Daryl 'Chill' Mitchell calls 'Shifting Gears' scene-stealer Stitch a 'go-getter like me'

NEW YORK, March 20 (UPI) -- Veronica's Closet, Fear the Walking Dead and NCIS: New Orleans alum Daryl "Chill" Mitchell says he wanted to star in the ABC sitcom Shifting Gears because it gave him the chance to play a great character opposite his old Galaxy Quest co-star Tim Allen in front of a live audience.

The Season 1 finale is available for streaming on Hulu Thursday.

The show, which hasn't gotten an official Season 2 renewal yet, follows widower Matt (Allen), who owns a high-end garage where he, Stitch (Mitchell) and Gabriel (Seann William Scott) restore and repair classic cars.

Matt's life and workplace are disrupted when his estranged daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) shows up on his doorstep with her two kids -- Carter (Maxwell Simkins) and Georgia (Barrett Margolis) -- after leaving her husband Jimmy (Lucas Neff).

While Matt is frequently irritable and difficult to get along with, self-assured Stitch isn't intimidated by him because they have been close friends for so long.

"I said to myself, 'Stitch has got to be a go-getter like me,'" Mitchell, 59, told UPI in a Zoom interview Tuesday.

"I had to be a guy who go gets, stands up for what he believes and he ain't going to take no shorts from nobody," the actor said. "I know Matt for over 20 years and I REALLY know him over 20 years, so, when me and Tim talk, it's like we could get at each other and that's the fun part about this -- either I'm acting like I'm afraid and I know I'm not afraid of him or acting like I'm mad and I know I'm not mad at him."

Mitchell likes the clash of personalities at play in the garage where Matt and Stitch snipe at each other, while nice-guy Gabriel just tries to keep the peace and get his work done.

"It's ice and fire. Seann is cool as a cucumber and Matt is a fireball in hell," Mitchell joked.

"He's always grumpy, but you kind of empathize a little because you know the situation. He lost his wife not too long ago. But I don't sympathize with him because I know, just like myself, Matt has got to learn how to cope," he added, referring to how he has used a wheelchair since a 2001 motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.

"You may never get over the situation, but he has to learn to cope, so some days he can get a little beside himself, so, you give him the pass once or twice, but the third time, no. You're not coming at me crazy. So, that's our dynamic on the show."

Mitchell recalled how the show's creators, Julie Thacker Scully and Mike Scully, sent him a letter through his agent saying they have been fans of his for years, but, until now, he was always working when they had a role to offer him.

"The time came and somebody said to them, 'You do remember he did the movie Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen?' And they were like, 'Oh, great!' So, they contacted Tim, told Tim they were interested in getting me for the role," he said.

"Tim told them: 'Oh, yeah, get Chill. I had a blast working with Chill.' So, that's how it came about with me being Stitch on the show."

He said he has heard from Galaxy Quest fans who couldn't be happier about the reunion.

"They love the fact that we're back together again working," Mitchell added. "Even in the writers' room, the first day we came in, it was like we just came off the set of Galaxy Quest, acting crazy. Kat was like, 'Obviously, you two know each other.'"

As a father and uncle himself, Mitchell knows there aren't many TV comedies on the air today like Shifting Gears that viewers of all ages can enjoy together.

"My dad came out to watch a taping and now he's telling all his friends to watch the show," Mitchell said, noting he recently talked to a group of 10-year-olds who wanted him to tell his co-star Barrett "hello" for them.

"A lot of people say that they can sit with their family and watch the show," he added. "It works for everybody."

After decades of working in the industry, Mitchell said he is still learning and having fun, moving between TV and film and drama and comedy.

"I love a live audience. I love the instant gratification, but I love the one-hour dramas because it's like a movie and I love the process of film-making," he said.

"When I did Inside Man with Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, I went to watch the dailies. Spike said, 'You like sitting in dailies?' And I said, 'I love it,'" he added. "I was watching the shots and the shots he picked and watching him put them together. That's one of my endeavors -- to direct."