Patricia Richardson shoots down Tim Allen's Home Re-Improvement dreams: "I mean, Zach is now a felon"
Richardson says neither she, nor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, have been consulted about the idea of bringing Home Improvement back
A few months back, Tim Allen did what dreamers do, and whispered a hope into the heart of the world: Home Re-Improvement, a potential reboot of his classic ABC sitcom that would see Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor reunited with his adult sons (and, presumably, their parole officers) for more “What if a washing machine was capable of obliterating your entire family” fun. Although Allen mentioned at the time that he still keeps in touch with “the boys”—i.e., co-stars Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith, and still works somewhat regularly with Richard Karn, one name he didn’t list while spinning fantasies was co-star Patricia Richardson, who played his wife Jill on the series. Possibly because she would have asked him what the hell he was talking about.
Certainly, that’s the stance Richardson—who, we should note, has typically spoken pretty well of Allen in the past, describing how they both fought to keep quality on the series up even as it descended into utter silliness in its later seasons—took in a recent podcast interview when asked about Allen’s reboot dreams. “It was so weird,” Richardson told the Back To The Best podcast this week. “I would hear he was coming out publicly and saying this stuff about everyone was on board to do a Home Improvement reunion, but he never asked me and he never asked Jonathan. 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?”
Richardson went on to enumerate the many reasons a Home Improvement reboot is pretty damn unlikely, even outside her own clearly stated lack of involvement—starting with the fact that Earl “Wilson” Hindman died in 2003. “Taran hasn’t acted since he left the show,” she added. “He’s not an actor anymore. And Jonathan’s not really interested in acting. He wants to direct and write.” And, of course the big one: “I mean, Zach is now a felon,” Richardson noted, referencing Bryan’s long litany of arrests and convictions in the years since the show ended.
So, yeah: Probably not going to happen.