Will There Be a Home Improvement Reboot? Patricia Robinson Responds to Tim Allen
Rumors of a Home Improvement reboot have been swirling for some time now, and original cast member Patricia Robinson is weighing in on the odds of one happening. Keep reading to see if there will be a Home Improvement reboot.
Home Improvement is an ABC sitcom that ran for eight seasons between 1991 and 1998. It centered on on the Taylor family, which consisted of Tim (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Robinson) and their three sons: Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The Taylors lived in suburban Detroit and had a neighbor named Wilson (Earl Hindman), who was often the go-to guy for solving their problems. The series was one of the highest-rated sitcoms throughout the ’90s and it grossed more than $500 million in syndication revenue by 1996.
Although it’s been nearly three decades since Home Improvement was on air, Tim Allen has expressed interest in revisiting the Taylor family in a reboot. While speaking to The Messenger in November 2023, Allen revealed that he and co-star Richard Karn, who starred as Tim’s best friend Al Borland, have spoken about a reboot. “I see Richard Karn a lot,” he said, via Entertainment Weekly. “And I talk to the boys [Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith]… and I’m there as one of their friends. We keep talking about [a spinoff].”
He continued: “It’s funny, one of the conversations we’ve had recently is how weird it would be if Home Improvement would be about the kids’ kids … Like if all of them had children, and I’m a grandparent. Home Re-Improvement or something like that. It’s come up.”
Back in 2018, Allen also told Entertainment Tonight that the idea of a reboot had been “floated” by some of the cast. “And more than I would have expected said, ‘Yeah, that would be cool to do it years later,’ like Roseanne,” he told the outlet.
Home Improvement would certainly not be the first sitcom from the ’90s to earn a reboot. Roseanne was rebooted in 2018 for one season before spinning off into The Conners and several other sitcoms earned revivals, including Full House, Will & Grace, Saved by the Bell, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Read on to see if a Home Improvement reboot is happening.
Will there be a Home Improvement reboot?
Will there be a Home Improvement reboot? We don’t know for sure, but the odds of one happening are slim. Although Allen is interesting in a reboot, his on-screen wife Patricia Robinson, who starred as Jill Taylor and earned an Emmy nomination for her role, has no interest in revisiting the series.
While appearing on the Back to the Best podcast in March 2024, Robinson claimed that she has not been contacted about a reboot and alleged that Allen has been “lying to people” about one. “I would hear [Allen] was coming out publicly and saying this stuff about how everyone was on board to do a Home Improvement reunion,” she said, adding: “But he never asked me, and he never asked Jonathan [Taylor Thomas], who I talk to.” Robinson continued, “So, I called Jonathan one day and said, ‘Has he asked you about this? And he went, ‘No, and why’s he going around telling everybody that we’re all on board when he hasn’t talked to you or me?’”
“[Allen] was kind of lying to people and telling them that I was on board, and I didn’t know anything about it,” she said. “So, I wrote a big thing on Twitter and just said, ‘I’m not involved in any kind of series with Jill, and I’ve also never even been asked to do another ‘Home Improvement’ reunion thing.’ But I would not want to.”
The actress was referencing her December 2023 tweet, which read: “Notice: I am NOT INVOLVED nor have I ever been in some jerk’s fraudulent claims that I am doing some pilot called Jill’s something or other. I’m not doing ANY -nor have I been even talked to asked to do any Home Improvement reunion show (nor has Jonathan!).”
As for why she is not interested in a reboot, Robinson explained that changes with the original cast — including Zach Ty Bryan’s legal troubles — would make a reboot “very weird” to film. Bryan was charged with a felony after his February 2024 arrest in California for allegedly driving under the influence and he is also facing a misdemeanor charge of a hit-and-run and property damage.
“I mean, Zach [Ty Bryan] is now a felon. Taran hasn’t acted since he left the show; he’s not an actor anymore … And Jonathan’s not really interested in acting. He wants to direct and write. And we don’t have Wilson (played by the late Earl Hindman),” Robinson said on the podcast. “It’s not gonna be the show, at all. And people think we can just magically go right back to who we were 30 years ago and do a show that was 30 years ago, and we’ve all changed quite a bit, I think, since then.”
Robinson’s comments come a few months after actress Casey Wilson, who guest starred on Allen’s Disney+ series The Santa Clauses, claimed that working with the actor was the “single worst experience I’ve ever had with a co-star ever.” During an episode of her podcast Bitch Sesh, Wilson alleged that everyone on set was “walking on eggshells” around Allen, adding that once he was finished with a take, he refused to look at anyone or talk to anyone. “It was so uncomfortable,” she claimed.
As Robinson pointed out, a Home Improvement reboot without the entire Taylor family and without Wilson is the last thing fans want. So, we most likely won’t be getting one anytime soon.
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