Tim Allen’s grunting tool man led one of the ’90s most popular sitcoms.
Home Improvement was built on the flimsiest of jokes, quite literally a series of grunts, but the ABC sitcom emerged as one of the ’90s most-watched shows.
Tim Allen, best known at the time for his stand-up comedy, starred as Tim Taylor, the tool- and car-obsessed husband to Jill (Patricia Richardson) and father to Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The series, which ran for eight seasons and racked up dozens of Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, balanced Tim’s life at home with Tool Time, a show within the show about, you guessed it, home improvement.
Home Improvement — which was on the air from 1991-1999 — has yet to get a reboot or revival in the manner of contemporaries like Full House, Frasier, and Mad About You, but that’s not for lack of trying. “One of the conversations we’ve had recently is how weird it would be if Home Improvement would be about the kids’ kids,” Allen said in a 2023 interview with the Messenger. “Like if all of them had children, and I’m a grandparent. Home Re-Improvement or something like that. It’s come up.”
As we wait to see if that ever comes to fruition, let’s check in on where the cast of Home Improvement is now.
Tim Allen (Tim Taylor)
Tim Allen, a stand-up comedian, had barely any acting credits to his name when he stepped into the role of man’s man TV host Tim Taylor on Home Improvement, for which he won a Golden Globe in 1995. That makes it that much more surprising how ubiquitous a presence he’s been on both TV and film.
He’s been at the head of two major franchises, voicing Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise (1995–present) and playing reluctant Santa Claus Scott Calvin in three Santa Clause movies (1994–2006) and a TV series (2022–2023). Allen has also led films like Christmas With the Cranks (2004), The Shaggy Dog (2006), and Wild Hogs (2007), as well as the enduring cult classic Galaxy Quest (1999), which could still get a sequel.
From 2011 to 2021, he starred on the ABC sitcom Last Man Standing as Mike Baxter, an executive at a Denver sporting goods store. His latest collab with the network is Shifting Gears (2025), a series about an auto shop owner that also stars Kat Dennings and Seann William Scott.
Patricia Richardson (Jill Taylor)
For her performance as Taylor matriarch Jill Taylor, Broadway and small-screen veteran Patricia Richardson received four Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. Following Home Improvement, she led the Lifetime medical drama Strong Medicine (2002–2005) and recurred on The West Wing (2005–2006) as Sheila Brooks, the first campaign manager of Alan Alda’s Arnold Vinick. Most recently, she had guest turns on The Blacklist (2022) and Grey’s Anatomy (2022–2023).
In a 2024 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Richardson claimed that Disney, who owns ABC, wanted a ninth season of the sitcom, but that she was ready for it to end. “I told everybody, ‘There’s not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year.’ This show is over. It needs to end.”
She did, however, offer “a little bit of a flip-off” to Disney, who owns ABC, by asking them to pay her the same $2 million fee Allen was slated to receive for each episode. “I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much,” she said. “I’d been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my ass off. I was a big reason why women were watching.”
Last year, she also addressed the prospect of a Home Improvement reunion on the Back to the Best podcast, saying neither she nor Thomas had been contacted about it.
“I wrote a big thing on Twitter and said I’m not involved in any series with Jill and I’ve also never even been asked to do another Home Improvement reunion thing, but I would not want to,” she said.
Zachery Ty Bryan (Brad Taylor)
Zachery Ty Bryan chased his role as Brad, the eldest Taylor, with a succession of guest roles on popular series like Boston Public (2000), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002), Smallville (2003), Veronica Mars (2005), and Burn Notice (2008). He also memorably took a spear to the groin in 1999’s The Rage: Carrie 2. He eventually moved into producing, starting a production company called Vision Entertainment Group.
Speaking with EW in 2011, he said, ”Most people look at child actors and have these ideas that they have a rough life. To be honest, I’ve looked at it as such an opportunity. Even moving forward with what I’m doing now, I walk into a room with a hedge funder and I’m immediately validated. I don’t have to sit there and explain what my background is. They see it in front of them.”
In the years since, though, Bryan’s had several run-ins with the law, with allegations of domestic violence, driving under the influence, and financial fraud.
“I don’t know what’s going on with him,” Allen said of his former onscreen son in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “Zach is a great kid who has grown into a complex man. All you can do is step aside and let somebody go through their process. At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who is reacting to situations that I had nothing to do with and can’t control. I don’t know what happens when people get corrupted. You just don’t know.”
Richardson cited Bryan’s troubles as one of the reasons she wouldn’t be interested in a Home Improvement reunion. “I mean, Zach is now a felon,” she said on the Back to the Best podcast.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Randy Taylor)
Home Improvement helped turn Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played middle child Randy Taylor, into one of the ’90s biggest teen idols. In addition to voicing the young version of Simba in 1994’s The Lion King, he starred in films like Man of the House (1995), Wild America (1997), and I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998).
After Home Improvement‘s bow, he lost interest in Hollywood and wanted to focus on his education. According to PEOPLE, he hit the books at Harvard, Columbia, and St. Andrew’s University in Scotland.
“I’ve been going to school, and traveling quite a bit, getting to read a lot of books I’ve wanted to for quite some time,” he told EW in 2011. “I think at this point, I’d eventually like to work behind the camera. That’s not to say I would never act again, I’m not quite sure to be honest. I still have a passion for TV and film could see myself working in it.”
He didn’t completely forsake acting, though, appearing in episodes of Smallville (2002–2004), The Simpsons (2003), 8 Simple Rules (2004), and Veronica Mars (2005). In 2013, he reunited with his former onscreen dad on Allen’s Last Man Standing.
Taran Noah Smith (Mark Taylor)
Taran Noah Smith, who played the Taylor’s youngest son, Mark, quit acting after his eight seasons on Home Improvement.
Following his stint on the sitcom, he claimed his parents squandered the trust fund he built up, but later denied this. “I’d gotten out of the teenage phase and realized my parents weren’t doing anything wrong but were trying to protect me,” he told the Marin Independent Journal in 2015.
Smith also made headlines after marrying 30-year-old Heidi Van Pelt when he was just 17. The couple launched a vegan cheese brand before divorcing in 2007.
These days, you may see Smith piloting a submarine around Monterey Bay. According to SFGate, he teaches people to operate subs with the Berkeley-based Community Submersibles. “We want to be able to help people with the true beauty and wonder that is under the ocean at all times,” he told SFGate.
On a recent episode of The Best Show With Tom Scharpling podcast, he discussed Mark’s out-of-nowhere goth phase in the later seasons of Home Improvement. “The whole storyline of the older brothers beating up on me or teasing me didn’t really work anymore because now I was taller than both of them,” he explained.
“I found out later the head writer on the show, he had a son that was right around my age,” he continued, adding, “and after about halfway through the season, I’m in wardrobe, black fingernails, and dog collar and all the stuff on, and I went backstage and came face to face with his son, who was not in wardrobe, but looked just like me, and we had this very awkward moment of like, ‘Oh, I’m your dad’s way of kind of dealing with you, sorry.'”
Richard Karn (Al)
Richard Karn appeared in all eight seasons of Home Improvement as Al, Tim’s plaid-clad, no-nonsense Tool Time cohost.
He stayed busy in the years following the show’s bow, appearing in films (Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, Air Buddies) and TV series (Recess, That ’70s Show). He also carved out a hosting career on Family Feud (2002–2006), Bingo America (2008–2009), and Assembly Required (2021). In recent years, he appeared as Maya’s kindhearted dad, Fred, on Hulu’s excellent PEN15 (2019–2021) and played himself on an episode of Detroiters (2017) alongside Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson.
”That was eight years of my life,” Karn told EW during our Home Improvement reunion in 2011. ”I want to keep mementos. The first year they were putting me in these Ralph Lauren shirts that cost $115, but they didn’t look as good as the $15 and $20 ones that came right off the rack.”
Debbe Dunning (Heidi Keppert)
Debbe Dunning appeared as Tool Time‘s resident Tool Girl on seasons 3 through 8 of Home Improvement (1993–1998). Following her stint on the sitcom, she appeared in the films The Spiral Staircase (2000) and Now You Know (2002).
“Tim is amazing and a man of his word,” Dunning told EW in 2011. ”If anyone got upset or threatened to quit, he went after them and they’d be back. He always kept us together.”
Dunning has three children with Olympic volleyball player Steve Timmons. She posts regularly on her Instagram account.
Earl Hindman (Wilson Wilson Jr.)
After a rich career that included roles in two excellent ’70s thrillers — The Parallax View (1974) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) — Earl Hindman scored the role of Wilson, the Taylor’s wise (and facially obscured) neighbor, on Home Improvement, appearing in 203 episodes of the series.
Hindman only acted in a few projects following Home Improvement, including episodes of Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He died of lung cancer in 2003 at the age of 61.
In 2021, Allen paid tribute to Hindman (and Wilson) on an episode of Last Man Standing. “Earl meant the world to me and everyone at Home Improvement. It was an organic moment to settle on, both on the set and in our hearts,” he told EW at the time.
Pamela Anderson (Lisa)
Before becoming one of the most-discussed celebrities of the ’90s, Pamela Anderson went from being a Playboy Playmate to a recurring role as Lisa, Tool Time‘s first Tool Girl (1991–1992, 1997).
She left the series after scoring a leading role on Baywatch (1992–1997), in which she played crystal-coveting New Age lifeguard C.J. Parker. Barb Wire (1996) was meant to launch her film career, but the dystopian action flick flopped. She found further success on television, though, leading the action-comedy V.I.P. (1998–2002) and the animated series Striperella (2003–2004).
In the mid-’90s, stolen personal videos depicting sex between Anderson and her then-husband, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, circulated online, resulting in a legal battle between Anderson and the video distribution company that posted the video to their website. The ordeal was depicted in Hulu’s 2022 series Pam & Tommy, which was made without Anderson’s involvement.
Anderson made headlines in 2023 after alleging that Allen flashed her on the set of Home Improvement in 1991. “I walked out of my dressing room, and Tim was in the hallway in his robe,” Anderson wrote in her memoir, Love, Pamela. “He opened his robe and flashed me quickly — completely naked underneath. He said it was only fair, because he had seen me naked. Now we’re even. I laughed uncomfortably.” (Allen denied the accusation.)
She continued, “It was the first of many bizarre encounters where people felt they knew me enough to make absolute fools out of themselves.”
In 2024, Anderson received acclaim for her performance as an aging Vegas showgirl in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, scoring a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
