Few people in the entertainment industry of the '90s had "more power" than Tim Allen.
In addition to a thriving career in stand-up comedy and roles in movies like The Santa
Clause, Galaxy Quest, and Toy Story, he starred on ABC's Home Improvement, one of the most-watched
TV shows of the decade.
Based on a major element of his comedy act that men were still essentially ill-equipped
cavemen and had evolved only enough to enjoy power tools Allen played Tim "The Toolman"
Taylor.
Tim was a bumbling husband and father, and host of Tool Time, a Michigan-based home improvement
show which invariably ended with him breaking something.
Here's a look behind the scenes of ABC's eight-season smash.
"Ohhhrahhahrahhaha"
A tale of two Jills
Patricia Richardson wasn't the first actress to play the role of Tim Taylor's long-suffering
wife, Jill.
"Who's that supposed to be?
Is that supposed to be me?"
"No!
That's not you."
Actress Frances Fisher originally landed the role and performed it for the pilot taping.
While the inaugural episode was successful enough to get the show on ABC's schedule,
test audiences didn't like Fisher in the role.
So, with little time to spare before production started, the showrunners replaced Fisher with
Richardson, even though it wasn't ideal timing.
"I had just given birth to two babies, and I really was supposed to do another show for
ABC.
And that was supposed to happen nine months later, so I was going to have all this time
to lose the weight, and go be with my babies."
The other show was cancelled, though, so they offered her double salary to star as Jill.
Richardson warned producers that there might be set delay as a result of her new motherhood.
"I said 'Look, I'm nursing twins, you have to wait for me for forty minutes while I'm
doing that.'
And they said, 'Oh, well, yeah, we'll do anything.'"
And so the new mom started raising her on-screen kids alongside her real-life babies.
You can (almost) call him Al
You probably know character actor Stephen Tobolowsky from… just about everything,
from Groundhog Day to Silicon Valley to The Goldbergs.
But the actor could have had a long-lasting regular gig on Home Improvement if he'd wanted
it.
Tobolowsky originally won the role of Al Borland, Tim Taylor's long-suffering, extra-competent
Tool Time assistant.
He walked away, however, when they couldn't assure him of a proper start date and still
wanted an exclusive contract.
Tobolowsky told Splitsider:
"I couldn't do any other work, any other shows, which is normal on a regular show.
But my wife was pregnant, we had a baby coming.
I had auditioned for a couple of movies and was waiting on them, and they said I couldn't
do movies."
Rather than risk being broke for months, Tobolowsky parted ways with Home Improvement, and the
part of being the butt of every joke went to Richard Karn instead.
"Whew!
Look at that butt crack you got going there."
Ashley Judd needs no Improvement
Pamela Anderson's high-profile career really started when she played Lisa, the "Tool Girl"
on Tool Time, the show-within-a-show on Home Improvement.
But award-winning star and activist Ashley Judd also tried out for the part.
When she auditioned for the show, creator Matt Williams thought she was "so talented"
even too talented for the somewhat thankless, eye-candy role of Lisa.
Williams called Judd's agent and said that while she didn't get the part, he was going
to create a role just for her as Tim Taylor's sister.
But that offer was declined, and she went on to star in NBC's drama Sisters instead.
Chappelle's (first) Show
Home Improvement might not seem like the kind of vehicle to propel the career of one of
the most incendiary comedians of all time, but it did.
On a 1995 episode of Home Improvement, Tim Taylor's Tool Time descended, as it often
did, into a discussion about how marriage can be tough.
Tim asked if anyone in the studio audience had, like him, been tricked into a fight with
their significant other.
Two guys named "Dave" and "Jim" could relate, and Tim pulled them up on stage.
"Well, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking of calling you."
"No you weren't."
"Yes I was!"
"No you weren't!"
As Dave, Chappelle lit up the screen, impressing ABC executives so much that they commissioned
a show about the duo called Buddies.
It debuted in 1996, with some changes including the replacement of Jim Breuer with Christopher
Gartin.
Only a few episodes aired before Buddies was canceled, but landing a primetime network
TV show couldn't have hurt Chappelle's early exposure efforts.
Emmy snafu
Most TV fans probably don't know that performers have to submit their own names for consideration
for the Emmy Awards, and apparently, neither did Tim Allen.
Home Improvement was the actor's first major small screen role, and he didn't know how
the Emmys worked at first.
When Emmy nominations were released in the summer of 1992, after Home Improvement's first
season, Allen wasn't snubbed for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series he just hadn't
submitted his paperwork.
After somebody told him the rules, Allen made sure to get his name onto the ballot the next
year.
He was eventually nominated for that year but lost out to Ted Danson from Cheers.
But Allen just couldn't win: his team forgot to submit his name for consideration the following
year, much to his disappointment.
"Oh no."
"Uh-oh."
"Not a word you wanna hear in this house."
Tool Time meets game time
Sitcoms aren't easy to turn into video games, but Home Improvement was so popular during
its run, that a game called Power Tool Pursuit debuted in 1994 for the Super Nintendo.
The plot of the game is that a new line of power tools by Tool Time sponsor Binford Tools
has been stolen right before Tim Taylor is supposed to unveil them on the air.
Tim goes on a quest in search of the tools, using other power tools to defeat enemies
like dinosaurs, mummies, ghosts, and other creatures which definitely weren't a part
of the average Home Improvement episode.
In keeping with the show, which often touted the dumb, macho, off-the-cuff ways that "real
men" should act, the game's "manual" consisted entirely of the message: "Real men don't need
instructions."
"Now there is raw power!"
Whither JTT?
Home Improvement played to a lot of different demographics.
Adult fans loved Tim Allen's destructive antics, while many tween girls tuned in for Jonathan
Taylor Thomas.
"HEH?"
Of the three young actors playing the Taylor kids, JTT is the one who became the major
teen idol.
His face appeared on the cover of all the major magazines and poster fold-outs, and
he was the stuff young crushes were made of.
Despite the overnight fame he earned from the show, though, Thomas left the show in
1998.
He told People Magazine:
"I'd been going nonstop since I was eight years old.
I wanted to go to school, to travel, and have a bit of a break."
He enrolled at Harvard, studying philosophy and history… but he also acted in a couple
of movies.
That didn't sit well with Allen, who was confused as to why the young star had left.
Allen told TV Guide:
"He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films.
Did he want to do films?
Did he want to go to school?"
After Allen confronted Thomas on-set, their feud became so bad that the young actor opted
not to return for the series finale.
Thomas and Allen must have patched things up at some point since then, however, because
Thomas guested on four episodes of Allen's sitcom, Last Man Standing, and his appearances
even included some cheeky references to their history.
"You know, a lot of times, that middle child ends up being the funny one because he wants
the attention."
"Man, you look familiar."
The season that never was
Home Improvement wrapped up after eight successful seasons in 1999 and it was a decision made
by the cast and crew, rather than ABC.
While he grew sentimental and upset as the finale neared Allen also regretted not ending
the show a year earlier, when the show was still a top-five ratings hit.
In its final season, Home Improvement fell to 11th place in Nielsen ratings, but ABC
wanted to go even longer.
The network even reportedly offered Allen as much as $50 million and Patricia Richardson
$25 million to return for one more season.
Somehow, though, Allen and Richardson managed to leave that money on the table, and the
world's time with the toolman was done.
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