Tracking The Downward Spiral Of Tim Allen S Movie Career

Tracking The Downward Spiral Of Tim Allen’s Movie Career

By Josh Spiegel/Dec. 27, 2019 10:00 am EST

Tim Allen recently made the news, arguably not for the best reasons. Allen, one of a number of 90s-era comedy stars with conservative leanings, was on ABC’s talk show The View ostensibly to talk about the upcoming season of his sitcom Last Man Standing. But he quickly veered into complaining that he can’t say certain things…things like the “n” word. Though it’s not the first time Allen has groused about living in a culture that may push back against him using, you know, the cruelest possible racial epithet, it’s a stark reminder that there was a time when he all but dominated a subset of popular culture.Some of Tim Allen’s biggest projects are celebrating anniversaries this year. We’re now just a month removed from the 25th anniversary of The Santa Clause, the wildly successful Disney comedy in which Allen played a grouchy businessman at a toy company who literally transforms into Santa Claus after he inadvertently kills the big guy. (In case you forgot, yes, the hero of the film kills Santa Claus is the setup.) Last month also marked the 20th anniversary of Toy Story 2, in which Allen reprised his voice role as the heroic if arrogant Buzz Lightyear. And this month marks the 20th anniversary of Galaxy Quest, in which Allen played a William Shatner-like has-been whose work on a Star Trek-style science-fiction TV show leads to him and his fellow cast members working with real extraterrestrials to withstand a vicious alien threat. After that, Tim Allen’s career moved down steadily. The release of Galaxy Quest was the peak of his all-encompassing fame, which is now a hazy memory. 

Never Give Up

Galaxy Quest is one of the great modern comedies, a film that has been gradually embraced over time in spite of being a mild sleeper hit at the box office in early 2000. (The film was released by DreamWorks SKG on Christmas Day 1999.) The premise is unbeatable: what if the cast of Star Trek was beamed up by actual aliens who thought their fictional show were a set of “historical documents” and wanted the crew to help them fend off some nasty extraterrestrial baddies? Though Star Trek is obviously not invoked in the film, it’s very easy to see parallels, from the spotlight-hogging lead actor to the more serious second lead to a female character whose only job was to echo what the computer said, and so on. Allen isn’t the only funny part of Galaxy Quest, granted. Though it’s hard to choose one standout, if push came to shove, that would have to be Sam Rockwell in one of his earliest breakout roles as a visibly scared version of the redshirt Star Trek actor who existed simply to get killed by the alien threat of the week. That said, Allen is contributing a lot to the film that reminds you he’s got enough talent (or he used to) outside of the stand-up world. Nesmith is grappling with a good deal of emotional baggage before he’s absconded away by aliens, realizing just how much the rest of his castmates can’t stand him and wondering if he’s wasted his life by spending all his time at fan conventions, store openings, and other low-class events. Once Nesmith is brought aboard the replica of the NSEA Protector, it takes him a few minutes to realize that he’s not just on some fan-made set, but an actual spaceship in actual outer space. After that realization hits, Allen gets to play a less cynical man, as Nesmith recruits his cast members as a way to extend an olive branch their way for his years of mistreating them. His excitement is much more enjoyable than his grouchier side. Frankly, that much is true in Allen’s first big-screen hit, The Santa Clause, where the actor is a lot more engaging to watch once he’s fully transformed into Santa. Before that transformation, it feels like he’s making an early audition to play the venal title character of Bad Santa. 

This Fine Crew

It may be easy to peg Allen’s slow downturn of fame as being due to his political preferences. It’s much easier to think of movie stars who are either stridently liberal, or at least not stridently conservative. (Allen did publicly support Donald Trump for President, a statement that can’t be confidently made about a lot of movie stars.) But Allen’s dip in popularity occurred well before the last decade of divisive politics (and frankly, it started even before the horrors of September 11, when that division truly became a gaping maw). It’s not that Allen vanished either, but what may have been made clear by the post-1999 work he made is that there were limits to his talents. In The Santa Clause, though he plays a toy-company executive, he doesn’t seem too far removed from the grumpy dad on Home Improvement (and he does, of course, do the gorilla grunt at one point). In the Toy Story films, Buzz Lightyear’s unshakable confidence mixed with mild arrogance doesn’t feel too far removed from Allen’s persona either. What he managed to do — or luck into — was find a series of roles that fit him perfectly and found a way into working on audiences.The luck has run out, even if Last Man Standing is now about to air its eighth season. There’s no reason to doubt the show’s premiere will be delayed further even after Allen’s ridiculous and insulting comments on The View. But the era in which he was a dominant force in popular culture and comedy is so far removed that you can watch the Toy Story films and forget who that voice of Buzz really is. And you can (and, of course, should) watch Galaxy Quest without thinking too much about the forces that led Tim Allen to so perfectly embody a self-involved star. 1999 was a great year for Tim Allen: his popular TV comedy came to a well-received close, and he starred in two genuinely brilliant film comedies to boot. The intervening twenty years have proven that year was something of a fluke.

Tracking The Downward Spiral Of Tim Allen’s Movie Career

By Josh Spiegel/Dec. 27, 2019 10:00 am EST

Tim Allen recently made the news, arguably not for the best reasons. Allen, one of a number of 90s-era comedy stars with conservative leanings, was on ABC’s talk show The View ostensibly to talk about the upcoming season of his sitcom Last Man Standing. But he quickly veered into complaining that he can’t say certain things…things like the “n” word. Though it’s not the first time Allen has groused about living in a culture that may push back against him using, you know, the cruelest possible racial epithet, it’s a stark reminder that there was a time when he all but dominated a subset of popular culture.Some of Tim Allen’s biggest projects are celebrating anniversaries this year. We’re now just a month removed from the 25th anniversary of The Santa Clause, the wildly successful Disney comedy in which Allen played a grouchy businessman at a toy company who literally transforms into Santa Claus after he inadvertently kills the big guy. (In case you forgot, yes, the hero of the film kills Santa Claus is the setup.) Last month also marked the 20th anniversary of Toy Story 2, in which Allen reprised his voice role as the heroic if arrogant Buzz Lightyear. And this month marks the 20th anniversary of Galaxy Quest, in which Allen played a William Shatner-like has-been whose work on a Star Trek-style science-fiction TV show leads to him and his fellow cast members working with real extraterrestrials to withstand a vicious alien threat. After that, Tim Allen’s career moved down steadily. The release of Galaxy Quest was the peak of his all-encompassing fame, which is now a hazy memory. 

No Vulnerable Spots

Never Give Up

Galaxy Quest is one of the great modern comedies, a film that has been gradually embraced over time in spite of being a mild sleeper hit at the box office in early 2000. (The film was released by DreamWorks SKG on Christmas Day 1999.) The premise is unbeatable: what if the cast of Star Trek was beamed up by actual aliens who thought their fictional show were a set of “historical documents” and wanted the crew to help them fend off some nasty extraterrestrial baddies? Though Star Trek is obviously not invoked in the film, it’s very easy to see parallels, from the spotlight-hogging lead actor to the more serious second lead to a female character whose only job was to echo what the computer said, and so on. Allen isn’t the only funny part of Galaxy Quest, granted. Though it’s hard to choose one standout, if push came to shove, that would have to be Sam Rockwell in one of his earliest breakout roles as a visibly scared version of the redshirt Star Trek actor who existed simply to get killed by the alien threat of the week. That said, Allen is contributing a lot to the film that reminds you he’s got enough talent (or he used to) outside of the stand-up world. Nesmith is grappling with a good deal of emotional baggage before he’s absconded away by aliens, realizing just how much the rest of his castmates can’t stand him and wondering if he’s wasted his life by spending all his time at fan conventions, store openings, and other low-class events. Once Nesmith is brought aboard the replica of the NSEA Protector, it takes him a few minutes to realize that he’s not just on some fan-made set, but an actual spaceship in actual outer space. After that realization hits, Allen gets to play a less cynical man, as Nesmith recruits his cast members as a way to extend an olive branch their way for his years of mistreating them. His excitement is much more enjoyable than his grouchier side. Frankly, that much is true in Allen’s first big-screen hit, The Santa Clause, where the actor is a lot more engaging to watch once he’s fully transformed into Santa. Before that transformation, it feels like he’s making an early audition to play the venal title character of Bad Santa. 

Never Surrender

This Fine Crew

It may be easy to peg Allen’s slow downturn of fame as being due to his political preferences. It’s much easier to think of movie stars who are either stridently liberal, or at least not stridently conservative. (Allen did publicly support Donald Trump for President, a statement that can’t be confidently made about a lot of movie stars.) But Allen’s dip in popularity occurred well before the last decade of divisive politics (and frankly, it started even before the horrors of September 11, when that division truly became a gaping maw). It’s not that Allen vanished either, but what may have been made clear by the post-1999 work he made is that there were limits to his talents. In The Santa Clause, though he plays a toy-company executive, he doesn’t seem too far removed from the grumpy dad on Home Improvement (and he does, of course, do the gorilla grunt at one point). In the Toy Story films, Buzz Lightyear’s unshakable confidence mixed with mild arrogance doesn’t feel too far removed from Allen’s persona either. What he managed to do — or luck into — was find a series of roles that fit him perfectly and found a way into working on audiences.The luck has run out, even if Last Man Standing is now about to air its eighth season. There’s no reason to doubt the show’s premiere will be delayed further even after Allen’s ridiculous and insulting comments on The View. But the era in which he was a dominant force in popular culture and comedy is so far removed that you can watch the Toy Story films and forget who that voice of Buzz really is. And you can (and, of course, should) watch Galaxy Quest without thinking too much about the forces that led Tim Allen to so perfectly embody a self-involved star. 1999 was a great year for Tim Allen: his popular TV comedy came to a well-received close, and he starred in two genuinely brilliant film comedies to boot. The intervening twenty years have proven that year was something of a fluke.