Trivia for Home Improvement.
- Actor-Shared Background:
- Tim Allen grew up in Michigan and also lost his father at a young age.
- Patricia Richardson grew up in a military family just as her character Jill Taylor did. Richardson's father, a Naval Academy Graduate, was a fighter and test pilot and later an aeronautical engineer and executive. Her mother was a housewife. The fact Jill Taylor's father also would fly missions was brought up in an episode where Jill discusses her fear of flying with Wilson.
- California Doubling: Set in Detroit but all outside footage was filmed in California. They do consistently have snow on the ground for all episodes set during winter, though when anyone goes outside in these episodes, their breath isn't shown when they talk, and it's always sunny as well.
- In "The Long and Winding Road (Part 2)", Tim is visibly seen driving down various typical Southern California streets, and a California-style traffic light is visible at one point. While there were arm-mounted traffic lights in Metro Detroit at the time of the episode's writing (and there still are today), they looked nothing like those in California.
- The Cast Showoff:
- Zachery Ty Bryan really is a saxophone player and got to demonstrate his skills on a couple episodes of the show. He was also a gifted athlete and was shown doing a number of soccer drills.
- Tool Time was developed as a way to play to Tim Allen's strengths as a stand-up comic.
- Channel Hop: Subverted, as while every episode of the show aired on ABC, the season 5 episode "Tanks for the Memories" premiered in Syndication first—and thus serving as the season 5 premiere—in September 1995, before making its ABC premiere in early 1996 in between the premieres of "High School Confidential" and "The Vasectomy One". The ABC broadcast order is how this episode continues to air in reruns.
- The Character Died with Him: Not on the show itself, but when Tim Taylor made an appearance on Last Man Standing in 2021, he made a comment to Mike that Wilson had passed away years ago, as did his actor, Earl Hindman, in 2003.
- Contractual Purity: Back in the 70's Tim Allen was arrested for drug dealing and he got his life in order, eventually becoming a successful comedian. Before the show aired a newspaper article tried to drum up a controversy for having a reformed drug dealer as the star of a family show. They responded by telling their side of the story as quickly as possible. Tim Allen also noticed that because of the show more families with young kids would attend his stand-up, so he toned down the adult content. Even today he is largely considered a family-friendly actor/comedian. Unusual for the trope Allen has always been honest and forthright about his past and criminal record, if for no other reason than to be an example of how anyone can turn their life around for the better.
- In a smaller degree, Pamela Anderson is a Playboy Playmate on a family sitcom. She was never a major cast member and merely wore tight clothing instead of revealing clothing.
- The Danza:
- Tim Allen as Tim Taylor.
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Randy Taylor.
- Defictionalization: During the production of the show Black and Decker made a line of Binford branded tools after the fictional company that sponsors Tool Time. Since then a number of other outlets will sell Binford merchandise as though it is a real company.
- Directed by Cast Member: Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson each directed one episode in season eight.
- Enforced Method Acting: Casting for Wilson was damn near impossible because of the stipulation he would never show his face; for obvious reasons, actors want their faces to be seen. Earl Hindman went the entire series without showing his face, even in cast calls, and only revealed it in a special airing after the Series Finale.
- Franchise Zombie: The network wanted to keep the show going but everyone involved, including Patricia Richardson and Tim Allen, knew that they had reached their peak at eight seasons. The last season is generally considered the point when the show was running out of steam. Allen famously turned down a $50 million offer.
- Hostility on the Set: In an interview long after the show ended Patricia Richardson said that it was ultimately her decision that led to the show ending. The full story was that she needed to focus on her family and refused any amount of money offered to her ($25 million) for a ninth season; Allen in turn wanted to play Tim Taylor forever and tried to convince her otherwise. But when the network execs started pitching a "Jill dies, show continues on" approach, Allen sided with Richardson and made the decision to end the show. Despite remaining on good terms, Richardson said she felt Allen quietly resented her for having to make that decision.
- Licensed Game: Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! for the Super Nintendo.
- Method Acting: In "Read My Hips", Tim Allen thought Patricia Richardson was genuinely angry at him during a scene where Tim and Jill argue. After the cameras stopped rolling, Patricia consoled him by saying she was okay and that she was only acting.
- The Other Darrin: Jill's sister Robin appeared in two episodes and was played by a different actress each time.
- The Other Marty:
- Jill was first played by Frances Fisher, but audiences reacted poorly to her performance in the pilot episode; she played Jill as more of an exasperated wife and Tim seemed to be torturing her with his DIY projects. Patricia Richardson took over the role and was a lot more grounded and strong-willed to counter Tim's equally strong personality.
- Richard Karn was nearly this, he was originally a temporary actor and character while waiting for veteran character actor Stephen Tobolowsky to have an opening in his schedule. As Karn and Allen had good chemistry together and Tobolowsky proceeded to get even busier, they just made Karn a regular.
- Permanent Placeholder: Al wasn't supposed to be a permanent character, but a temporary fill in for Stephen Tobolowsky who was supposed to play the permanent co-host of Tool Time, Glenn. Tobolowsky decided he was too busy, Tim Allen liked his chemistry with Richard Karn and audiences responded well to Al, so they simply kept the character in.
- Reality Subtext:
- The episode involving Brad and pot mirror's Allen's own possession of drugs in his earlier years.
- Patricia Richardson was always pushing for more dramatic stories to add to realism of family life. The episode on Randy's cancer scare was from a similar incident with her own son.
- Real-Life Relative: The actress who plays Jill's sister Carrie is married to Richard Karn, who plays Al.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The season 5 episode "Doctor in the House" focuses on Tim Taylor receiving an honorary Ph.D. (as a ploy for his alma mater to get additional funding). That episode was written around the time Tim Allen received his honorary Ph.D.
- Recycled Script: "Bewitched" the final Halloween Episode of the show, feels very similar to season 3's "Crazy Over You". Both episodes involved nearly the entire cast secretly joining forces to play an elaborate Halloween prank on Tim in retaliation for his crazy amounts of pranks, and both episodes even conclude with similar stingers of Tim getting some minor revenge by playing one last prank on the respective masterminds.
- Separated-at-Birth Casting: The actor who plays Al's brother Cal looked uncannily like him. Lampshaded on the show.
- The actresses cast to play two of Jill's sisters resembled Patricia Richardson.
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas was cast as Randy in part because of his resemblance to Tim Allen.
- Star-Making Role: For Tim Allen.
- Technology Marches On:
- In "Off Sides", Tim tries to keep up with a football game by surreptitiously listening to a radio while out on a date night with Jill. Nowadays, he'd be able to sneak a peek at a smartphone or even glance down at a smartwatch for updates or a livestream.
- Tim criticizes Al for purchasing a cell phone, which was seen as an extravagant purchase.
- In the episode "It's My Party" (s4e17), Jill's old 45 RPM records are considered obsolete, and the kids are listening to CDs. Today, many have abandoned CDs in favor of downloading/streaming music while vinyl has experienced a resurgence.
- In the episode "Communication Breakdown" (s6e19), Tim ridicules "those automated home systems" by asking, "What if I wanted to flush my toilet from the car?" Today, thanks to smartphones and smart home systems, Alexa can do that for you.
- Throw It In!:
- Al's Catchphrase "I don't think so, Tim" was originally not meant to be a joke. The joke was Al's deadpan expression to Tim's behavior, and the laughter which followed his line was a surprise.
- Al's brother Cal was not played by a professional actor. He was actually a Promoted Fanboy who had an astonishing resemblance to Richard Karn, and the production team wrote him in.
- Underage Casting: Brad is 13 months older than Randy. Zachery Ty Bryan is one month younger than Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
- What Could Have Been:
- Tim Allen revealed, on a talk show, that he wanted the finale of the show to set up The Reveal that Wilson was a ghost.
- Al was originally just a placeholder character for another named Glenn to be played by Stephen Tobolowsky. Tobolowsky was unavailable to shoot the pilot so Richard Karn was brought in as Al to be a fill in character. When Stephen Tobolowsky was still unavailable once the series was picked up Tim Allen urged the producers to keep Karn on as he liked the way they worked together. They agreed and Tobolowsky was let go and Karn was kept on permanently.
- Frances Fisher, then-girlfriend of Clint Eastwood, was originally cast as Jill and the pilot was filmed with her in the role. Frances was known as a dramatic actor and struggled with comedic acting and figuring out the tone of the show. She lacked chemistry with Tim Allen and the audience did not respond well to her. In contrast when Patricia Richardson entered the chemistry was immediately apparent.
- Ashley Judd was originally cast as the Tool Girl, which was supposed to be a much bigger role (a college student majoring in psychology who acted as a stand-in for Jill on the Tool Time set), but she pulled out only days before the pilot was shot.
- The producers once approached Hillary Clinton about guest starring on an episode of the show.
- The episode "The Longest Day", where it's believed Randy might have cancer, almost didn't air, as ABC felt cancer was too serious or controversial of a topic to feature in a sitcom.
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas was supposed to come back for the series finale. However, there was a lot of bad blood between his management and the show's producers due to the fact he seemingly left the show full-time to focus on school, only to film Speedway Junky during the time he would've spent working on the show. While they were able to come to an agreement for the season's Christmas Episode, negotiations for the finale became too strained and he wound up not coming back.
- When Patricia Richardson wanted the show to end but Tim Allen didn't, the executives suggested killing Jill off. Allen took offense to the idea and sided with Richardson, choosing to end the show.
- Write What You Know: Wilson's obscured face was inspired by Tim Allen's childhood and how he, as a young child, could never see his neighbor's face due to the fence between their yards.
- You Look Familiar:
- Debbie Dunning played a one-off role in the season two episode "Overactive Glance" before she started playing Heidi in season three.
- In-Universe example: Tom Poston appears three times as rude counter service workers that Tim encounters in times of extreme need. Tim notes that they may have met before to find out that they are all relatives.
