Last Man Standing: 10 Odd Things About The Show That Can't Be Covered Up

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10
The Kristin Switch

Kristen Baxter was played by actress Alexandra Krosney in the first season of the show, but she was traded up for Amanda Fuller from season two, onwards. The decision was made for several reasons mostly surrounding Fuller's more mature disposition and believability as a young single mother.

While it proved to be a blessing in disguise, the switch-up was jarring. It's hard to watch the first season of the show and feel like it runs congruent with the seasons that followed. Kristen's personalities are quite different depending on the actresses playing. Thankfully this happened sooner rather than down the road.

9
Where's Muffin?

The Baxters got a dog in the early seasons, but one would be hard pressed to find out where little Muffin went. The animal shows up only a sparse handful of times throughout the show before disappearing completely from it. This means little Muffin certainly won't be remembered in the annals of TV's most iconic dogs any time soon.

Unfortunately, this is a long standing tradition with Last Man Standing where characters seem to disappear without notice, never to return. Some lucky few manage to turn up for what it essentially a cameo appearance at that point.

8
Sporadic Boyd

Young Boyd started out practically as a series regular beginning with season 2, but his character started to drop off massively between seasons 4 and 6. Eventually he began to resurface before being recast by an entirely different young actor for the latter years.

This makes no sense given that Boyd was the entire reason the character of Kristin was written in the first place. The decision to swap actress Alexandra Krosney for Amanda Fuller was done because the latter presented a more motherly attitude and personality. Why then, did her son go practically AWOL?

7
Ryan's Character Change

The first season of the show mentions Ryan only in passing as a numbskull who got Kristin pregnant and then fled town to become a deadbeat dad. He finally showed up in the latter half of the season, played by none other than Disney alum Nick Jonas who played up the character's less-than-stellar intellectual quotient.

Season 2 saw Jordan Masterson take over the role, and the character was presented as more of an intellectual thinker type as opposed to a buffoon. This was a striking contrast in personalities that has never been fully rectified, making season 1 feel like a single gigantic pilot episode.

6
Joe's Infrequent Appearances

Jay Leno joined the cast of Last Man Standing halfway through the series in an attempt to play up his knowledge of cars and traditional guy stuff. It gave Tim Allen a great actor to play against, and Joe instantly became a series favorite. After all, Jay Leno was playing him.

Unfortunately, Joe suffers from the same infrequency of appearances as many second-tier cast members. He shows up for a handful of back-to-back episodes before disappearing into the ether all over again. This makes it hard for audiences to stick with the character.

5
Carol Goes AWOL

Chuck Laarbee and his wife Carol were the perfect excuse to carve in a little All In The Family-style racial tension into the show for audiences to laugh at. As a tag team, they were excellent together on screen, but Carol never lasted for the long haul. She began disappearing from the show midway through, leaving Chuck to pick up the slack.

While this did give Chuck an opportunity to become more fully integrated into Mike's "guy crew," it hurt the dynamic by robbing actress Nancy Travis of someone to play off of. Indeed, the character even makes reference to her being upset at Carol moving out of state in season 6. She later resurfaced, played by another actress.

4
Eve's Pointless Character Arc

Eve Baxter was supposed to play against the traditional female character type with her tomboy personality. She fired guns, she was pro-Conservative, and she had dreams of joining West Point. Unfortunately that dream was squashed when her application was rejected, and her character arc took a turn for the worse.

The next two seasons found Eve wading aimlessly through a musical career that was going nowhere, before she learned she'd been accepted into the Air Force academy. Between those two events, Eve just sort of wandered around a la Darlene Conner from Roseanne.

3
Vanessa's Liver

Three Men And A Baby star Nancy Travis is hilarious as Mike's good-natured, bad pun-loving wife Vanessa, and even though her character seems to go around in circles when it comes to her professional career, it's hard to imagine the show without her. One thing doesn't add up, however.

Vanessa is quite fond of wine and tends to hit the bottle at every possible opportunity. This, combined with her career woes and family stresses makes one wonder why an alcoholism episode was never fully explored.