Home Improvement is an American television
sitcom starring actor/comedian Tim Allen, which ran
from 1991 to 1999. The show was created by Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra, who both produced The Cosby Show, and
David MacFadzean. The show's title is a double entendre, because its about both physical
improvement of houses, as well as improving life with family, friends, work, and school.
Plot details and storylines
The series centered on the antics of the Taylor family, which, along with Tim, included his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three sons: the popular and athletic Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), comedian and intellectual Randy (Jonathan
Taylor Thomas), and the socially awkward youngest son, Mark (Taran Noah Smith).
The show is set in Metro Detroit, as evidenced by the many references to the area in the
show (especially local colleges, whose shirts are worn by Tim in the show).
Early seasons
In the first four seasons, sons Brad and Randy would torment their youngest brother Mark (and each other) in ways that
consistently presented a challenge to Tim and Jill. Mark always believed what his siblings told him (for example, that the whole
family but Mark were aliens and that Mark was not Tim and Jill's natural son), until Jill explained all.
Mark was initially presented as slightly naive and in constant admiration of his father. Brad was presented as a character who
often engaged fist before brain, a tendency which regularly landed him in trouble. Randy was the comedian of the pack-- the
quick-thinking, sarcastic son who had more common sense than Brad but wasn't immune to trouble.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas's departure
As the series progressed, however, Mark grew into a teenage outcast who dressed in dark clothing, while Brad became interested
in cars like his father and took up soccer. Randy joined the school newspaper, before leaving for Costa Rica in the eighth season episode "Adios." This was done since Jonathan Taylor Thomas wanted to take time off to focus on academics. He attended Harvard
University. His last appearance on Home Improvement was the 1998 Christmas episode, with Thomas unwilling to return to the
show for the series finale.
Tool Time the show
Focus was also given to Tim's job as a television personality on his own home improvement show, called Tool Time. Tim was the host of this show-within-a-show, originally called Hammer Time, but Tim and
the producers felt that name would be confused with MC Hammer (TVography: Home Improvement).
Tim was joined by his friend and mild-mannered assistant Al Borland (Richard Karn), and a
"Tool Time girl" — first Lisa (Pamela Anderson) and later Heidi (Debbe Dunning) — who assisted the pair by bringing them tools, for example. Although an excellent salesman
and TV personality, Tim was spectacularly accident-prone as a handyman, often causing hilarious disasters on and off the set to
the consternation of his co-workers and family. Many of Tim's accidents were caused by his devices designed in application of his
mantra, "More power!"
The relationship between Tim and Al
Though ultimately good friends, there was a tense relationship between Tim and Al. Al was portrayed as a slightly geeky
character, usually having more knowledge, skill, and audience popularity than Tim. His catchphrase, as an opposition to Tim's
ill-advised ideas or jokes, was "I don't think so, Tim." He also came up with many puns and giggles
and snorts when a joke is made at Tim's expense. The cautious, insecure, brighter Al always bore the brunt of Tim's jokes and
constant put-downs. Al is frequently taunted by Tim because of his weight, beard, in Tim's eye bland personality, poor sense of
humor and his preference of flannel shirts (and often other flannel items such as an oversized
pair of flannel briefs in the episode "The Karate Kid Returns"). Tim typically uses his television show to vent about numerous
problems he is having in his personal life, and Al is usually very annoyed by this. A running
joke for Tim was commenting on Al's overweight mother, who was often referred to but was never seen throughout the series
(although in the penultimate episode of the series, "Dead Weight", she died, and the characters were shown paying their respects
at her extra-wide coffin which showed her body but not her face).
Special guests and cameos
Many "special guests" made "cameo" appearances on Tool Time. These guests included race car drivers Johnny Rutherford, Robby Gordon, Michael Andretti, and Mario Andretti, actress and model
Jenny McCarthy, country artist Alan Jackson, golfer
Payne Stewart, and The Beach Boys. Numerous
NASA astronauts appeared on the series, the most notable being Ken
Bowersox, who made three separate appearances. Former Denver Broncos
quarterback John Elway, then Detroit Pistons star Grant Hill (the season 7
episode "Believe It or Not"), former boxers Evander Holyfield (the season 3 episode
"Eve of Construction") and George Foreman (the season 1 episode "Unchained Malady"), and former President Jimmy
Carter all appeared on the series. Carter made an appearance during an episode which focused on Habitat for Humanity, which was the season three episode "Eve of Construction." Jay Leno appears with his car
collection in the fourth season episode "Brother, Can You Spare a Hot
Rod?" He plays a mechanic who is cleaning Papa Mia's (the Detroit pizza magnate) cars. Bob
Vila also appeared on several episodes, with Tim seeing him as a rival (he appears in Season One's "What About Bob?"
Season Two's "The Great Race," and Season 3's "The Great Race II".) He also appears in the one-hour season 4 episode "Tool Time
After Dark," but that appearance was just recycled Tool Time footage from earlier episodes.
A then-unknown Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer
guest-starred in the Season 4 episode, "Talk to Me", as two of the men
Tim gives advice to and almost destroying their relationships with their respective girlfriends.
Other famous guests include Drake Bell in episode "Swing Time", Ron Eli, and Ernest Borgnine, the latter who appeared in the first
season episode "Birds of a Feather Flock to Taylor."
Character honors
Starting in Season 4, Jill studied to become a psychologist. In "Is There A Doctor in
the House?" an episode from the fifth season, Tim also received an honorary Ph.D.
from his alma mater, Western Michigan University. Tim also received an award
for "Safety" in season 2's "Dances with Tools" despite his accident record on Tool Time. (The reason was that the people giving
the award mistakenly believed that he staged all his accidents and Tim, to keep his reputation, let them.)
Running gags
- Scene Transitions - During scene changes, clever transitions were used to comically remove the current image from the screen.
For example, the current scene could shatter like glass, fall over like a piece of wood, or deflate like a balloon. These
transitions usually (though not always) included something shown or mentioned in the scene before (e.g. heart-shaped balloons
inflate and pop to transition from a scene talking about a possible secret admirer in "A Funny Valentine").
- Basement Pipe - Tim banged his head on a large metal pipe every time he was walking down the basement steps. He would then do
the same thing when he walked back up the steps. We first see this gag in Season 1, Episode 5, "Wild Kingdom." This never
happened to any other character. In one episode, he banged his head on a pipe while walking down the steps of an aircraft
carrier, and also banged his head walking down the basement steps in Benny's aunt's house.
- Binford 6100 - From Season 3 onwards, every new power tool introduced by Tim on Tool Time was called the Binford 6100.
Prior to this, each tool had a unique model number.
- Opera - Nearly every time the word opera was mentioned in the Taylor household, either Tim or
the boys would scream.
- Nanna - Tim's constant jokes of "Nanna", Jill's mother. Jokes from her weight to her driving were included.
- Address Card - In the show's early years, Tim would often make remarks (usually involving women) that would cause offense to
certain sections of the Tool Time viewership. Al would hold up the address card for viewers to write in and complain.
Sometimes Tim would ask Al to destroy the card, but he would always have more. This was first seen in Season 1, on the episode,
"Reach Out And Teach Someone".
- We'll Be Right Back... - Usually, when something goes wrong on Tool Time (such as in the episode Forever Jung), Tim will say,
"We'll be right back after these messages from Binford!".
- Salute to... - From the outset of Season 2, Tim and Al would make a theme of a particular home improvement project or item on
Tool Time by hosting a week long "salute" to it. This would usually be evident with a banner that said "Salute to ____" or
Tim or Al would say "...a salute" followed by a hand salute, thrusting the hand forward, having a sound effect that resembled the
particular item being saluted (e.g., if it was a salute to lawn care, the sound effect would be of a mower), finishing with Tim
and/or Al saying the particular item being saluted.
- The Man's... - Similar to the salutes, "Tool Time" often featured "The Man's ____ (Bathroom, Kitchen, etc.)." These skits are
the embodiment of Manliness according to Tim.
- Wilson's Advice - The character Wilson (Earl Hindman), the Taylor family's sage
advice-giving neighbor with many historical, philosophical, and literary works to quote. Tim always confusingly misquoted and
re-worded Wilson's advice when speaking to Jill or his sons, often prompting them to say, "Please don't explain" or "I don't want
to know". Initially only Tim talked about his problems to Wilson, but as the series progressed, Jill and the boys would also talk
with Wilson about their own matters.
- Wilson's Face - Perhaps the show's best-known gimmick. Since Wilson was partly inspired by a neighbor that Tim Allen had when
he was very little and was too short to see over his neighbor's fence (and therefore unable to see his neighbor), the bottom half
of Wilson's face was almost never seen on the show, unless he was playing another role. Instead, it was almost constantly hidden
and sometimes blocked by various props, such as fences, grills, masks, plants, or scarfs. In one episode, Mark was
papier-macheing his face leaving the bottom half of his face revealed. Also on one Halloween episode, Wilson was seen at a costume party dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, the mask covering the top half of his face and leaving his
mouth revealed. On one occasion his entire face was visible, although hidden behind Halloween makeup.) On another occasion his
face was covered with clown makeup. On yet another occasion his face was covered with a beard. His face was fully shown following
the series finale episode while taking his final bow. During the show, Wilson is usually working on an unusual project of some
sort in his backyard. One of his projects included a self portrait, and when Tim asked to see it, Wilson showed it to him, but
only the upper half of Wilson's face was completed. Someone else was supposed to play the character 'Wilson'. When he found out
that his whole face would never be shown, he refused to do it. The creators of the show held auditions again, and Earl Hindman
got the role of Wilson.
- Jill's Childhood Stories - Jill often told stories about an experience she had when she was a little girl. Tim and the boys
always hated those stories and would beg her not to tell them, walk away in the middle of the story, or both. Jill would often
try to disguise these stories either by launching straight into it when the boys were off-guard (or willing to listen), or
convert them from "when I was a little girl" stories to "when I was a little person" stories. Many times, though, the boys saw
straight through this as they matured. One of the most notable examples was when while Jill tried to explain to Randy that older
siblings (in Randy's case, Brad) get to do more things earlier, she lamented about how growing up her older sister got to wear a
bra while Jill had to wear a "dorky undershirt". Randy replied by saying he understood, and
asked Jill "When do you think I get to wear a bra, mom?"
- Disney Gags - Some jokes stemmed from Jonathan Taylor Thomas' and
Tim Allen's respective roles in other Disney productions. In a Halloween episode, Cooper Karn
(Richard's real son) is seen dressed as Lion King character Simba and another child is
dressed as Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear. Randy
gives two pieces of candy to Buzz and seven pieces to Simba. (Jonathan provided the voice of young Simba in The Lion King). In another episode when Tim's brother Marty's daughter (with her twin over at Tim's
mother's) visit, a stuffed Simba toy is displayed, and Thomas makes a comment about it. A similar joke is made by Tim, in the
same episode (as an outtake), when he is playing with a Buzz Lightyear doll (the character he
played in Pixar film Toy Story). In addition, there is a scene in the
Toy Story film with a toolbox labeled "Binford", referencing the fictional hardware
company from the show.
- K&B Construction - Throughout the show's tenure, the K&B Construction men would make periodic visits on
Tool Time, often providing feminine counters to Tim's macho positioning.
- Double Entendres - One infrequent gag was to have Tim (and in one occasion Al) perform or say something with a homosexual
double entendre accidentally in front of a recurring extra named Milt, who would reply
with, "Hey, I don't go for that sort of thing!" For example, Tim covered Delores' 12-hour diner shift. When he serves two meals
to two men, he says, "You're the pancakes, and you must be the fruit."
- Al is the Star - Tool Time viewers often had the misconception that Al was the star of the show, probably due to him
being more skillful and intelligent than Tim. Tim usually takes these comments with barely restrained annoyance and reminds the
viewers that Al is his assistant and not the reverse. A related running gag is a fan of the show telling Tim "I'm a big
fan of Tool Time. I love Al", to which Tim would always reply with a sarcastic, "We all love Al.". In later seasons, when
Tim introduces Al to the Tool Time crowd, he would get an applause from the audience.
- Whenever Tim made a joke like, "You think they'd call it..." Al would say, "I don't think so Tim".
- When something would go wrong, Tim would grunt "Oh no".
- Whenever Al (or anyone else) would be sarcastic to something Tim said, Tim would hiss at them.
- Whenever Tim introduces Al on Tool Time, he added a sarcastic middle name like Al "going to be doing infomercials for a
living" Borland.
- Al's Mother - Tim frequently cracks jokes about Al's mother, usually about her weight.
- Power - Tim saying something needed "More power", which was then followed by his trademark "Simian Grunt" Later, characters would suggest that Tim make "the power [blank]" when he expressed dissatisfaction
with something's capabilities.
- Jill's cooking - Tim and the boys' never-ending wisecracks about Jill's notoriously bad cooking.
- How many years? - Whenever Tim mentions how many years he and Jill have been married he's one year short, and whoever he's
talking to corrects him instantly. i.e. "We've been together for 14 years-" "15 Years." "We've been together for 15
years...."
- The Grunt - Tim would usually grunt while doing something manly to exert his manliness.
- Polish food - Tim frequently orders Polish food from the fictional Stan's Restaurant in Hamtramck even though his stomach can never handle it.
- Tim's cell phone - When Tim has a call away from home, he uses a cell phone often with a low signal. As a result, he often
walks into other people, disrupting them in an attempt to improve the signal.
- Al's "lack of style" - Tim would constantly make jokes about Al's plaid flannel shirt
Show background
Based on the stand-up comedy of Tim Allen, Home Improvement made its debut on
ABC on September 17,
1991, and was one of the highest-rated sitcoms for almost the entire decade (It even went up to #1
during the 1993-1994 season). Midway throughout the show's run, it was also competed against another highly-rated sitcom,
Frasier, which slightly dropped the ratings, though it stayed in the top 10. The final
episode aired on May 25, 1999 with a 90-minute, three-part episode
entitled "The Long and Winding Road," which was the fourth highest rated comedy series
finale of the 1990s, behind Cheers, The Cosby
Show and Seinfeld. Since 1995, due to its popularity, reruns began
airing on The Disney Channel and Channel 4 and
ABC1 in the UK. At the present time, old episodes are currently on national syndication and on
cable television network such as TBS in the U.S., the Seven Network and FOX Classics in Australia, and is currently not airing in the UK due to ABC1 ceasing
transmissions as of 26th September. In America, it has began airing on Nick at Nite in 2007
[1]. In Germany, Home
Improvement was shown on ARD, RTL, VOX, and reruns are currently shown on the private channel RTL 2. It was also shown
on M-Net on South African television, and reruns are showing throughout 2007 on the
M-Net Series channel, available to DStv users
The Theme song for home improvement has had 7 versions.
Characters
-
The Taylor Family
Friends of the family
- Al Borland (Richard Karn) — Tim's assistant
and best friend
- Wilson W. Wilson Jr. (Earl
Hindman) - Tim's neighbor and confidant
- Lisa (Pamela Anderson) — Binford's first
"Tool Girl"; Ashley Judd auditioned for and won the role of Lisa the Tool Girl. However, her
agent urged her to pursue movies instead of a television career, and she pulled out days before the original pilot was to be
taped, resulting in the casting of Pamela Anderson. The last-minute change necessitated
alterations to the original script, in which Lisa was a major character; she was a college student majoring in psychology who
acted as a stand-in on the Tool Time set.
- Heidi Keppert (Debbe Dunning) — The second
"Tool Girl"
- Harry (Blake Clark) — Owner of "Harry's
Hardware"
- Benny Beroni (Jim Labriola) - One of Tim's buddies who
hangs out at the hardware store
Series finale
The series ended in a three-part episode with Tim being displeased at how Tool Time had been changed into something
resembling a corporate-sponsored Jerry Springer-like show, and Jill
getting a new job offer. The personal conflict revolved around the job being in Bloomington, Indiana, a change that Tim strongly resisted initially.
Of course, after talking to Wilson, he agreed to leave Detroit. Tim ended his Tool Time appearances with a final show
that garnered huge ratings. However, Jill realized that they would be moving out of the house the family grew up in. The
conclusion was somewhat ambiguous, although Jill seemed adamant about them not moving. The last shot was Tim imagining (a thought
balloon was used for emphasis) putting the whole house on a flatbed truck and then on a tugboat, leaving the viewer to decide if
they moved or stayed in Detroit.
The three-part series finale was taped twice, once with Wilson's face revealed and another with it hidden. ABC was to decide which version would air in May 1999.
Ultimately, they aired the version with Wilson's face hidden, as in the other 200 episodes. This version was released later that
fall on VHS, titled Home Improvement: The Series Finale. The finale brought in 35.5 million
viewers (34% of all Americans watching TV at that time)
Awards and Nominations
Home Improvement received numerous awards and nominations in its 8 season run. Notable awards and nominations
include:
Golden Globe Awards
- 1993
- Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim
Allen)
- 1994
- Nominated- Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
- Nominated- Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Patricia Richardson)
- Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim
Allen)
- 1995
- Nominated- Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
- Nominated- Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Patricia Richardson)
- Win- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim
Allen)
- 1996
- Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim
Allen)
- 1997
- Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim
Allen)
Primetime Emmy Awards
- 1993
- Nominated- Outstanding Comedy Series
- Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Tim Allen)
- 1994
- Nominated- Outstanding Comedy Series
- Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Patricia
Richardson)
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
Related products
- A Super NES game of the same name was based on the series. It had no manual; its splash screen
explained, “Real men don’t need instructions.” The game didn't sell in large numbers, and is hard to find today.
- After the Tool Time game episode aired, Northern Games released The Home Improvement Board Game, which can
still be ordered online.[2]
- Ryobi released a line of tools titled "Tim Allen Signature Tools", which were available for a limited time.
- Various pictures, posters, and calendars were released
DVD Releases
DVD notes
The Region 1 DVDs are on three discs, whereas the
Region 2 DVDs are presented across four discs. The Region 2 packaging and programme
menus for Season 1 vary compared to the Region 1 releases. The Season 3 menus in Region 1 are in widescreen, but 4:3 in Region 2. The Region 1 releases of
Seasons 2 and 3 consist of (deliberate) "holes" in the outer packaging - these do not exist in the Region 2 releases; in fact,
the Season 3 outer packaging is physically printed where the hole would be in the Region 1 packaging.
It has been mentioned on review sites about the lack of episode commentaries and
bonus features on the DVDs. In an interview on about.com[3], Tim said that it was a done deal that the DVDs would not contain interviews or episode commentaries.
Whether this was before or after somebody at Disney ordered the three commentaries available on the Season 1 DVDs is unknown.
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has not officially announced Season 4
for release in the UK but the BBFC has recently classified episodes of Home Improvement for release on home video
in the UK[4]. This
follows the revelation that Home Improvement Season 4 will be released in Germany on December
6th after a pre-order listing appeared on Amazon.de [5]
UK Broadcasting
Originally, Home Improvement was aired on The Disney Channel, however, in 2005 it
began broadcasting on abc1. As of 26th September 2007, abc1 has ceased transmissions.
No official announcements have been made as to what channel will be broadcasting abc1's previous programming. Rumours speculate
that they may be broadcast on The Disney Channel, while others show they may be broadcast on a new television channel.
Bloopers
- In the episode "Let's Go To The Videotape" at the hardware store, Tim says Jill's speech was "so boring". But later, when
Jill was watching the videotape of Tim making fun of her, he says Jill's speech was "so dull".
- In the Season 3 episode "This Joke's For You" (aired September 29, 1993), Tim says to Wilson that Randy is twelve going on
thirteen. This is inaccurate because Randy was born in 1982, making him eleven at the time.
- In the Season 3 episode "Blow Up" (aired November 3, 1993) Tim says that Brad is thirteen years old. This is inaccurate
because Brad was born in 1981, making him twelve at the time.
- Al's age is always stated to be at or right before 37, throughout the entire series. Also, Ilene mentions that she's 36 in
her debut episode and in the episode where Al proposes to her she claims she's coming up on her 34th birthday.
Nielsen Ratings
1991-1992 Season: #4 (tied with Cheers)
1992-1993 Season: #3
1993-1994 Season: #1
1994-1995 Season: #3
1995-1996 Season: #7
1996-1997 Season: #9
1997-1998 Season: #10 (tied with Frasier)
1998-1999 Season: #10
See also
References
- ^ http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=117588
- ^ http://www.northerngames.com/
- ^ http://movies.about.com/od/skippingchristmas/a/kranksta111904_4.htm
- ^ http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/e8ea0df3a881175480256d58003cb570/e8545d149cb9f3f18025733800413436?OpenDocument
- ^ http://www.amazon.de/Hör-mal-wer-hämmert-komplette/dp/B000V2SH34/ref=pd_bbs_1/302-0198992-4128042?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1188100579&sr=8-1
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
