Every few years, Tim Allen pitches an idea for that Home Improvement reboot no one is asking for. Late last year, for example, he confided that he’s been talking to Richard Karn and “the boys” about a new version in which Tim becomes a grunting, chainsaw-wielding grandpa. “Home Re-Improvement or something like that,” was the trial balloon that Allen floated into the TV Land ether. Now his sitcom wife is poking a safety pin in that balloon, declaring that it will take more than the Tool Man’s power drill to put that rickety house back together again.
“It was so weird,” Richardson said last week on the Back to the Best podcast. “ I would hear (Allen) was coming out publicly and saying this stuff about everyone was on board to do a Home Improvement reunion, but he never asked me.”
Richardson went a step further, directly contradicting Allen’s story. “He never asked Jonathan (Taylor Thomas),” she said. “I called Jonathan one day and said, ‘Has he asked you about this?’ He went, ‘No.’ ‘So why is he saying everyone is on board when he hasn’t talked to you or me?’”
Need more reasons to convince you Home Re-Improvement isn’t happening, besides that awkwardly terrible title? “I mean, Zach is now a felon,” Richardson said, pointing out the obvious. Zachary Ty Brian, who played eldest son Brad, has spent the last few years running afoul of the law, from crypto scams to multiple arrests for domestic violence. That would make future sitcom appearances tricky, at a minimum.
As for the other kids? “Taran (Noah Smith) hasn’t acted since he left the show,” Richardson says. “He’s not an actor anymore. And Jonathan’s not really interested in acting. He wants to direct and write. And we don’t have Wilson.” (Earl Hindman, who played the neighborly eyes peeking over Tim Taylor’s fence, passed away in 2003.)
Richardson is still in the acting biz, though — wouldn’t she be interested in playing Grandma Jill? “I wrote a big thing on Twitter and said I’m not involved in any series with Jill and I’ve also never even been asked to do another Home Improvement reunion thing,” she said. What if Allen picked up the phone and said pretty please? “I would not want to.”
It’s not like Richardson has it out for Allen. In 2019, she told AV Club that Allen was “emotionally open” as an actor. “I was just amazed at the way that he listened and how alive he was.” So it’s nothing personal when Richardson says she doesn’t want to do a reboot. I’m guessing she’s disinterested for the same reason that networks and streamers have shown indifference: Home Re-Improvement is a really terrible idea.
