Home Improvement
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Carmen Finestra David McFadzean Matt Williams
Based on	Stand-up comedy material by Tim Allen
Starring	Tim Allen Patricia Richardson Earl Hindman Taran Noah Smith Jonathan Taylor Thomas Zachery Ty Bryan Richard Karn Debbe Dunning
Theme music composer	Dan Foliart
Opening theme	"Iron John's Rock"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	204 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Carmen Finestra David McFadzean Matt Williams (entire run) Bob Bendetson (Seasons 3–5) Elliot Shoenman (Seasons 3–8) Bruce Ferber (Season 4, Episode 6–Season 8) Charlie Hauck (Seasons 6–7) Tim Allen (Seasons 6–8) Laurie Gelman (Season 8)
Producers	Gayle S. Maffeo (entire run) Alan Padula (Seasons 4–8) John Pasquin (Seasons 1–2)
Production locations	Soundstage 4 Walt Disney Studios Burbank, California
Cinematography	Donald A. Morgan
Editors	Marco Zappia (entire run) James Spach (Season 8) Richard Russell (Season 6–7) Roger Ames Berger (Seasons 3–5) Alex Gimenez (Seasons 1–2)
Camera setup	Videotape; Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Wind Dancer Productions Touchstone Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 17, 1991 (1991-09-17) – May 25, 1999 (1999-05-25)

Home Improvement is an American sitcom television series starring Tim Allen that originally 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] and 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]

Episodes

Plot details and storylines

Taylor family

The series centers on the Taylor family, which consists of Tim (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three sons: Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The Taylors live in suburban Detroit, and they have a neighbor named Wilson (Earl Hindman) who is often the go-to guy for solving the Taylors' problems.

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.

Characters

Main

Recurring

Production

Casting changes

Pamela Anderson

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]