Home Improvement ran on ABC from September 17, 1991 to May 25, 1999, eight seasons and more than 200 half-hour episodes, and for most of that stretch it was the network’s number-one sitcom and one of the most watched in the country. It made Tim Allen an actor, having previously been a stand-up comedian, and it had grossed more than $500 million in syndication by 1996. None of that requires it to be good. It mostly was.
Tool Time
Allen plays Tim Taylor, a handyman who hosts a television show, raising three boys in suburban Detroit. The setup, created by Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean and Matt Williams, gives the sitcom two stages: the Taylor house and the set of Tim’s show, where his loyal co-host Al Borland, played by Richard Karn, stands by while Tim adds more power to something that did not need it.
The show-within-the-show is the cleverest part of the design. It lets Tim be a performer and a father in the same episode, and the two versions of him rarely agree.
Jill and Wilson
Patricia Richardson plays Jill Taylor, and she is the reason the show has a spine. The series calls her domineering. She is, in fact, the only adult in the house, and Richardson plays her with enough warmth that the marriage feels real rather than a setup for a punchline. Earl Hindman plays Wilson, the neighbor whose face is never seen over the fence, and his role is to dispense the wisdom Tim cannot find on his own. It is a gimmick that became a genuine relationship.
Zachery Ty Bryan and Taran Noah Smith play Brad and Mark, two of the three Taylor boys, and Debbe Dunning’s Heidi joined Tool Time along the way.
Why It Worked
Home Improvement understood its audience and never condescended to it. The jokes about men and tools are broad, but the show’s real subject is a husband and wife negotiating who they are going to be, and it took that seriously under the grunting.
Where It Falls Short
The formula is rigid. Tim breaks something, Jill is right, Wilson explains, Tim learns nothing lasting. Eight seasons of that is a long time, and the later years coast on the audience’s affection more than on new ideas. The boys grow up and the show is not sure what to do with them. The Tool Time segments can feel like sketch filler.
The Verdict
Home Improvement was a reliable, well-cast family sitcom that won many awards and dominated its decade by being exactly what it said it was. It did not reinvent anything. It did not need to.
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