Here’s every Home Improvement actor who guest-starred on Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing. Home Improvement was one of the biggest sitcoms of the ’90s, with the premise being loosely inspired by Allen’s “Primitive Man” standup routine. The series cast him as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor – who grunts A LOT – host of a home improvement show called Tool Time, but most of the drama revolved around his domestic life with wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three sons. Home Improvement’s success led Allen to other hits like Toy Story and The Santa Clause, while the sitcom itself came to a close in 1999 after eight seasons.
For any actor, starring in one major, long-running sitcom is an impressive feat. Allen scored two, with Last Man Standing debuting in 2011 and ending after nine series. The show featured a somewhat familiar premise, with Allen’s Mike Baxter being a family man with a wife and three daughters who works for a sporting goods chain. Last Man Standing embraced Allen’s Home Improvement past on a regular basis too, including the actor reprising Tim Taylor for an episode titled “Dual Time.” Some Home Improvement actors made notable guest appearances on Last Man Standing too, so here’s every casting crossover.
Patricia Richardson – Helen Potts
Richardson played Tim’s wife Jill on Home Improvement, and it was a joint decision between her and Allen that the sitcom ended after eight seasons, as they feared it becoming stale. They both turned down huge paydays for a potential Home Improvement season 9 for that reason. Richardson played Helen Potts for two episodes of Last Man Standing, with her first appearance in the fittingly titled “Helen Potts” being littered with Home Improvement callbacks. This includes a Binford toolbox, while Mike’s neighbor Chuck (Jonathan Adams) does his best Wilson impression – including having most of his face covered by random objects.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas – John Baker / Randy
Home Improvement made Jonathan Taylor Thomas a teen idol during the ’90s, where he played Randy, the middle child of the Taylor clan. Thomas departed Home Improvement after its seventh season to focus on education, but a supposed riff between him and Allen – who questioned why the young actor made other movies following his exit instead of focusing on his studies – saw him skip a return in the sitcom’s finale. Thomas largely stepped away from acting in the 2000s but returned for a few episodes of Last Man Standing. He actually played two different characters on the show; Kristin’s boss John during season 3 and Randy – son of Richardson’s Helen – during the fourth season.
Richard Karn – Bill McKendree
Groundhog Day co-star Stephen Tobolowsky was the first choice to play Tim’s Tool Time sidekick Al on Home Improvement. When he backed out, Richard Karn was cast instead and became an audience favorite. Allen and Karn showed the affable chemistry between them was still alive and well when the latter guested as architect Bill McKendree on Last Man Standing episodes “The Fight” and “Attractive Architect.” Naturally, the show poked fun at Allen and Karn’s Home Improvement past, including the fact their last “work project” seemed to last forever and that Bill recalls Mike having three sons, not daughters.
