'Home Improvement' star says Patricia Richardson got 'tired' of fighting for sitcom
"Home Improvement" star Taran Noah Smith is shedding new light on why the hit 1990s sitcom came to an end.
The 42-year-old former actor was seven-years-old when he landed the role of Mark Taylor, the youngest son of Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (Tim Allen) and his wife Jill Taylor (Patricia Richardson) in 1991.
The sitcom, which was based on Allen's stand-up comedy persona, centered on Tim, a television host known for his home improvement show, "Tool Time," and his family life with Jill, Mark and older sons Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan) and Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas).
"Home Improvement" became one of the highest-rated shows of the '90s and ran for eight seasons and aired 204 episodes. However, the show concluded in 1999 after Richardson declined to return for a proposed ninth season.
During a recent appearance on Tom Scharpling and Julia Vickerman's podcast "Outgrown" podcast, Smith reflected on his time starring on the show and weighed in on the reasons behind Richardson's departure.
Smith recalled that Richardson joined the cast as Jill just days before the pilot was taped after producers replaced Frances Fisher, the actress originally cast as Tim's wife, during rehearsals.
"When they brought Patricia in, there was just a much better chemistry," he said. "And she had her own kid. She had just given birth to twins, and she had one older kid who was about my age. She really brought a lot more of a realistic mom energy to her, and she fought throughout the whole show to keep the show more realistic."
"She would tell the writers, ‘A mother would never say this,’ and get them to change it," he added.
Smith said he "definitely" agreed with Richardson's input though he acknowledged that he and the show's other child stars weren't really involved in conversations about the script.
"They'd do a run-through of the script on Monday and then the kids would go to school usually, and they would continue to discuss the script," he said.
Smith recalled that there were creative disagreements on set after a new creative team replaced the show's original writers and producers.
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"The original creators only did the first couple seasons, and then they moved on, and they brought in a whole other group of writer/producers," he remembered. "Those guys, very few of them had kids, and the show kind of started to go in a different direction, at least the scripts we'd get on Monday."
"It was really Pat, the mom, who fought the good fight to make it more realistic because oftentimes it would just be something that was very out of character just to sell a joke, just to set up a joke," he continued. "It's like, ‘Wait, this is not what the characters are about.’"
Smith speculated that Allen was reluctant to appear overly controlling after witnessing what happened on another sitcom, "Roseanne." "Roseanne," which became an instant hit after it premiered in 1988, was created by "Home Improvement" co-creator Matt Williams. Like "Home Improvement," Roseanne was built around its star's stand-up comedy voice and persona.
However, Barr clashed behind-the-scenes with producers and writers, including Williams, over the direction and tone of the show. The tensions between the two led to Williams leaving after the first season. Barr later gained more influence and was credited as a creator in later seasons.
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"I think Tim was overall maybe a bit worried about being a tyrant because the same creators created ‘Roseanne,’ and Roseanne took over the show and fired the creators, fired everybody," Smith recalled. "Actually, all our camera crew had been fired in one day from ‘Roseanne’ and came over to us. So, Tim was always, I think, more hands-off with that, not wanting to be tyrannical, which meant that it was a lot more on Pat to push."
"That's one of the reasons why the show ended up eventually ending, because she was just tired of it, of having to fight to make it realistic all the time," he continued.
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"And Tim was getting far more money than she was," Smith added. "That was her actual way of stopping. She said she'd do a ninth season if she got paid the same amount as Tim, knowing they wouldn't do it."
Smith's recollection of why Richardson left "Home Improvement" echoes what the actress has said for years about her experience on the show and the reasons for her departure.
During a May 2024 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Richardson recalled that the creators emphasized the importance of the character of Jill and her relationship with Tim.
"When I took the job, they said it wasn’t meant to be the Tim Allen show. It was meant to be our show," she said. "I’ve always said, I don’t want to play the thankless wife."
Richardson recalled having creative disagreements with male writers over how Jill would react to specific situations, remembering one instance in which she was told, "Pat, it’s not like we don’t understand women. We’re married to them."
The actress, who earned four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her performance as Jill, told the LA Times that she made the decision to leave the show.
Richardson told the LA Times she decided during the eighth season that it would be her last, citing a desire to spend more time with her children after her divorce and her belief that the sitcom had run its course, pointing to Jonathan Taylor Thomas' departure and declining ratings.
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The actress also felt that Disney failed to recognize her creative contributions to the series, saying she helped shape her character and storylines but was denied a producer credit, even as Allen became an executive producer.
"I told everybody, there’s not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year. This show is over. It needs to end," Richardson recalled.
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Richardson recalled that ABC unexpectedly offered to continue the show with a 25-episode ninth season. She said the network's parent company, Disney, proposed paying her a salary of $1 million an episode, while Allen would be paid $2 million an episode.
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Though she recalled Allen immediately accepting the offer, she said she countered with terms that she knew the studio would reject. Richardson told the outlet that she requested equal pay with Allen and an executive producer credit.
"I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much. That was my way to say ‘no’ and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney," Richardson said. "I’d been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my a-- off. I was a big reason why women were watching."