Robert Smigel knew that Fox's Let's Be Real would struggle when it was given a Tim Allen lead-in

UPROXX

In 1996, Smigel co-created ABC's The Dana Carvey Show, which struggled airing after Allen's Home Improvement. Nearly a quarter-century later, Smigel was back with the topical puppets-themed comedy show Let's Be Real, airing after Allen's Last Man Standing. “When I heard that Tim Allen’s show was going to be in front of mine, again, I was like, ‘God is a funny guy,'" Smigel said with a sigh. Smigel added: “Even my mother didn’t watch the last show because they moved it to a different time and she had no idea. But, no, no friends of mine knew about it. It was just one of those things. I tried. Like, Howard Stern had been asking for Triumph (the Insult Comic Dog) for a few months, so I timed it for this. And then Marc Maron is somebody who I met like eight years ago and asked me to be on his show, but that’s about all the publicity we got.”