You think you know the story, but do you? After eight years on the air Home Improvement ended. It was sudden, and while not at the height of its popularity, tens of millions of viewers were still tuning in each week. If things had gone just a bit differently, the ABC sitcom could have been renewed for a ninth season. It all boiled down to behind-the-scenes power and egos on set, as well as a cool $2 million per episode. Here’s the real reason Home Improvement ended.
Patricia Richardson is probably most known for her work as the longtime matriarch on Home Improvement and Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor’s wife Jill. During Home Improvement’s run, Jill was unlike a lot of other sitcom wives at the time. She had a serious voice on the show and was a fully fleshed out character, capable of both making wise choices for the Taylor family and mistakes in those dynamics, as well –one reason the actress feels Home Improvement doesn’t get enough credit years later.
Per Richardson, her character was a “big reason why women were watching” the comedy throughout its run, but she was paid far less than her TV husband on the series. This didn’t really sit well with her, and by the time the show was ready to wrap, she was ready to say goodbye.
$2 Million Dollars, Or How Patricia Richardson Tried To Renegotiate Her Contract To Make A Point
By Season 8 of Home Improvement, teen heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas had left Hollywood and the series, and it seemed as if the show would be ending. Then, the network had a change of heart just a few months before the finale that year. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times Richardson recalled head honchos at ABC offering her $1 million per episode, while Allen was offered a cool $2 million.
This was a lot of money, and previously, she said she’d only been paid ⅓ of what Tim Allen made during their run on the show. $1 million per episode would put her at ½ of Allen’s pay – but it was still quite a large discrepancy. Yet, if she’d taken it, there would have been a 25-episode Season 9 of the hit series and she would have been among the highest paid actresses on TV ever.
Now, you could argue Home Improvement was largely Allen’s show. You could argue that Richard Karn’s Al was the second or third lead on that show as well, and that the kids in the Taylor family got a chunk of screen time, too. However, for Richardson, the discrepancy with what she felt was her co-lead was too much. She was ready to leave the show after working her “ass off,” and she told the outlet the only way she wanted to stay was if the network threw her equal pay. She said she knew they wouldn’t go for it.
I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much. That was my way to say ‘no’ and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney. 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.
She was right the network didn’t want to pay her that much, and she was OK with the show ending. But she also said it made her the “bad guy.”
