Kat Dennings Calls Tim Allen Her 'Favorite TV Dad Ever' (Exclusive)

Kat Dennings and Tim Allen are a father-daughter match made in TV heaven!

Over the course of her decades-long career, the 38-year-old actress has had a number of on-screen fathers. As she embarks on a brand new journey with ABC Changing gearsDennings reflects on her relationships with her former co-stars and tells PEOPLE exclusively why Allen, 71, holds a special place in her heart.

“I have to say Tim Allen is my favorite TV dad of all time. It was a real joy to do this show,” she says, also pointing out that the actor’s team has been with him since his childhood DIYerwhich ran from 1991 to 1999, and Last man standingwhich lasted from 2011 to 2021. “They have accompanied him on all his projects, which I think is a real testament to him as a person.”

“We have a very funny banter. We really enjoy these scenes where we argue. It’s really fun,” she adds of their on-camera relationship.

According to the show's official logline, the new series follows Matt (Allen), a “stubborn, widowed owner of a vintage car restoration shop.” When his estranged daughter Riley (Dennings) and her two children move back into his house, “the real rebuilding begins.”

Before Dennings got the call Changing gearsShe found herself in a “dark, sad moment,” feeling lost and unsure about her next step.

“I thought, ‘God, I don’t know what I want to do. I just feel so crazy,'” she recalls. When a friend suggested she think about what her “dream job” would be, she responded 2 broke girls alum realized that she wanted to do another multi-cam sitcom.

“Then the next day I got the call to do this show. It felt like I wished for something and I got it. It just felt like a thing that was meant to be,” she continues. She also grew up watching DIYer” she says, so appearing on a show alongside a “cultural star” like Allen was a no-brainer.

“He’s Santa Claus [in The Santa Clause films] and Buzz Lightyear [in the Toy Story franchise]. He's a big part of my consciousness growing up, so it was very surreal to work with him, but in a great way because he's a very kind person,” she says.

Although Allen is her favorite TV dad to date, Dennings says she thinks fondly of all of her former co-stars on her father's side. They also include the late Bob Saget, who played her father on the 2001-2002 sitcom Raise dad.

“I’m so sad he’s gone,” she says of Saget, who died in January 2022 at age 65. “But he was a lovely, lovely person.”

In 2005 The 40 year old virginDennings played Marla, the stepdaughter of Steve Carell's title character. She describes the film as “such a moment in time.” Not only was it Carell's breakthrough, but the hit comedy was also Judd Apatow's directorial debut.

Dennings remembers feeling an anxious energy on set among the cast and crew, all hoping for the film's success.

“Steve Carell, I remember him saying, 'God, I hope this works.' And he had just done it The office Pilot or something like that, and now he’s legitimately one of the biggest stars in the world,” she says. “He is the most beautiful man you will ever know.”

“I was very lucky. “I had very good experiences,” she adds about her film fathers.

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Changing gears airs Wednesdays on ABC.