Patricia Richardson is proud of ‘Home Improvement’ but says, ‘Hollywood hates our show’

The “Home Improvement” pilot was in crisis. “We were weirdly compared to ‘Frasier,’” executive producer Elliot Shoenman said, “in that they were the intellectual show, and we were the everyday-people show.” Jill and Tim in a scene from “Home Improvement.” From 1991 to 1999, audiences watched the Taylors raise their three sons ; laughed at Tim’s mishaps on his cable show, “Tool Time,” alongside his more competent assistant, Al ; and took in the wisdom of the Taylors’ camera-shy neighbor, Wilson. She and Allen do not keep in touch, though she repeatedly praised his talent and said she “never stopped loving working with him.” The more notable strife on the “Home Improvement” set, Richardson said, came from the difficulties of having three young actors’ parents jockeying for equal screen time and opportunities for their sons. Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson in a scene from Allen’s ABC series “Last Man Standing.” When Pamela Anderson, who co-starred on the first season of “Home Improvement,” alleged in her 2023 memoir that Allen flashed her on her first day on set, Richardson was quick to defend Allen, who has denied the claim. The cast of ABC’s “Home Improvement” in 1999 as the series came to a close, from left: Zachery Ty Bryan, Taran Noah Smith, Patricia Richardson, Tim Allen, Richard Karn, Earl Hindman and Debbe Dunning.