If you’re a millennial, chances are you’re familiar with the wholesome ‘90s series Home Improvement.
The show starred Tim Allen and was centred on his life as the host of home-improvement show ‘Tool Time’; husband to Jill and father to three sons, Brad, Randy and Mark.
Honestly, hats off to Jill for dealing with all four of them so well.
Anyway. For the entirety of the show’s run– between 1991 and 1999 – the young actors who held the roles of Tim Taylor’s kids became household figures.
Especially Johnathan-Taylor Thomas. Pretty sure I tore a poster of him out of a magazine and taped it to my wall as a kid.
Zachery Ty Bryan (who played Brad), Taran Noah Smith (who played Mark) and JTT (who played Randy) were a regular part of peoples’ weekly routines for years. But they kind of disappeared once the show stopped airing. As child stars often tend to do…
If you’ve been missing the cheeky charm of this trio for the last 21 years, allow us to catch you up. Here’s what they’ve been up to since their days of grunting about tools.
Zachery Ty Bryan:
Ty Bryan played the eldest of the three boys in Home Improvement and was often causing trouble. Classic ‘cool’ rebel kid.
Out of the group, it looks like Ty Bryan has landed the most gigs after moving on from Tool Time. He has appeared in shows like E.R., Smallville, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars. He also had a role in (the worst of the Fast and the Furious films) Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift in 2006.
You’ll be happy to know that lil old Brad (Zach) seems happily married to his wife of 13 years, Carly Matros. They have three children.
Taran Noah Smith:
Noah Smith quit acting immediately after wrapping up Home Improvement. He started working on the series at just seven years’ old and was 16 by the time it ended.
He once told Entertainment Weekly: “It was pretty exciting to leave it [the series] behind and do other things”.
From there he’s said to have gone on to try a whole lot of other jobs: everything from selling vegan food to building installations for Coachella.
The former actor was married to Heidi van Pelt for six years. He was 17 when they tied the knot; she was 32. Unsurprisingly, that union was hugely controversial.
He also made headlines in 2012 after being arrested for driving under the influence.
According to MSN, rumours about Noah Smith’s death have circulated a bunch of times – which is awkward seeing as he’s still very much alive.
JTT:
Every 12-year-old’s imaginary boyfriend.
The most exciting part of Taylor Thomas’ Home Improvement story is that he bailed before the series wrapped. He left at the beginning of the final season and focused on school instead. The show covered this by writing in that Randy went off to study in Costa Rica.
Reportedly, JTT went on to study philosophy and history at Harvard, then graduated from Columbia University in 2010.
He didn’t completely quit show biz, however. Taylor Thomas went on to appear in shows like Ally McBeal, The Wild Thornberrys and 8 Simple Rules. He also reunited with T.V. dad Tim Allen on the set of Last Man Standing back in 2013, which was quite a kick for Home Improvement fans.
The former crush of every tween in the ‘90s recently told EW that he’d be interested in turning to directing eventually.
In less thrilling news, Vice writes that there were rumours JTT once voiced the part of a foetus in an anti-abortion ad… this has never been confirmed, however.
He lives a pretty private life these days (no doubt a reaction to his heart-throb status).
