Molly Ephraim – Is The Last Man Standing Star On Instagram?
Molly Ephraim was on the original version of Last Man Standing and she is currently on Instagram.
Molly Ephraim is best known as Mandy Baxter, the middle daughter of Tim Allen’s Mike Baxter on the long-running hit comedy series, Last Man Standing. The talented actress, though, decided not to return to the series after it was announced the show was being brought back. Instead, Ephraim moved on to other projects that included a Hugh Jackman feature film and various other television shows.
MOLLY EPHRAIM IS 36 YEARS OLD AND WAS BORN IN PHILADELPHIA
Molly Ephraim was born on May 22, 1986, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and from an early age, she showed a knack for singing and acting. As a child, she performed at the Bucks County Playhouse and as she got older, she began to perform professionally at Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theater and the Arden Theater Company.
Her high school years were at Central Bucks East High School and after that, Molly Ephraim graduated from Princeton University in 2008 with her B.A. in Religious Studies. But Ephraim knew well before that where her career was headed as she had already made her Broadway debut in 2002 as Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods, a role which saw Ephraim get nominated for the Drama League Award. In 2004, Ephraim played Bielke in Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof.
Molly Ephraim immediately jumped into film and TV right out of college first grabbing a role in the feature film, Walt Disney’s College Road Trip with Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symoné, then appearing on the hit TV series, Law & Order. Ephraim grabbed another role on an episode of the series Royal Pains, and then jumped into another feature film, the found footage horror film, Paranormal Activity 2 playing Ali Rey. Ephraim would return to that role four years later in Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.
MOLLY EPHRAIM STARRED IN LAST MAN STANDING ON ABC
These early roles led Molly Ephraim right into the hit comedy series as Mandy Baxter in Last Man Standing. Tim Allen and Nancy Travis played her parents, Mike and Vanessa Baxter. Along with them was Kaitlyn Dever as her younger sister Eve, Christoph Sanders as Kyle, Mandy’s eventual husband, Héctor Elizondo as Ed Alzate. For Season 1, Alexandra Krosney was her older sister Kristin and from Season 2 on, Amanda Fuller, took over the part as Kristin.
The series told the story of the Baxter family, with Allen’s Mike Baxter running a sporting goods store (Outdoor Man). Elizondo’s character was the owner. As Mandy Baxter, Molly Ephraim truly played into Mandy’s denseness as well as her desire to be a fashion icon. She was a perfect fit to play Mandy, which made the first cancellation of the series a tough pill to swallow for the entire crew.
ABC was the initial home of Last Man Standing. Throughout the series’ first six seasons (all on ABC) it always pulled in great numbers and during the 2016-17 season, it was the second most-watched ABC sitcom. So, it was a true shock when ABC decided to pull the plug on the series.
SHE DID NOT RETURN WHEN THE SERIES MOVED TO FOX
After the cancellation announcement by ABC, word began to spread that it wasn’t the show’s numbers that caused ABC to drop the series, but it was Allen and his controversial remarks that were the issue. Allen, a staunch Republican, had gone on Jimmy Kimmel Live! a few months before and made the comment that being a Republican in Hollywood is “like 1930s Germany. You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You’ll get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes.”
Of course, ABC took a different tact by responding and saying there were a number of different factors that caused the series’ cancellation, though nothing was mentioned about Allen’s comments. Then ABC President Channing Dungey said at the time, “Last Man Standing was a challenging one for me, because it was a steady performer. Once we made the decision not to continue with comedy on Friday, it was just kind of that’s where we landed.”
Well, fans and the cast of Last Man Standing weren’t having any of it, though a few never thought the series would be revived, including Molly Ephraim. But fans took to the internet, heading over to Change.org to get their viewer petition rolling. Tim Allen even claimed he was shocked and “blindsided” over the cancellation.
The cast and crew and creators of the series fought the good fight and against all odds, Fox decided to give the series another chance. It picked up the show for one season, deciding that additional seasons would come based on how fans responded to the revival. Season 7 ended up doing well enough that Fox brought it back for a Season 8 and a Season 9. Unfortunately, though, the revival was missing a key cast member, Molly Ephraim.
Ephraim felt for certain that Season 6 of the series was the last after it was canceled by ABC. She even took to her Instagram post to say, “Sad the ride is over and already missing my show family. So grateful for the opportunity.”
So, when the series was brought back, Ephraim had already moved on to other projects, which brought actress Molly McCook in as the new, and very different-looking, Mandy Baxter. It had McCook saying about Molly Ephraim to Entertainment Tonight, “Molly Ephraim did such an amazing job on the show for all of those seasons,” McCook said. “I am such an opposite choice; I knew if they were having me audition that they weren’t looking for a replica of Molly.”
Word was that the creatives of Last Man Standing were actually trying to get Molly Ephraim and Alexandra Krosney back for the series finale. Series showrunner Kevin Abbott said his team was batting around some ideas, though nothing ever materialized. “We kicked around some funny ideas, and if there was one that was funny enough to justify it, I would have given it a shot,” Abbott said. “I would have called some people, but we never really had it.”
SHE IS IN THE FRONT RUNNER AND A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
There is no need to feel sorry for Molly Ephraim and her not returning to her most famous role. She has not stopped working and, in fact, has found roles on two series reboots, as well as a role in the 2018 Hugh Jackman film, The Front Runner. The first one is HBO’s Perry Mason, a new take on a later 50s through mid-60s television series that starred screen legend, Raymond Burr.
The new series had Robert Downey Jr. attached for quite some time before he moved on and Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, The Americans) was brought in to play Mason. In this reboot, which still takes place in the early 1930s, Molly Ephraim plays Hazel Prystock, a tenant at the boarding house where Della Street lives and who also happens to be Della’s secret lover. Not sure if the original Perry Mason covered that fact.
The second reboot that Molly Ephraim stars in is called A League of Their Own, an Amazon Prime series that is based on the Tom Hanks 1992 comedy of the same name. Ephraim portrays Maybelle Fox and during the shooting of the first season, Ephraim was pregnant with her daughter Zia. Thankfully, even at eight months pregnant, Ephraim was able to film her remaining scenes.
MOLLY EPHRAIM IS ON INSTAGRAM
Not only is Molly Ephraim becoming more of a household name on TV, but she is also current on her social media standing. She is constantly updating fans with her projects and has no issue showing off her husband, Evan, and their baby girl.
Molly Ephraim continues to work on both Perry Mason and A League of Their Own as both series just finished shooting their second seasons.
