Sitcom star Patricia Richardson revealed her hit 90s TV series Home Improvement was canned by bigwigs after she demanded equal pay with leading man Tim Allen, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to a sensational report, the sitcom, which ran for eight seasons with over 200 episodes, was no match for equal pay demands!
Richardson said she demanded equal pay with her on-screen husband.
The actress, who played Allen’s wife Jill Taylor, claimed ABC and Disney wanted to run the show for a ninth season beyond 1999 but only offered her half of Allen’s $2 million per episode for 25 segments.
Richardson said she demanded equal pay with her on-screen husband — and the season was scuttled, costing her the $25 million they original offered, according to The Globe.
For the show’s finale 25th anniversary, Richardson reflected on her fight for equal treatment on the beloved sitcom in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“When I took the job, they said it wasn’t meant to be the Tim Allen show. It was meant to be our show,” Richardson said.
The show’s matriarch said that in the third season, she successfully negotiated her contract to secure four episodes that focused on her character, as well as a profit share that entitled her to a backend percentage of the show’s earnings.
The actress, who played Allen’s wife Jill Taylor, claimed ABC and Disney wanted to run the show for a ninth season beyond 1999 but only offered her half of Allen’s $2 million per episode for 25 segments.
“I knew that residuals just get less and less, and I felt that I am going to end up being a huge part of whatever this show is,” Richardson explained. “It’s going to work because of me almost as much as because of Tim.”
Although Richardson gave heavy input on her character to the male-dominated writers room, she wasn’t given a producer’s credit, which she claimed was restricted out of fear of influence for other actors.
Meanwhile, Allen was credited as an executive consultant in the series’ debut season and became an executive producer in its sixth season.
Although Richardson gave heavy input on her character to the male-dominated writers room, she wasn’t given a producer’s credit, which she claimed was restricted out of fear of influence for other actors.
Richardson revealed both she and Allen agreed the show needed to end after its eighth season, however, the networks wanted to continue. So, Richardson proposed she be paid the same as Allen and be given an executive producer credit in order to sign on for another season.
“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,” the actress recalled. “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.”
