTravis that aired on Creator/{{ABC}} from October 11, 2011 to March 31, 2017, and Creator/{{Fox}} from 2018-21. It's often referred to as a DistaffCounterpart of Allen's first series ''Series/HomeImprovement''.

''Last Man Standing'' is an American sitcom starring Creator/TimAllen and Creator/NancyTravis that aired on Creator/{{ABC}} from October 11, 2011 to March 31, 2017, and Creator/{{Fox}} since 2018. It's often referred to as a DistaffCounterpart of Allen's first series ''Series/HomeImprovement''.

** Mike drives a 1956 Ford F100 (from Tim Allen's personal collection) most of the time.

* {{Expy}}: With ''Series/HomeImprovement,'' the three Baxter girls match up in personality with the three Taylor boys: Kristin is the snarky intellectual that Randy was, Mandy is innocent and gullible like Mark and Eve is the sports fanatic who bonds most with dad like Brad. Vanessa is also similar to Jill in being a career-focused woman with a strong personality. Mike subverts this however. Compared to Tim Taylor, he is more intelligent, politically astute, mature, and rational, completely avoiding the BumblingDad role.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: When the neighborhood cars are vandalized with eggs, most everyone is able to clean up in the morning except for the new black family, the Larabees. Vanessa worries they may take it as racially motivated, with Mike saying "I don't think [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan the Klan]] does a lot of work with eggs." In an effort to not seem racist, Vanessa invites Chuck and Carol Larabee over for dinner, which is a very awkward event. Mike eventually admits the reason why Vanessa did this was over the egging incident and Chuck says, "I don't think the Klan does a lot of work with eggs."

** Ryan is his Democratic counterpart who plays this painfully straight. He embodies the "bleeding heart liberal" to a T. He's also a vegan, pacifist, [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad overly politically correct]], borderline hippie SoapboxSadie who blames the 1% for every problem suffered by the working class and wants socialized medicine, benefits, and wages.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
-->'''Ed:''' Mike, come here, you're gonna love this!\\
(''shows Mike an anatomically correct female deer'')\\
'''Mike:''' [[BestialityIsDepraved I don't wanna love that.]]
** From "Sinkhole," after Eve says there's enough food in the bomb shelter to keep Boyd alive until he reaches middle school:
---> '''Mandy:''' Great, he's gonna hit puberty and [[ADateWithRosiePalms I have mannequins in there]].
** Quite a few episodes (e.g. "Mike Advises Mandy", "Changing Light Bulbs") have made references to PrisonRape.
** In "Buffalo Bill Day," Kyle was wearing a costume based on an Old West stage play. Mandy asked him if he thought her costume was too tight and [[SomethingElseAlsoRises his spring loaded arrow prop popped up]]. Then, topping it off, Mandy slowly resets the arrow herself.
** The reason Eve called a boy in her class gay? He called her a "name that rhymes with 'bike'".
** In "Restaurant Opening," when deciding whether to go with "pyramid" or "Bishop's hat" folded napkins, Mike quips that "[[PedophilePriest no one wants a Bishop's hat in their lap.]]"
** A number of references have been made about TeacherStudentRomance at the junior high and high school level. Mandy has even said outright that she had a crush on a few teachers and Eve said that one of them was put in "teacher time out" for a few months.
** Mike gets away with calling Boyd a bastard in a few episodes. Of course, since Kristin and Ryan weren't married when he was born, he actually is one.

However, Fox picked it up starting with its seventh season.

%%* ElectionDayEpisode: These are expected with the political nature of this show. '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''

* {{Crossover]]: "Dual Time" is a crossover between this and ''Series/HomeImprovement'', with Tim Taylor coming over to fix the garbage disposal.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/last_man_standing_edit_5314.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"[[RealitySubtext It is GREAT to be back home!]]" [[note]]L-R:Kristin, Mandy, Boyd, Vanessa, Eve, Mike, Ed, Kyle[[/note]]]]

* MistakenForRacist: Vanessa tries to avoid this every time she is with the Larabees by telling them how much she loves African-American artists and culture. Mike gets this often because he makes racial jokes, but he isn't actually racist.

** Season 2, episode 40: "[[Film/GalaxyQuest Never give up. Never surrender.]]" Mike even does the salute.