September 17, 1991 (1991-09-17) – May 25, 1999 (1999-05-25)
Home Improvement is an American television sitcom starring Tim Allen that aired on ABC from September 17, 1991, to May 25, 1999, with a total of 204 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons. The series was created by Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra, and David McFadzean, and, despite not being a favorite with critics, it was one of the most watched sitcoms in the United States during the 1990s, winning many awards. The series also launched stand-up comedian Allen's acting career.[1] The show grossed more than $500 million in syndication revenue by 1996.[2]
Show background
Based on the stand-up comedy of Tim Allen, Home Improvement made its debut on ABC on September 17, 1991,[3] and was one of the highest-rated sitcoms for almost the entire decade. It went to No. 2 in the ratings during the 1993–1994 season, the same year Allen had the No. 1 book (Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man) and film (The Santa Clause).[4]
Beginning in season 2, Home Improvement began each episode with a cold open, which features the show's logo during the teaser. From season 4 until the end of the series in 1999, an anthropomorphic version of the logo was used in different types of animation.[5]
Tim loves power tools, cars, and sports. An avid fan of the Detroit professional sports teams, Tim wears Lions, Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers clothing in numerous instances, and many plots revolve around the teams. He is a former salesman for the fictional Binford Tool company, and he is very much a cocky, overambitious, accident-prone know-it-all. Witty but flippant, Tim jokes around a lot, even at inappropriate times, much to the dismay of his wife. However, Tim can sometimes be serious when necessary. Jill, Tim's wife, is loving and sophisticated, but she is not exempt from dumb moves herself. In later seasons, she returns to college to study psychology. Family life is boisterous for the Taylors, with the two oldest children, Brad and Randy, tormenting the much younger Mark, all while continually testing and pestering each other. Such play happened especially throughout the first three seasons, and it was revisited only occasionally until Jonathan Taylor Thomas left at the beginning of the eighth season. During the show's final season, Brad and Mark became much closer due to Randy's absence.
Brad, popular and athletic, was often the moving factor, who engaged before thinking, a tendency which regularly landed him in trouble. Randy, a year younger, was the comedian of the pack, known for his quick thinking, wisecracks, and smart mouth. He had more common sense than Brad but was not immune to trouble. Mark was somewhat of a mama's boy, though later in the series (in the seventh season) he grew into a teenage outcast who dressed in black clothing. Meanwhile, Brad became interested in cars like his father and took up soccer. Randy joined the school drama club and later the school newspaper; in the eighth season, he left for Costa Rica.
In early seasons, Wilson was always seen standing on the other side of Tim's backyard fence as the two engaged in conversation, usually with Wilson offering sage advice as Tim grappled with his problems. In later seasons, a running joke developed in which more and more creative means were used to prevent Wilson's face below the eyes from ever being seen by the audience. Also, in later seasons, Wilson's full name was revealed to be Wilson W. Wilson Jr.
Tool Time
Each episode includes Tim's own Binford-sponsored home improvement show, called Tool Time, a show-within-a-show. In hosting this show, Tim is joined by his friend and mild-mannered co-host Al Borland (Richard Karn), and a "Tool Time girl"—first Lisa (Pamela Anderson) and later Heidi (Debbe Dunning)—whose main duty is to introduce the pair at the beginning of the show with the line "Does everybody know what time it is?" In reply, the audience yells, "TOOL TIME!" The Tool Time girl also assists Tim and Al during the show by bringing them tools.
Although revealed to be an excellent salesman and TV personality, Tim is spectacularly accident-prone as a handyman, often causing massive disasters on and off the set, to the consternation of his co-workers and family. Many Tool Time viewers assume that the accidents on the show are done on purpose, to demonstrate the consequences of using tools improperly. Many of Tim's accidents are caused by his devices being used in an unorthodox or overpowered manner, designed to illustrate his mantra "More power!" This popular catchphrase was not uttered after Home Improvement's seventh season[6] until Tim's last line in the series finale—the last two words ever spoken on the show.
Tool Time was conceived as a parody of the PBS home-improvement show This Old House.[7] Tim and Al are caricatures of the two principal cast members of This Old House, host Bob Vila and master carpenter Norm Abram.[8] Al has a beard and always wears plaid shirts when taping an episode, reflecting Norm Abram's appearance on This Old House.[9] Bob Vila appeared as a guest star on several episodes of Home Improvement, while Tim Allen and Pamela Anderson both appeared on Bob Vila's show Home Again.[10][11]
The Tool Time theme music, an early 1960s-style saxophone-dominated instrumental rock tune, was sometimes used as the closing theme music for Home Improvement, especially when behind the credits were running the blooper scenes that took place during the taping of a Tool Time segment.
In the first two years of the show, Pamela Anderson played the part of Tim's Tool Girl, Lisa, on Tool Time, but left the show to focus on her role on the syndicated series Baywatch. Her last episode as a series regular was "The Great Race", which aired on May 19, 1993. Tim's new assistant, electrician Heidi Keppert, played by Debbe Dunning, replaced Anderson as the Tool Time Girl for the following third season, starting with "Maybe Baby", which aired on September 15, 1993. Dunning had previously appeared (not as Heidi) in the episode "Overactive Glance" from season 2 where she played an obsessive Tool Time fan named Kiki. Anderson did reprise the role of Lisa on the sixth-season finale episode "The Kiss and the Kiss-Off", which aired on May 20, 1997.
Departure of Jonathan Taylor Thomas
In the show's eighth and final season, the middle child Randy left for an environmental study program in Costa Rica in the episode "Adios", which aired on September 29, 1998. This was done because Jonathan Taylor Thomas reportedly wanted to take time off to focus on his academics. His last appearance on Home Improvement was the eighth season Christmas episode "Home for the Holidays", which aired on December 8, 1998. He did not return to the show for the series finale (as he was busy with his education and filming the movie Speedway Junky, released in 2001), only appearing in archived footage.
End of series
The series ended after eight seasons in 1999. Richardson was offered $25 million to do a ninth season; Allen was offered $50 million. The two declined the offer and the series came to an end as a result.[12]
Michigan college and university apparel
Throughout the show, Tim Taylor would often wear sweatshirts or T-shirts from various Michigan-based colleges and universities. These were usually sent by the schools to the show for him to wear during an episode.[13] Because Allen considered Michigan his home state, the rule was that only Michigan schools would get the free advertising.[14] There were two notable exceptions to the general rule that Tim only supported Michigan educational institutions on the show. First, during the episode "Workshop 'Til You Drop" Tim wears a Wofford College (South Carolina) sweatshirt.[15] Second, during the episode "The Wood, the Bad and the Hungry" Tim wears an Owens Community College (Ohio) sweatshirt.[16]
In the United States, Home Improvement began airing in broadcast syndication in September 1995, distributed via Buena Vista Television (now Disney–ABC Domestic Television) and continued to be syndicated until 2007, in a manner similar to Seinfeld and The Simpsons after they began airing in broadcast syndication. Episodes of Home Improvement were not aired in order of their production code number or original airdate. On cable, the series started airing in 2002 on superstations TBS and WGN America. It later ran on Nick at Nite, and its sister network TV Land, and eventually the Hallmark Channel in 2013.[61] The show's creators brought a lawsuit against Disney around in 2013 alleging that the latter sold the syndication rights for the show at "well below market value" including offering the syndication rights in New York for "no monetary compensation". The lawsuit was settled in 2019. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.[62]
Home media
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has released all eight seasons on DVD in Regions 1, 2, and 4. Season 8 has the "Backstage Pass" (which immediately followed "The Long and Winding Road, Part III")
On May 10, 2011, Walt Disney Studios released a complete series box set entitled Home Improvement: 20th Anniversary Complete Collection on DVD in Region 1. The 25-disc collection features all 204 episodes of the series as well as all special features contained on the previously released season sets; it is encased in special collectible packaging, a Home Improvement toolbox with a Binford "All-In-One Tool" tape measure.
The series will be available to streaming on Netflix on February 1, 2025.[63]
During its eight-season run, the show always finished in the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings during a season, despite never making the #1 slot (its highest finish was a second-place spot in the show's third season; behind 60 Minutes). The series finale became the fifth highest-rated series finale television program of the 1990s and the ninth overall series finale ever presented on a single network in television history, watched by 35.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 21.6 percent of television viewers.
On Metacritic, the first season holds a score of 64 out of 100, based on 18 critics and the second season holds a score of 75 out of 100, based on 5 critics, both indicating "generally favorable reviews.”
Post-series events
Tim Allen, Richard Karn, Casey Sander, and Debbe Dunning had a reunion in a television special named Tim Allen Presents: A User's Guide to Home Improvement in 2003 (a terminally ill Earl Hindman did voice-overs, befitting his never-seen persona of Wilson; Hindman died shortly after the special aired).[64] Allen presented his own favorite clips from the show, insider's tips, personal reflections and a question and answer session with the live audience.
Karn guest starred in two episodes of Tim Allen's 2010s ABC/Fox sitcom Last Man Standing in 2013.[66][67] Thomas has also appeared on Last Man Standing,[68] and has directed episodes of the series.[69][70]
In 2015, Patricia Richardson guest starred on Last Man Standing in the episode "Helen Potts", playing the episode's titular character.[71] Thomas made a cameo in the episode, playing Richardson's son.
On May 5, 2015, Hollywood Life reported that Allen and Karn had admitted talking about getting back together as a cast for a Home Improvement reboot or reunion show. Karn was quoted as saying, "There is always a chance, absolutely. Would I be on board? Yeah, I think so! I would love to see what the story lines could be, it could be very funny!"[72]
On February 18, 2020, CinemaBlend reported that Allen wants to bring back Home Improvement for a revival:
I like the idea of doing it as a one-off, like a one-hour movie [versus a full-fledged revival series]. I like the idea of finding out where the boys are now, and where... Tool Time would be in today's world. I just think it's a marvelous idea, and all the actors think it's a great idea.[73]
In January 2021, Allen reprised his role of Tim Taylor in an episode of Last Man Standing titled "Dual Time".[74]
Premiering in February 2021, Tim Allen and Richard Karn, teamed up with YouTuber DIYer April Wilkerson, on History Channel unscripted competition show Assembly Required; where home handymen/makers/DIYers/inventors, compete to build souped up home tools a la Tool Time from Home Improvement, with supplied parts and pieces, and some of their own junk at home.[75][76]
Premiering in June 2022, Allen and Karn again teamed up with Wilkerson on another History Channel documentary series More Power; where the hosts cover the history of tools, again a la Tool Time from Home Improvement.[77]
^Petrozzello, Donna (May 27, 1999). "POWER RATINGS FOR 'HOME'". NY Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
^"Home Improvement". TimAllen.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2015. Tim originally envisioned the show as This Old House combined with a Myrna Loy-type wife to a William Powell-type husband from "The Thin Man" movies from the forties.
^Storrs, Francis (February 2009). "This Old House: An Oral History". Boston Magazine. Vila: The Disney people contacted me before Home Improvement premiered. I think there was some concern in the legal department about whether I was being ripped off. The fact is, it's a sitcom based on me and Norm, you know?
^Storrs, Francis (February 2009). "This Old House: An Oral History". Boston Magazine. In the mid-1990s the ABC sitcom Home Improvement featured Tim Allen as a bumbling version of Bob Vila and Richard Karn as his able, flannel-clad assistant, a thinly veiled Norm Abram.
^Cormier, Roger (September 17, 2016). "14 Sturdy Facts About 'Home Improvement'". Mental Floss. Retrieved September 21, 2018. Richardson was offered $25 million to do a ninth season; Allen was offered double that. The two declined, and Home Improvement ended after eight seasons and 203 episodes.
^"Home Improvement". TimAllen.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2015. Colleges and universities in Michigan sent Tim sweaters and T-shirts to wear on the air, and he did.
.svg)
