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 comedic and intellectual Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas); and the socially awkward youngest son, Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The show is set in suburban Detroit, Michigan.

Early seasons

Throughout the first four seasons (and off and on throughout the next three) 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 (eg in the first season episode "Flying Sauces," they said the whole family but Mark were aliens and that Mark was not Tim and Jill's natural son), until Jill straightened things out.

Mark was initially presented as slightly naive and in constant admiration of his father. He was also the son who shared the closest relationship with their mother Jill. Brad was presented as a character who often engaged 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. In the first two years of the show, Pamela Anderson played the part of Tim's assistant, Lisa, on his cable show. She became frustrated with her role and landed the role of C.J. Parker on the syndicated series Baywatch. Allen and the producers had to make a decision: kick Anderson off the show or keep her on as the only series she could do. Anderson chose the former, and her last appearance as a series regular ended up being "The Great Race," which aired as the second season finale on May 19, 1993. She later reprised the role of Lisa in the sixth season finale "The Kiss and the Kiss Off," which originally aired May 20, 1997.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas' departure

When the seventh season began, 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," which aired on September 29, 1998. This was done as Jonathan Taylor Thomas reportedly wanted to take time off to focus on academics. His last appearance on Home Improvement was the 1998 Christmas episode "Home for the Holidays." Thomas was unwilling to return to the show for the series finale. He claimed, in a People magazine article, he was touring colleges at the time.

Tool Time

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. The show's name was changed to Tool Time because Tim and the producers felt that name would be confused with MC Hammer. 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) — whose main duty was to introduce the pair at the beginning of the show with the line "Does everybody know what time it is?" They would also assist Tim and Al during the show by bringing them tools. 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. Most Tool Time viewers think that the accidents on the show are on purpose, to show somebody how not to use tools. 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 they were best friends (and would never admit it), there was a tense and often problematic 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 would giggle and snort when a joke was made at Tim's expense. Al, being cautious, insecure, and brighter, always bore the brunt of Tim's jokes and constant put-downs. Whenever Tim would make a remark likely to offend some Tool Time viewers, Al would quickly pull out a large card with the show's address for those viewers to write to Tim and complain. Al is frequently taunted by Tim because of his beard, bland personality (in Tim's eye), 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 "Room Without A View"). (Tim shows the briefs again in the episode "A Funny Valentine"). Tim typically uses his television show to vent about various problems he is having in his personal life, Al is usually very annoyed by this. Two running jokes for Tim was introducing Al with a silly middle name (ie Al "This Land Is" Bor-land, or Al "Table for One" Borland) and 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). Another running gag in the series is although Tim is the star of the show everybody seems to love Al (eg, in several instances, when Tim offers an autographed picture to a fan, they will say "Can you make it of Al? He's my favorite").

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 (the season 8 episode "Young at Heart"), country artist Alan Jackson (the season 5 episode "When Harry Kept Delores"), golfer Payne Stewart, comedian Drew Carey (the season 6 episode "Totally Tool Time") 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 season three episode "Eve of Construction," which focused on Habitat for Humanity. 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. He also appeared four years later in the episode "Home Alone" in a dream sequence about Tim's book, saying "Instead of getting a literary genius like Tim Taylor, we're stuck with Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando." He wasn't alone in that episode, either. Leeza Gibbons and Oprah Winfrey also guest-starred in the episode playing themselves on their respective talk shows talking about Tim's book (and how he has not written it). 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," Season Three's "The Great Race II," Season Four's "Tool Time After Dark," with recycled Tool Time footage from earlier episodes, and Season Six's "Insult to Injury" in a dream sequence about Vila winning the consecutive home renovation show appearance record; Vila wasn't played by himself, and instead played by a stunt-double for a one-shot cameo.)

The Beach Boys appeared in the Season 6 episode, "The Karate Kid Returns" as Wilson's cousins. (Then - Beach Boys Carl Wilson and Mike Love were real-life cousins.)

A then-unknown Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer guest-starred in the Season 4 episode, "Talk to Me", as the two men Tim gives advice to; his "sage words" nearly end up destroying the guys' relationships with their respective girlfriends. The following season, Chappelle would reprise the same role, with Christopher Gartin in Breuer's role, in the short lived Home Improvement spinoff Buddies.

Other famous guests include Drake Bell in the third season episode "Swing Time", Ron Eli, Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, the latter two who appeared in the first season episode "Birds of a Feather Flock to Taylor."

Robert Picardo, best known as "The Doctor" on Star Trek: Voyager, made two appearances on the show as Tim's neighbor, Joe "The Meat Man" Morton. He appeared in "A Sew, Sew Evening," and "Blow-Up," both early on in the third season. The character was explained by Marie (his wife) in the fifth season episode "Jill's Surprise Party" that he had left Marie for a younger woman.

The late Rodney Dangerfield and Alex Rocco appeared together in the 1997 Thanksgiving episode in which they both appeared in a luxury box at the Pontiac Silverdome.