‘Last Man Standing’: We Pull Back the Curtain on the Sitcom’s Winning Return

Tim Allen and Nancy Travis are enjoying a second honeymoon of sorts. The actors star as Mike and Vanessa Baxter on Last Man Standing, the family comedy canceled by ABC in 2017 and successfully revived on Fox in September (the premiere drew 8 million viewers, and all season the show has been the top Friday series for viewers age 18–49).

Together the couple are raising their family — three grown daughters and one grandson — while dealing with work, marriage and differing perspectives.

Last Man Standing’s cast and crew are in buoyant moods on the Los Angeles set in mid-October, with production of lucky Season 7 in full swing. Almost all of the original team from both in front of and behind the camera is back, and the show films on the same soundstage as before — it feels like a family gathering even when you step beyond the stage lights illuminating the Baxter living room.

Allen and Travis are shooting a scene for the November 16 episode in which Mike and Vanessa have a serious talk with middle daughter Mandy (Molly McCook), a fashion designer who’s thinking of ditching stitching for real estate after a setback. Mandy and her goofy, good-natured husband, Kyle (Cristoph Sanders), are still living at home, so their decisions have a major impact on Mom and Dad.

The rest of the children may be out of the house, but they are very much in the picture. Air Force Academy cadet Eve (Kaitlyn Dever) visits often. Eldest Kristin (Amanda Fuller), who works with her dad at the sporting goods store Outdoor Man, and her liberal husband, Ryan (Jordan Masterson), watch their young son Boyd’s (Jet Jurgensmeyer) relationship with Grandpa Mike blossom. Later this season, the three guys go on what Allen calls a “wonderful” road trip.

Also in this issue:

• Doctor Who: The timey-wimey series’ new production designer walks us through his inspired revamp of the TARDIS.
• The Little Drummer Girl: Mind games and romance spark a thrilling spy adventure.
• Plus: Your complete guide to 52 new holiday original movies; Kurt Russell flies into the holidays as Saint Nick; Michael Douglas previews his new comedy; Dr. Oz gives his take on medical marijuana and scripted TV; Connie Britton stars in Dirty John; and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

‘Outlander’ On-Set Exclusive: Claire and Jamie Build a New Home on America’s Frontier

A dark Scottish forest of towering pines stands in for the untamed woods of colonial North Carolina on the set of Outlander, Starz’s sexy, suspenseful time-travel romance. Huddled beside a small campfire on this chilly late-autumn night are Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, who play soulmates Claire and Jamie Fraser. The bonnie pair are shooting a tender scene from the third episode of Season 4. “I want us to make a home together, a place that’s ours,” she says. They gaze into each other’s eyes. He kisses her gently. Swoon.

“This season is about Claire and Jamie finding and building a life in America,” Balfe says of the couple, who reunited in the middle of Season 3 after a two-decade separation during which Claire returned to the 20th century to give birth and raise their daughter, Brianna (Sophie Skelton). “We explore domesticity, but there’s also drama — and passion,” she adds during a break, her words turning to frosty clouds in the cold air. Laughing, she says, “They ain’t hung up the old boots just yet!”

In fact, reaching middle age has only enhanced the couple’s already scorching relationship. “It’s going to be even sexier because they’re in their 40s,” Heughan says. “There’s passion, always. They have great love, trust, understanding. And they rely on each other. America is a dangerous place.”

The 13 episodes about the Frasers’ new life in the New World are based on Drums of Autumn, the fourth book in Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series about an outspoken 20th-century surgeon and her honorable Scottish Highlander husband. The story picks up a few months after the Season 3 finale, when the couple left Jamaica — where they had traveled to rescue Jamie’s nephew, Young Ian (John Bell) — only to see their ship go down off the Georgia coast.

Also in this issue:

• House of Cards: In the political thriller’s final season, President Claire Underwood takes over the Oval Office.
• The Walking Dead: Bidding a tearful goodbye to Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes. Plus: What’s next for the survivors?
• New Fall TV: Hits and Misses: We examine the new series that are dominating ratings (good job, Manifest!)—and lay out the ones that might not get a Season 2.
• Plus: Adam Sandler’s first taped special in 22 years; Alton Brown revisits Good Eats; New York Comic Con photos; must-stream Halloween episodes; secrets behind Saturday Night Live‘s wigs and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

The Boys of ‘Supernatural’: The Fan Favorites Answer Your Burning Questions

Despite Supernatural’s gunslinging ghouls, evil archangels and multiple apocalypses, laughter is never more than a few minutes away on its Vancouver set. While shooting in mid-September in the horror show’s Men of Letters bunker (the Winchesters’ home base), any cast member’s flubbed line sets off a torrent of quips and witty retorts.

It’s this natural chemistry, first between Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki as demon-hunting brothers Dean and Sam Winchester, then adding in Misha Collins (their angel ally Castiel), that’s helped make Supernatural the network’s longest-running series — 14 seasons so far! ­— and fueled an army of passionate viewers.

After an Ackles-led private tour of the cavernous set, TV Guide Magazine sat down with the trio to talk all things Supernatural, boosted by fan questions. The mood was celebratory and, naturally, punctuated with good-natured teasing, particularly of Collins, who hadn’t filmed since August 13.

“Cas has been written out,” Padalecki states, straight-faced. With a resigned smile, Collins says, “I really missed you guys.” A grinning Ackles responds, “I bet.”

Jared and Jensen, what do you remember about your auditions?

Jared Padalecki: Everybody was reading for Sam.

Jensen Ackles: He was the pivotal character then. After I did two scenes, [executive producers] David Nutter and Eric Kripke were having a sidebar, and I interjected, “Can I just read the Dean character and see how that plays?” And they turned to me and said, “That’s exactly what we were saying. You’re Dean, not Sam.”

Padalecki: We were already network-approved by The WB: I was on Gilmore Girls and Jensen was on Smallville, but the rumor goes that when I was floated for Sam, Kripke said, “I don’t know, I’m looking for someone bookish, like [David] Duchovny.” My manager was like, “Jared was a National Merit Scholar. He can pull it off.” I always tease Kripke for thinking I was too dumb to play Sam.

Ackles: That’s why he looked at me and said, “He’s not a Sam.” [Laughter]

Photo by Maarten de Boer

Photo by Maarten de Boer

Also in this issue:

• Halloween Preview: Young Sheldon trick-or-treats; The Simpsons invite Cthulhu to their seasonal episode; black-ish hosts a haunted house; and all the movie, marathons and specials needed for a spine-chilling time.
• My Dinner With Hervé: Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage plays the famed Fantasy Island actor.
• Manifest: Is it the new Lost? We’re on the hunt for clues in NBC’s new survivor drama.
• Plus: Making a Murderer take two; the definitive British mystery list on Amazon Prime Video; comparing Dancing With the Stars to pint-sized Juniors; picking the brain of the doc who inspired New Amsterdam; Gordon Ramsay takes us inside Hell’s Kitchen; Crickey! It’s the Irwins premieres, and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.

‘NCIS: New Orleans’: Scott Bakula Previews All the Season 5 Surprises

You could say that Scott Bakula is a superstitious guy. Not black-cat-and-broken-mirrors superstitious, but definitely a believer in jinxes. So when the cast and crew of NCIS: New Orleans started filming the series’ 100th episode in early September, he refused any sort of group celebration until production was complete.

After all, he had yet to reach that number in a career crowded with favorites like the 1989–93 time-travel drama Quantum Leap (97 episodes) and 2001–05 Starfleet saga Star Trek: Enterprise (98 episodes). Plus, Tropical Storm Gordon was on the radar and rapidly approaching.

“It was blowing up through the Gulf,” he recalls a few days later while sitting at a table in a deserted New Orleans hotel banquet hall. “I kept saying, ‘This is going to destroy the 100th episode, and we’re going to have to relocate.’ We shouldn’t have been talking about it!”

It never even drizzled. Call it a good omen…or a sure sign that Mother Nature is a fan of the vibrant CBS drama. In its fifth season, NCIS: New Orleans — in which Bakula’s Dwayne “King” Pride and his dogged team solve military-based crimes in and around the Crescent City — has managed to stand out from the pack of procedurals because it focuses just as much on the city’s rich history and culture as it does on the investigations. (Would Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs sing and tickle the ivories in his own bar on the D.C.-set NCIS? Don’t think so.)

Also in this issue:

• News: Will Netflix Save Your Favorite Show? Designated Survivor, Lucifer… what will be next?
• Lisa Edelstein: From Seinfeld to The Good Doctor and The Kominsky Method: the actress’s long career, in her own words.
• Gold Rush: The stakes are raised on Discovery’s highest-rated series.
• Plus: David Schwimmer joins Will & Grace, Criminal Minds celebrates 300 episodes, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Who‘s game-changer and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.