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24 January, 2008

Home Improvement TV series

Home Improvement is an Emmy-Winning American television sitcom starring actor/comedian Tim Allen, which ran from 1991 to 1999. The show was created by Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra (who both produced The Cosby Show) and David MacFadzean. The show's title is a double entendre, because it is about both physical improvement of houses, as well as improving life with family, friends, work, and school.

Contents
1 Plot details and storylines
1.1 Early seasons
1.2 Jonathan Taylor Thomas's departure
1.3 Tool Time the show
1.3.1 The relationship between Tim and Al
1.3.2 Special guests and cameos
1.4 Character honors
2 Running gags
3 Show background
4 Characters
4.1 The Taylor Family
4.2 Friends of the family
5 Series finale
6 Awards and Nominations

Plot details and storylines
The series centered on the antics of the Taylor family, including Tim (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three sons. The oldest is the popular and athletic Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan); a year younger is comedian and intellectual Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas); and finally the socially awkward youngest son, Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The show is set in Metro Detroit, as evidenced by the many references to the area in the show (especially Michigan colleges, whose shirts are worn by Tim in the show).

Early seasons
In the first four seasons, sons Brad and Randy would torment their youngest brother Mark (and each other) in ways that consistently presented a challenge to Tim and Jill. Mark always believed what his siblings told him (for example, that the whole family but Mark were aliens and that Mark was not Tim and Jill's natural son), until Jill explained all.
Mark was initially presented as slightly naive and in constant admiration of his father. Brad was presented as a character who often engaged fist before thinking, a tendency which regularly landed him in trouble. Randy was the comedian of the pack-- the quick-thinking, sarcastic son who had more common sense than Brad but wasn't immune to trouble.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas's departure
As the series progressed, however, Mark grew into a teenage outcast who dressed in dark clothing, while Brad became interested in cars like his father and took up soccer. Randy joined the school newspaper, before leaving for Costa Rica in the eighth season episode "Adios." This was done since Jonathan Taylor Thomas wanted to take time off to focus on academics. He attended Harvard University. His last appearance on Home Improvement was the 1998 Christmas episode, with Thomas unwilling to return to the show for the series finale.

Tool Time the show
Focus was also given to Tim's job as a television personality on his own home improvement show, called Tool Time. Tim was the host of this "meta-program," or show-within-a-show, originally called Hammer Time, however Tim and the producers felt that name would be confused with MC Hammer (TVography: Home Improvement). Tim was joined by his friend and mild-mannered assistant Al Borland (Richard Karn), and a "Tool Time girl" — first Lisa (Pamela Anderson) and later Heidi (Debbe Dunning) — who assisted the pair by bringing them tools, for example. Although an excellent salesman and TV personality, Tim was spectacularly accident-prone as a handyman, often causing hilarious disasters on and off the set to the consternation of his co-workers and family. Many of Tim's accidents were caused by his devices designed in application of his mantra, "More power!"

The relationship between Tim and Al
Though ultimately good friends, there was a tense relationship between Tim and Al. Al was portrayed as a slightly geeky character, usually having more knowledge, skill, and audience popularity than Tim. His catchphrase, as an opposition to Tim's ill-advised ideas or jokes, was "I don't think so, Tim." He also came up with many puns and giggles and snorts when a joke is made at Tim's expense. The cautious, insecure, brighter Al always bore the brunt of Tim's jokes and constant put-downs. Al is frequently taunted by Tim because of his weight, beard, in Tim's eye bland personality, poor sense of humor and his preference of flannel shirts (and often other flannel items such as an oversized pair of flannel briefs in the episode "The Karate Kid Returns"). Tim typically uses his television show to vent about numerous problems he is having in his personal life, and Al is usually very annoyed by this. A running joke for Tim was commenting on Al's overweight mother, who was often referred to but was never fully seen throughout the series (in the penultimate episode of the series, "Dead Weight", she died, and the characters were shown paying their respects at her extra-wide coffin which showed her body but not her face; in another episode, she can be seen in a picture on the Tool Time set, but only from the back side).

Special guests and cameos
Many "special guests" made "cameo" appearances on Tool Time. These guests included race car drivers Johnny Rutherford, Robby Gordon, Mario and Michael Andretti, Al Unser, Sr./Jr./III, actress and model Jenny McCarthy, country artist Alan Jackson, golfer Payne Stewart, and The Beach Boys. Numerous NASA astronauts appeared on the series, the most notable being Ken Bowersox, who made three separate appearances. Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, then Detroit Pistons star Grant Hill (the season 7 episode "Believe It or Not"), former boxers Evander Holyfield (the season 3 episode "Eve of Construction") and George Foreman (the season 1 episode "Unchained Malady"), and former President Jimmy Carter all appeared on the series. Carter made an appearance during an episode which focused on Habitat for Humanity, which was the season three episode "Eve of Construction." Jay Leno appears with his car collection in the fourth season episode "Brother, Can You Spare a Hot Rod?" He plays a mechanic who is cleaning Papa Mia's (the Detroit pizza magnate) cars. Bob Vila also appeared on several episodes, with Tim seeing him as a rival (he appears in Season One's "What About Bob?" Season Two's "The Great Race," and Season 3's "The Great Race II".) He also appears in the one-hour season 4 episode "Tool Time After Dark," but that appearance was just recycled Tool Time footage from earlier episodes.
A then-unknown Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer guest-starred in the Season 4 episode, "Talk to Me", as two of the men Tim gives advice to and almost destroying their relationships with their respective girlfriends.
Other famous guests include Drake Bell in episode "Swing Time", Ron Eli, Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, the latter who appeared in the first season episode "Birds of a Feather Flock to Taylor."

Character honors
Starting in Season 4, Jill studied to become a psychologist. In "Is There a Doctor in the House?" an episode from the fifth season, Tim also received an honorary Ph.D. from his alma mater, Western Michigan University. Tim also received an award for "Safety" in season 2's "Dances with Tools" despite his accident record on Tool Time. (The reason was that the people giving the award mistakenly believed that he staged all his accidents and Tim, to keep his reputation, let them.)

Running gags
Scene Transitions - During scene changes, clever transitions were used to comically remove the current image from the screen. For example, the current scene could shatter like glass, fall over like a piece of wood, or deflate like a balloon. These transitions usually (though not always) included something shown or mentioned in the scene before (e.g. heart-shaped balloons inflate and pop to transition from a scene talking about a possible secret admirer in "A Funny Valentine").
Basement Pipe - Tim banged his head on a large metal pipe every time he was walking down the basement steps. He would then do the same thing when he walked back up the steps. This gag is first seen in Season 1, Episode 5, "Wild Kingdom." This never happened to any other character. In one episode, he banged his head on a pipe while walking down the steps of an aircraft carrier, and also banged his head walking down the basement steps in Benny's aunt's house.
Binford 6100 - From Season 3 onwards, every new power tool introduced by Tim on Tool Time was called the Binford 6100. Prior to this, each tool had a unique model number.
Opera - Nearly every time the word opera was mentioned in the Taylor household, either Tim or the boys would scream.
Nanna - Tim's constant jokes of "Nanna", Jill's mother. Jokes from her weight to her driving were included.
Address Card - In the show's early years, Tim would often make remarks (usually involving women) that would cause offense to certain sections of the Tool Time viewership. Al would hold up the address card for viewers to write in and complain. Sometimes Tim would ask Al to destroy the card, but he would always have more. This was first seen in Season 1, on the episode, "Reach Out And Teach Someone".
We'll Be Right Back... - Usually, when something goes wrong on Tool Time (such as in the episode Forever Jung), Tim will say, "We'll be right back after these messages from Binford Tools!".
Salute to... - From the outset of Season 2, Tim and Al would make a theme of a particular home improvement project or item on Tool Time by hosting a week long "salute" to it. This would usually be evident with a banner that said "Salute to ____" or Tim or Al would say "...a salute" followed by a hand salute, thrusting the hand forward, having a sound effect that resembled the particular item being saluted (e.g., if it was a salute to lawn care, the sound effect would be of a mower), finishing with Tim and/or Al saying the particular item being saluted. (Richard Karn would recycle this salute as his sign-off during his tenure as host of Family Feud.)
The Man's... - Similar to the salutes, "Tool Time" often featured "The Man's ____ (Bathroom, Kitchen, etc.)." These skits are the embodiment of Manliness according to Tim.
Wilson's Advice - The character Wilson (Earl Hindman), the Taylor family's sage advice-giving neighbor with many historical, philosophical, and literary works to quote. Tim always confusingly misquoted and re-worded Wilson's advice when speaking to Jill or his sons, often prompting them to say, "Please don't explain" or "I don't want to know". Initially only Tim talked about his problems to Wilson, but as the series progressed, Jill and the boys would also talk with Wilson about their own matters.
Wilson's Face - Perhaps the show's best-known gimmick. Since Wilson was partly inspired by a neighbor that Tim Allen had when he was very little and was too short to see over his neighbor's fence (and therefore unable to see his neighbor), the bottom half of Wilson's face was almost never seen on the show, unless he was playing another role. Instead, it was almost constantly hidden and sometimes blocked by various props, such as fences, grills, masks, plants, or scarfs. In one episode, Mark was papier-macheing his face leaving the bottom half of his face revealed. Also on one Halloween episode, Wilson was seen at a costume party dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, the mask covering the top half of his face and leaving his mouth revealed. On one occasion his entire face was visible, although hidden behind Halloween makeup.) On another occasion his face was covered with clown makeup. On yet another occasion his face was covered with a beard. His face was fully shown following the series finale episode while taking his final bow. During the show, Wilson is usually working on an unusual project of some sort in his backyard. One of his projects included a self portrait, and when Tim asked to see it, Wilson showed it to him, but only the upper half of Wilson's face was completed. The joke was referenced in "The Karate Kid Returns" as he said, "Some of them have never seen my face". Someone else was supposed to play the character 'Wilson'. When he found out that his whole face would never be shown, he refused to do it. The creators of the show held auditions again, and Earl Hindman got the role of Wilson. Once, Wilson's mother visited him, and because she was shorter than Wilson, the only thing of her the audience ever got to see was her right hand.
Jill's Childhood Stories - Jill often told stories about an experience she had when she was a little girl. Tim and the boys always hated those stories and would beg her not to tell them, walk away in the middle of the story, or both. Jill would often try to disguise these stories either by launching straight into it when the boys were off-guard (or willing to listen), or convert them from "when I was a little girl" stories to "when I was a little person" stories. Many times, though, the boys saw straight through this as they matured. One of the most notable examples was when while Jill tried to explain to Randy that older siblings (in Randy's case, Brad) get to do more things earlier, she lamented about how growing up her older sister got to wear a bra while Jill had to wear a "dorky undershirt". Randy replied by saying he understood, and asked Jill "When do you think I get to wear a bra, mom?"
Disney Gags - Some jokes stemmed from Jonathan Taylor Thomas' and Tim Allen's respective roles in other Disney productions. In a Halloween episode, Cooper Karn (Richard's real son) is seen dressed as Lion King character Simba and another child is dressed as Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear. Randy gives two pieces of candy to Buzz and seven pieces to Simba. (Jonathan provided the voice of young Simba in The Lion King). In another episode when Tim's brother Marty's daughter (with her twin over at Tim's mother's) visit, a stuffed Simba toy is displayed, and Thomas makes a comment about it. A similar joke is made by Tim, in the same episode (as an outtake), when he is playing with a Buzz Lightyear doll (the character he voiced in the Pixar film Toy Story). (In addition, there is a scene in the Toy Story film with a toolbox labeled "Binford", referencing the fictional hardware company from the show.) Also, on a Saint Patricks Day episode, two people wearing Toy Story shirts can be seen.
K&B Construction - Throughout the show's tenure, the K&B Construction men would make periodic visits on Tool Time, often providing counters to Tim's macho positioning.
Double Entendres - One infrequent gag was to have Tim (and in one occasion Al) perform or say something with a homosexual double entendre accidentally in front of a recurring extra named Milt, who would reply with, "Hey, I don't go for that sort of thing!" For example, Tim covered Delores' 12-hour diner shift. When he serves two meals to two men, he says, "You're the pancakes, and you must be the fruit."
Al is the Star - Tool Time viewers often had the misconception that Al was the star of the show, probably due to him being more skillful and intelligent than Tim. Tim usually takes these comments with barely restrained annoyance and reminds the viewers that Al is his assistant and not the reverse. He often says "Al is my assistant. He assists me." putting emphasis on the last three words. (Wilson also says this line when playing a mad scientist in the Seventh Season episode, A Night to Dismember.) A related running gag is a fan of the show telling Tim "I'm a big fan of Tool Time. I love Al", to which Tim would always reply with a sarcastic, "We all love Al.". In later seasons, when Tim introduces Al to the Tool Time crowd, he would get an applause from the audience.
Whenever Tim made a joke like, "You think they'd call it...", or advanced an ill-advised plan, Al would say, "I don't think so Tim".
When something would go wrong, Tim would grunt "Oh no".
Whenever Al (or anyone else) would be sarcastic to something Tim said, Tim would hiss at them.
Whenever Tim introduces Al on Tool Time, he added a sarcastic middle name like Al "This land is" Borland.
Al's Mother - Tim frequently cracks jokes about Al's mother, usually about her weight. She was an unseen character in the series in an episode, she can be seen in a picture on the Tool Time set, but only from the back side in the final season, when she passes away she can be partially viewed in the funeral scene.
Power - Tim saying something needed "More power", which was then followed by his trademark "Simian Grunt" Later, characters would suggest that Tim make "the power [blank]" when he expressed dissatisfaction with something's capabilities.
Jill's cooking - Tim and the boys' never-ending wisecracks about Jill's notoriously bad cooking.
How many years? - Whenever Tim mentions how many years he and Jill have been married he's one year short, and whoever he's talking to corrects him instantly. i.e. "We've been together for 14 years-" "15 Years." "We've been together for 15 wonderful years...."
The Grunt - Tim would usually grunt while doing something manly to exert his manliness.
Polish food - Tim frequently orders Polish food from the fictional Stan's Restaurant in Hamtramck even though his stomach can never handle it.
Tim's cell phone - When Tim has a call away from home, he uses a cell phone often with a low signal. As a result, he often walks into other people, disrupting them in an attempt to improve the signal.
Al's "lack of style" - Tim would constantly make jokes about Al's plaid flannel shirt.
Al's datelessness - Some jokes would play off of how Al was not involved in any relationships, such as how Al was good as detecting wood by its scent and Tim sarcastically commenting "Can you believe it ladies, this man is single?". Tim stopped these jokes when he realized Al was seriously troubled by his lack of a woman, and the problem was solved in later episodes when he started dating.
Emergency Room - The personnel at the local emergency room were often on a first name basis with Tim, seeing as how he was frequently a patient in their department. In an episode where Tim brings Randy, who has sprained his wrist, to the ER, a member of the hospital staff brings Tim coffee in a mug with the name "Tim" imprinted on it in big, bold letters.
Christmas Lights - In any of the Christmas episodes, Tim is usually putting up an outrageous assortment of Christmas Lights, and they are usually very bright. Additionally, any decoration is usually oversized or made to resemble Tim, such as the "Three Wise Tool-guys," the Three Wise Men, each with Tim's face.

Show background
Based on the stand-up comedy of Tim Allen, Home Improvement made its debut on ABC on September 17, 1991, and was one of the highest-rated sitcoms for almost the entire decade (It even went up to #1 during the 1993-1994 season; that year, Allen also had the #1 book ("Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man") and movie (The Santa Clause))[1] Midway throughout the show's run, it was also competed against another highly-rated sitcom, Frasier, which slightly dropped the ratings, however, it remained a top 10 show. The final episode aired on May 25, 1999 with a 90-minute, three-part episode entitled "The Long and Winding Road," which was the fourth highest rated comedy series finale of the 1990s, behind Cheers, The Cosby Show and Seinfeld. Since 1995, due to its popularity, reruns began airing on The Disney Channel and Channel 4 and ABC1 in the UK. At the present time, old episodes are currently on national syndication and on cable television network such as TBS in the U.S., the Seven Network and FOX Classics in Australia, and is currently not airing in the UK due to ABC1 ceasing transmissions as of 26th September. In America, it has began airing on Nick at Nite in 2007 [2]. In Germany, Home Improvement was shown on ARD, RTL, VOX, and reruns are currently shown on the private channel RTL 2. It was also shown on M-Net on South African television, and reruns are showing throughout 2007 on the M-Net Series channel, available to DStv users. In 2007, with the DVD release of Tim Allen's two stand-up specials, he said that Home Improvement was supposed to be a parody of This Old House, where the host does almost nothing and the co-host (Al in this case, Norm on This Old House) does all the work.

Characters
Main article: List of Home Improvement characters

The Taylor Family
Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (Tim Allen) - Jill's husband and Brad, Randy and Mark's father.
Jillian "Jill" Patterson Taylor (Patricia Richardson) — Tim's wife and Brad, Randy and Mark's mother.
Bradley Michael "Brad" Taylor (Zachery Ty Bryan) — Randy and Mark's older brother.
Randall William "Randy" Taylor (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) — Brad's younger brother and Mark's older brother.
Marcus Jason "Mark" Taylor (Taran Noah Smith) — Brad and Randy's younger brother.
Martin "Marty" Taylor (William O'Leary) — Tim's younger brother.
Jeffrey "Jeff" Taylor (Thom Sharp) — Tim's older brother.
Lucille Taylor (Bonnie Bartlett) --- Tim, Marty and Jeff's mother; Brad, Randy and Mark's paternal grandmother; Jill's mother-in-law.

Friends of the family
Al Borland (Richard Karn) — Tim's assistant and best friend
Wilson W. Wilson Jr. (Earl Hindman) - Tim's neighbor and confidant
Lisa (Pamela Anderson) — Binford's first "Tool Girl"; Ashley Judd auditioned for and won the role of Lisa the Tool Girl. However, her agent urged her to pursue movies instead of a television career, and she pulled out days before the original pilot was to be taped, resulting in the casting of Pamela Anderson. The last-minute change necessitated alterations to the original script, in which Lisa was a major character; she was a college student majoring in psychology who acted as a stand-in on the Tool Time set.
Heidi Keppert (Debbe Dunning) — The second "Tool Girl"
Harry (Blake Clark) — Owner of "Harry's Hardware"
Benny Beroni (Jim Labriola) - One of Tim's buddies who hangs out at the hardware store

Series finale
The series ended in a three-part episode with Tim being displeased at how Tool Time had been changed into something resembling a corporate-sponsored Jerry Springer-like show, and Jill getting a new job offer. The personal conflict revolved around the job being in Bloomington, Indiana, a change that Tim strongly resisted initially.
Of course, after talking to Wilson, he agreed to leave Detroit. Tim ended his Tool Time appearances with a final show that garnered huge ratings. However, Jill realized that they would be moving out of the house the family grew up in. The conclusion was somewhat ambiguous, although Jill seemed adamant about them not moving. The last shot was Tim imagining (a thought balloon was used for emphasis) putting the whole house on a flatbed truck and then on a tugboat, leaving the viewer to decide if they moved or stayed in Detroit.
The three-part series finale was taped twice, once with Wilson's face revealed and another with it hidden. ABC was to decide which version would air in May 1999. Ultimately, they aired the version with Wilson's face hidden, as in the other 200 episodes. This version was released later that fall on VHS, titled Home Improvement: The Series Finale. The finale brought in 35.5 million viewers (34% of all Americans watching TV at that time.)

Awards and Nominations
Home Improvement received numerous awards and nominations in its 8 season run. Notable awards and nominations include:
Golden Globe Awards
1993
Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim Allen)
1994
Nominated- Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Nominated- Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Patricia Richardson)
Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim Allen)
1995
Nominated- Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Nominated- Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Patricia Richardson)
Win- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim Allen)
1996
Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim Allen)
1997
Nominated- Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy (Tim Allen)
Primetime Emmy Awards
1993
Nominated- Outstanding Comedy Series
Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Tim Allen)
1994
Nominated- Outstanding Comedy Series
Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Patricia Richardson)
1996
Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Patricia Richardson)
1997
Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Patricia Richardson)
1998
Nominated- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Patricia Richardson)
(release from : Wikipedia)

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