Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

Actors know they’ve signed up for an itinerant career, moving from one role to the next, but even by Hollywood standards the 2011-21 run of sitcom “Last Man Standing” has been a roller coaster for actor and Wilkinsburg native Jonathan Adams (“American Dreams”).

Brought on as a guest star in season two and then a recurring guest star in season three before becoming a series regular in season four, Adams’ Chuck Larabee is a neighbor, co-worker and sometimes foil to sporting goods store executive Mike Baxter (Tim Allen).

Adams’ longest-lasting professional acting gig almost came to an end in 2017 when ABC canceled “Last Man Standing.” At first, Adams thought another network — maybe CMT or Fox — would pick it up. When that didn’t happen he moved on. Almost a full year passed before the show was resurrected.

“I didn’t believe it,” Adams said. “I’ve been an actor in Hollywood for 20 years doing television, and things come and go. It’s, ‘Oh, we have this project,’ and you’re cast in it and then it’s, ‘Oh, we ran out of funding.’ Or it’s, ‘The head of the network is really behind it,’ and then, ‘This year we have a different head of the network,’ and you’re canceled.”

In addition to a network switch, “Last Man Standing” went through many cast changes. Nick Jonas played Ryan in season one; Jordan Masterson has played the character in the years since. Amanda Fuller replaced Alexandra Krosney as Kristin Baxter after season one. When the show moved from ABC to Fox, Molly McCool assumed the role of Mandy Baxter formerly played by Molly Ephraim. And two different actresses played Chuck’s wife, Erika Alexander and later Tisha Campbell. (2011 CMU grad Krista Marie Yu joined the show as the Baxters’ foreign exchange student in 2018.)

The show’s series finale — the second of two episodes airing back-to-back at 9 p.m. Thursday on WPGH-TV — references some of the hurdles “Last Man Standing” has surmounted. Mike’s beloved old pickup gets stolen, and the truck becomes a metaphor for the show as Chuck’s attempts to track its GPS signal fail.

“The truck is no longer on the network,” Chuck says.

“Stupid network,” Mike mutters. “Stupid, stupid network.”

“Maybe there’s another network you could find it on,” Mike’s wife, Vanessa (Nancy Travis), suggests.

“Actually, I’ve heard of that happening before,” Chuck chimes in.

With the show wrapping up after a longer run than Allen’s eight-season “Home Improvement,” Adams is happy “Last Man Standing” gets the opportunity to have a planned series finale.

“We all had a feeling of the last day of high school,” he said of the vibe on set during taping of the final episode last month. “These are people you have spent a long time with, gone through a lot together with, and now its over.”

Adams said he’s most likely to keep in touch with co-star Hector Elizondo (“He’s an actor’s actor and he’s a beautiful human being. I learned so much from him about acting and about life.”) and he’ll continue to perform voices for characters in animated shows and video games (“It’s really nice to be able to concentrate really deeply on just one aspect of yourself, your voice and what you can convey with your voice, and you don’t have to worry about your blocking.”)

Adams, a 1985 Wilkinsburg High School grad, studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University for a year and a half before he ran out of money and dropped out.

“I just was not prepared for college and had no idea how much things were going to cost, and my parents weren’t ready for it. I would have been the first in my family to finish college,” Adams recalled. “I was so dejected. I spent six months in my house unshaven.”

Then he started getting roles in Pittsburgh theater productions. He starred alongside Bingo O’Malley in City Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s “Danger: Memory!” in 1987. And at 21 in 1989, Adams was an understudy for the role of teenaged Cory in the Pittsburgh premiere of August Wilson’s “Fences” at the Pittsburgh Public Theatre.

A touring production of “Fences” followed as well as productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before Adams made the move to Hollywood, guest-starring on “Frasier,” “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Felicity” before series regular roles on Fox’s short-lived “American Embassy” and NBC’s “American Dreams.”

Last week Adams was back on the set of Hulu’s “The Orville,” currently filming its third season, reprising his role as an alien Moclan arbitrator. Later this summer Adams intends to get back to Pittsburgh with wife, Monica Adams, from Beltzhoover, to visit family.

Although Adams was mostly cast in dramas before “Last Man Standing,” he’s hoping to avoid Hollywood’s tendency to pigeonhole actors in whatever genre they worked in most recently.

“I have been auditioning for dramas and comedies and getting relatively close (to getting parts) in both,” Adams said, “so I haven’t lost hope yet.”

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