Here’s the first actor who was cast as Home Improvement’s Lisa before Pamela Anderson took the role. Home Improvement was inspired by Tim Allen’s stand-up comedy, with the comedian having little in the way of acting experience before the sitcom. Regardless, the series went on to become one of the biggest shows of the 1990s and revolved around Allen’s Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, the host of a home improvement series. Most episodes saw Tim trying to revolve a given crisis within his family, which consisted of his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three sons.
Home Improvement was still a ratings winner when the show ended in 1999, with Allen and Richardson turning down lucrative paydays to make another series. In the years after the show ended, Allen continued to do well, leading movies such as Galaxy Quest in addition to The Santa Clause and Toy Story sequels. Home Improvement is notable for also giving Pamela Anderson one of her first major roles, where she played Lisa, the original Tool Time girl. Anderson was charming in the role, which, unfortunately, didn’t give her much to do acting-wise.
Anderson played Lisa for two seasons and later exited Home Improvement to join the cast of Baywatch during its third season. Prior to Anderson being cast, many young actors read for the part, including Ashley Judd. In fact, the show’s creator Matt Williams recalled during an EW interview that he could immediately see Judd’s talent, who had no real credits at the time. Williams liked Judd’s audition so much he decided to upgrade her from Tool Time’s Lisa and offered to create a more fleshed-out role in the form of Tim’s sister.
After a couple of days, Williams heard back from Ashley Judd’s agent that she was going to pass on Home Improvement – which showed Wilson’s face in the finale – entirely to focus on a film career. Judd later became part of the cast of TV drama Sisters, in addition to movies like Ruby In Paradise and 1995’s Heat. Her movie career soon took off in a major way thanks to lead roles in Kiss The Girls and Double Jeopardy, and she eventually worked with Williams on 2000 drama Where The Heart Is.
On the latter project, Ashley Judd recalled to Williams of her decision to pass on Home Improvement being a very tough one, and that she had “agonized” over it. In the end, Judd made the right choice, and it would be tough to picture her as either Lisa or Tim Taylor’s sister on the sitcom.
