# Assembly Required - new History Channel competition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show\ **Created:** [January 24, 2021, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402 "2021-01-24T23:53:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/1 "2021-01-24T23:53:27Z")
This looks interesting. A 10 episode building competition hosted by Tim Allen and Richard Karn, formerly of _Home Improvement_. It’s expected to premiere on February 14. > **[Home Improvement Stars Reunite in Assembly Required First Look](https://movieweb.com/assembly-required-tim-allen-richard-karn-reunion-photo/)** > > Richard Karn posted a photo of himself alongside Tim Allen from the first day of filming on their new History series Assembly Required. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/2 "2021-01-25T01:14:54Z")
Can they make it completely and totally politically neutral…? ( …will they? ) ---
**Author:** ![mundylion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundylion/32/3604_2.png) [@mundylion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mundylion)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/3 "2021-01-25T03:47:07Z")
Ii suppose you found the banter between Tim and the black neighbor somehow offensive? Tim acted the liberal but hardly in a nasty way. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/4 "2021-01-25T04:17:16Z")
Oh, I sorry! Was that ‘Last Man Standing’ star Tim Allen? He played the part of the Super Conservative ammo store gun pusher… whose wife is proven to be dopey every time she objects? The one who has his ‘favorite daughter’ wearing camo and packing an AK for hunting trips while the canned laughter laughs? Gun metal can be black, blue, nickel, stainless, and even creocoate no matter who their neighbor is. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/5 "2021-01-25T04:23:11Z")
OK, I don’t know why people are trying to make this thread political. This is going to be more like Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor. I don’t know what politics has to do with this show. Did you read the article? They should stay completely away from it. Way to dump on what should be a light-hearted, interesting show. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/6 "2021-01-25T04:38:20Z")
Tim Allen is a virulent pro-Trump fascist, not to mention a pretty shitty person in his personal life. His last character was pretty autobiographical. He’s the male Rosanne. Maybe you don’t buy into cancel culture and are fine separating a person’s personal views from their art, even when hateful and violent and not just disagreeable, then you do you. But don’t be surprised when you bring up Allen that it gets immediately pollical, he’s very public with his views so I figure it’s par for the course. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/7 "2021-01-25T06:49:54Z")
Actually, I was surprised. I was unaware of his politics, not do I really give a shit. That doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of _Home Improvement_, _Toy Story_, or the _Santa Clause_. But then again, you do you. I’m not the type of person who has to interject politics into every goddamn conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assembly-required-new-history-channel-competition/931402/8 "2021-01-25T23:56:53Z")
Allen is an actor, and so sometimes portrays characters very different from himself. In fiction works, of course his own personal politics won’t be relevant, because he’d be a bad actor if they were. But I think it’s fair to ask whether, on a nonfiction show where he’s appearing as himself, rather than as a character, whether his political views will be relevant. Maybe they still won’t be relevant: After all, it’s not an inherently political sort of show. But maybe they will.