Trigger warning: The following article contains mentions of sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic abuse.
From “The Nanny” to “Step by Step” and the beloved “Full House,” the ’90s was a treasure trove for sitcoms centered around raising a family and the dilemmas and teachable moments that arise from it. Also among the classics was “Home Improvement,” which starred Tim Allen as Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and Patricia Richardson as his wife Jill. Fans of the ABC sitcom watched as the Taylors balanced their busy lives and raised their three sons, Brad, Mark, and Randy, for eight seasons between 1991 and 1999.
The cast of “Home Improvement” has changed a lot since the show ended a quarter of a century ago, and they’re practically unrecognizable now. Sadly, many of the actors endured unfortunate circumstances like arrests, deaths, legal troubles, and substance misuse before, during, and after the series aired. Here are the many tragic details about the cast of “Home Improvement” and how they’ve impacted the stars of this classic show.
Tim Allen had a criminal past before the show
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Tim Allen made a name for himself as the lovable yet sometimes chauvinistic craftsman and family man Tim Taylor on “Home Improvement” in 1991. However, his past painted him as quite the opposite, given the actor and comedian spent time in jail for cocaine trafficking over a decade prior.
While in college, Allen developed a drug addiction and began dealing to fund his habit. In October 1978, the soon-to-be actor was arrested in Michigan with 650 grams of cocaine on him. He pleaded guilty and agreed to provide intel about big-time drug dealers to the FBI, ultimately serving just two years in prison. In speaking about his time behind bars while on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast in March 2021, Allen remarked, “I learned literally how to live day by day. … I learned to just shut up and did what I was told. It was the first time ever I did what I was told and played the game.”
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Pamela Anderson accused Tim Allen of flashing her
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While appearing in over 20 episodes of “Home Improvement,” Pamela Anderson’s only lines on the show as Lisa the Tool Girl were, “Here you go, Tim.” Of course, the Playboy model left the show after just a couple of seasons to play a slo-mo running lifeguard on “Baywatch,” and she may have even been glad to leave the cast after her alleged run-in with Tim Allen on set.
In her 2023 book “Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth,” Anderson made a shocking accusation against the star of “Home Improvement.” She wrote, “On the first day of filming, I walked out of my dressing room, and Tim was in the hallway in his robe. He opened his robe and flashed me quickly — completely naked underneath. He said it was only fair, because he had seen me naked. ‘Now we’re even.’ I laughed uncomfortably.”
Allen denied Anderson’s claims, and during an interview with ET Canada a week after her book’s release, Anderson explained why she believed the actor wouldn’t fess up. “He has to deny it because look at the times we’re in. If he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I did that’ … he’d be — a lot of these stories are just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Jonathan Taylor Thomas dealt with migraines while filming
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Randy Taylor, the middle child of the Taylors, was a fan favorite played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas on “Home Improvement.” Despite being just 10 when the show premiered, he hadn’t come onto the set as a complete newbie to the acting world. In fact, Thomas had already served as a voice in the animated series “The Adventures of Spot” and appeared on a few episodes of “The Bradys” in 1990. However, while filming the sitcom, Thomas struggled with the nearly 10-hour days on set.
In speaking with People in August 1994, the young actor remarked, “You have school, friends, learning your lines, and making sure your performance is up to speed. I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve done with full-blown migraine headaches.” When he wasn’t working on “Home Improvement” and appearing on millions of television screens across America, Thomas was attending school in Los Angeles or racking up even more film and television credits. Perhaps it was the constant strain and workload that caused the child actor to walk away from the industry later in life, but he made quite the name for himself in his prime.
Tim Allen was arrested for a DUI in 1997
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By the sixth season of “Home Improvement,” Tim Allen’s career had really taken off. He had starred in “The Santa Clause,” had lent his voice to “Toy Story” as Buzz Lightyear, and was still starring on the ABC sitcom when he was busted for drunk driving in May 1997. He had reportedly been driving his Ferrari 30 miles over the speed limit, and his blood-alcohol level was clocked at 0.15% over Michigan’s legal limit. Allen later admitted to having five drinks throughout the day.
The actor’s alcohol use began when he was just 10 years old, and when he was 11, his father died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. It seemed like this was the wakeup call Allen needed, so after he pleaded guilty to the charges and was ordered to attend alcohol counseling, he decided to make a huge change in his life. In April of 1998, he entered into a rehabilitation center and has been sober ever since.
In March 2021, while speaking on “WTF With Marc Maron,” Allen said, “I’m … going on 23 years sober and clean of everything. … I have so much shame at the things that I did. … Especially driving people around, and coming from a dad that was killed that way, it’s difficult to get past.”
Tim Allen and Jonathan Taylor Thomas ended the show on a bitter note
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While everyone on “Home Improvement” seemed to get along just fine (save for some bickering between the brothers), there was a slightly different dynamic behind the scenes. One of the rocky relationships on the show was between on-screen father and son duo Tim Allen and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, caused by the latter’s early departure from “Home Improvement” in 1998.
Allen told TV Guide the following year, “He was a little miffed at me. I was a little confused at why he didn’t want to do this whole year. He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films. Did he want to do films? Did he want to go to school? It got mixed up in the translation. I mentioned [publicly] that I was confused. I don’t think he liked that.” It was reported that Thomas refused to return for the show’s finale because of Allen’s remarks.
Thankfully, the drama seems to have calmed between them since Thomas’ guest spots on Allen’s show “Last Man Standing” between 2013 and 2015, when the two actors reunited for the first time in years. Thomas’ filmography has been spotty since the mid-aughts, but as he told People in March 2013, he has “no regrets” about leaving acting behind for the most part. “I never took the fame too seriously. It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me,” he said.
Taran Noah Smith accused his parents of stealing his money
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Mark Taylor was the baby of the “Home Improvement” family, and Taran Noah Smith was only 7 years old when he joined the cast. Over the course of his short-lived acting career, the actor appeared in over 200 episodes over eight seasons and earned himself a trust fund worth a staggering $1.5 million. Sadly, Smith alleged years later that his parents had been mismanaging his earnings, something many child stars, including Jena Malone and Corey Feldman, have sued their parents over.
In 2001, the “Home Improvement” star fought to become emancipated in order to gain early access to his trust fund, but the courts didn’t rule in his favor. He didn’t gain access to his money until his 18th birthday. Smith’s parents maintained they’d never touched their son’s funds, but he didn’t believe them for years. In speaking with the Marin Independent Journal in May 2015, the actor’s mother remarked, “It was in a trust fund. We couldn’t have touched it if we wanted to. [Smith was] trying to get it when he was 17, and we were trying to protect it. Luckily the Marin courts were very good about it and didn’t give it to them.”
Speaking with the same outlet at the time, Smith explained, “I’d gotten out of the teenage phase and realized my parents weren’t doing anything wrong but were trying to protect me. I apologized to them, and they were very forgiving and apologized too.”
Earl Hindman died from lung cancer
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Earl Hindman had been acting since the ’60s, yet he was best known for his portrayal of Wilson, the Taylors’ next door neighbor on “Home Improvement.” He would give Tim Allen’s character advice on whatever trouble he’d found himself in that episode, always obscured by the fence and his hat. Despite never showing his entire face, Hindman was an iconic part of the cast, so it was especially tragic when he died on December 29, 2003, from lung cancer at 61 years old.
Allen paid tribute to his late co-star on a 2021 episode of “Last Man Standing,” in which his character discusses his neighbor Wilson who passed away. His character admits, “I miss Wilson. I miss a lot of stuff.” Allen spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the line at the time, saying, “Earl meant the world to me and everyone at ‘Home Improvement.’ It was an organic moment to settle on, both on the set and in our hearts.”
Patricia Richardson’s father died from PSP in 2005
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If you’ve ever wondered what happened to the mom from “Home Improvement,” you can rest assured that Patricia Richardson continued her 40-plus-year career long after the sitcom ended. Where she’s seen success in her professional life though, the actor unfortunately endured a tragic loss in December 2005 when her father Laurence Richardson died from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological condition.
While Richardson was doubtlessly devastated by her dad’s death, she decided to put the tragedy to good use and became the national spokesperson for CurePSP. She penned an article for the foundation about her dad, in which she wrote, “I never, in a million years, would have imagined that my father would put up with the life that he lived in those last years. Yet he did put up with it, in bed or a wheelchair or the recliner that we got for him that lifted him to a standing position. … [H]e wasn’t very cognitively impaired at all; he was just trapped and mummified in a body that had once been handsome and more than competent in every way.”
Richardson credited CurePSP’s website with informing her of the condition for the first time. She and her family decided to donate Laurence’s brain to CurePSP, where the foundation verified his diagnosis, and the actor continues to raise awareness around the lesser-known condition.
Taran Noah Smith had a string of controversial moments
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Like many child stars, Taran Noah Smith seemed to struggle with his transition into adulthood from the adorable youngster fans of “Home Improvement” knew well. When he was just 17, he controversially married vegan chef Heidi Van Pelt, a woman twice his age. Of course, the gossip columns harped on the relationship, but they remained together for many years and didn’t divorce until 2007.
Smith spoke about his relationship with Van Pelt during a May 2015 interview with the Marin Independent Journal, saying, “She was 15 years older than me. I knew my parents would not be excited by that, so I told them she was nine years older, the same distance as my parents in age. But they eventually figured it out, and that’s when they tried to push her out of my life. But that never works with a teenager in love.”
Years later, in February 2012, a then-27-year-old Smith made headlines yet again. This time, he had gotten himself into some trouble with the law when the police had found him to be in possession of marijuana and under the influence. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years of probation in December of that same year.
Mickey Jones died in 2018
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Avid fans of the sitcom may remember Pete Bilker the bearded K&B Construction worker known for his catchphrase, “That would be me.” He was played by Mickey Jones, a professional drummer-turned-actor who had worked with the likes of Bob Dylan and Kenny Rogers during his years as a musician and made several memorable appearances throughout the series.
In Jones’ 2007 memoir, which he aptly titled “That Would Be Me: Rock & Roll Survivor to Hollywood Actor,” he reminisced fondly about spending time with the cast of “Home Improvement,” most notably with the show’s leading man. He wrote, “Hanging out with Tim Allen, all we did was laugh all day. And the funniest stuff was between takes.” After an impressive 40 years spent in front of the camera making fans of “Home Improvement” laugh, among many others, Jones sadly died on February 7, 2018, of complications from a long illness at 76 years old.
Zachery Ty Bryan was arrested for assault
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While we’d prefer to remember Zachery Ty Bryan as Brad, the hell-raising eldest child of the Taylor family, the actor’s life sadly mirrored his character’s in unfortunate ways. However, where Brad got into trouble as a teenager for smoking pot, Bryan’s trouble with the law was much more serious.
In July 2020, the former child actor was arrested for assault against an unnamed female. Later, just two weeks after announcing his divorce from his wife Carly Matros, Bryan was arrested in October 2020 and charged with felony strangulation, fourth-degree assault, and a slew of other crimes against his girlfriend, Johnnie Faye Cartwright. The “Home Improvement” star accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to three years of probation. Despite the incident, Cartwright and Bryan stayed together, and even got engaged in November 2021.
The actor was arrested yet again in July 2023, following a dispute between himself and a woman presumed to be Cartwright. Bryan was charged with assault, harassment, and robbery and spent a week in jail. His fiancee issued a statement via Us Weekly in November 2023, saying, “It’s a horrible situation that’s going to be spun in so many ways. I’ve learned firsthand the truth will never align with what’s been put out there.”
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Zachery Ty Bryan was charged with a felony in 2024
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Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson weren’t waiting on the sofa to discuss their on-screen son’s delinquency this time when Zachery Ty Bryan was arrested yet again on February 17, 2024, for a DUI. Because he had already received a DUI conviction in the past decade, had previously been ordered to forgo alcohol consumption as part of his probation, and had been caught driving under the influence for the fourth time, he was charged with a felony. In addition, Bryan received a misdemeanor charge for a hit and run.
Back in 2022, Allen was asked by The Hollywood Reporter about his former co-worker. “I don’t know what’s going on with him. Zach is a great kid who has grown into a complex man. All you can do is step aside and let somebody go through their process. At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who is reacting to situations that I had nothing to do with and can’t control. I don’t know what happens when people get corrupted. You just don’t know,” the comedian explained.
