Patricia Richardson on what she loved about Home Improvement—and why she had to leave
TV Features Patricia Richardson
As Home Improvement’s Jill Taylor, Patricia Richardson acted as America’s everymom for most of the ‘90s. She brought up three handsome blond boys and dealt with Tim Allen’s guttural grunts, all while keeping up a neighborly relationship with Wilson behind the fence. But while everything was hunky-dory onscreen, off screen things weren’t quite as rosy, with Richardson battling producers and writers she says were more interested in coasting on the show’s success than in breaking new ground.
The A.V. Club talked to Richardson—whose latest movie, Cubby, is on VOD now—about her ride on Home Improvement, with its peaks and valleys, and about why she eventually had to walk away from the whole thing.
78 Comments
I wonder if she was also disappointed that Tim Allen couldn’t use the N word. Home Improvement could have been a totally different show if people weren’t so PC!!!
Explain
Tim Allen once complained it was unfair that he couldn’t use the N word in his comedy routines.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jul/30/tim-allen-n-word-row
Pretty much every single Home Improvement episode went thusly:
Scene 1: Tim mocks Al’s weight and lack of masculine traits; Al gets last laugh when Tim screws something up.Scene 2: Tim just doesn’t understand this modern world, and wonders what ever happened to men being men, and ‘wimmin being ‘wimmin. Scene 3: Jill says Tim is setting a bad example for their sons, and withholds sex until he fixes it.Scene 4: Tim gets advice from Wilson.Scene 5: Tim misstates advice he just got, but still manages to patch things up.Scene 6: Tim adds more power to something, and hilarity ensues.
I know it wasn’t your intention, but you really made me miss this show.
It’s kinda replaced Roseanne as Laff’s main spotlight show.
I mean, it did have great prop comedy, and the series of custom places just for men (Bedroom for men, etc) did have a certain appeal if being dated.
you could basically 1:1 this with Last Man Standing.-Mike mocks one son-in-law for being liberal/vegan;-Mike doesn’t understand his daughters’ women problems;-Vanessa tries to fix it with female intuition;-Mike gets advice from Hector Elizondo;-Mike mocks/manipulates his other son-in-law for being dumb;-Mike does a vlog (yes, really) maybe understanding what he was supposed to learn while poking fun at the modern world.
Holy shit, Hector Elizondo is on that show!?? But.. he’s actually good!
Good at getting paid too, apparently.
Dude needs to eat. . .
I will direct you to a movie from the early 80s titled Private Resort. Hector Elizondo takes the work he gets.
Ha!! Good point. Although now that I think bout it, I’d watch superyoung Johnny Depp and Rob Morrow in a sort-of buddy comedy about goofballs running afoul of Elizondo’s jewel thief character before I’d watch Tim Allen repeatedly get puzzled and then annoyed over vegans and other things he doesn’t like.
Does he hide his face behind a fence?
I liked the part where Richard Karn accidentally invented the ‘lumbersexual.’-Signed, bearded man in plaid.
While I had a buddy at the time who “I don’t think so, Tim” responded to everything and that annoyed the shit out of me, I have to admit now that all of Al’s “I don’t think so, Tim”s were probably well earned.Brett’s, I’m not so sure.
Don’t forget when Tim apologizes to Jill, and they make up by going upstairs to have the secks. Usually the last scene of every episode.
Don’t forget the onomatopoetic non-sequiturs!
I remember watching almost every episode of this show with my parents. And then reruns would play between Simpsons and Seinfeld reruns every afternoon when I was in high school. It makes me wonder what kind of crap is going to end up with a weird place in my kids’ minds. It’s definitely a unique mental thing to say, “Oh yeah, that’s the mediocre show that I saw every episode of at least twice because it was a staple of my childhood.”
I could have sworn this was the plot line of every Last Man Standing episode.
I’m pretty sure she had to leave because they stopped making them.
I am unclear on what new ground she thought that show was capable of breaking
A very special episode about the amount of cocaine you can carry before you get drug trafficking charges.
Tim Allen’s patented head flip when he grunts is reminiscent of the way he flipped on his fellow dealers.
My first thought. You mean the broadcast network producers weren’t interested in getting wildly experimental with the formulaic, family-friendly sitcom that was also like their highest rated comedy? Shocker.
Lady plumbers?I’d guess she thought maybe the Tim character could evolve – use his platform of (relatively) toxic masculinity to subtly push devotees of the show toward a more understanding stance toward women. Her character was more than a vagina stand-in at a time when the most outspoken female voice in nighttime television was Peggy Bundy.
Clearly you’ve never played the video game.
They stopped making them because both her and Tim Allen didn’t want to do another season. At which point it would have been the Al show which budding young bears might have liked but probably wouldn’t have done very good numbers.
That’s what I thought. She “walked away” because they ended the show.
Patricia Richardson is no Patricia HeatonOr is she? Most of the time I think I can tell them apart anyway. And I am almost positive that neither of them is Patricia Arquette
Patricia Heaton was on Colbert and she was insufferable. Her whole interview was about how good of a Catholic she is.
So is this Patricia actually the good one then? I am so confused
The Middle was a much better than show Home Improvement, anyway
Truly low-hanging fruit there, Lincoln.
Well, Patricia Heaton is the one who cheered on her hero Rush Limbaugh when he referred to Sandra Fluke as “a slut.” I’m not very familiar with her acting, but off camera she seems like a real peach:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/patricia-heatons-history-of-outbursts-sandra-fluke-attack-no-anomaly
Her husband was just accused of sexual improprieties on the set of her show.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/patricia-heaton-husband-david-hunt-accused-inappropriate-touching-carols-second-act-set
It is. The other one is a far-right anti-choice dirtbag.
Lol wrong Patricia Richardson. We’re talking about the actor, who is pro-choice, not the British politician, whom I had to google because what the fuck are you talking about.
Sure, if you think bragging about how good of a Catholic you are is at all a good quality.
Not to mention Heaton’s awful husband that just got accused of some variety of on set sexual misconduct.
They’re all Patricia Clarkson.
They should all be so lucky.
I’ve spent most of my life getting Richardson, Clarkson, and Heaton mixed up.
I totally got them mixed up. I was thinking throughout that interview, “But you got to do Back To You and those Albertsons commercials, didn’t you?”
Only one of her Home Improvement sons was blonde. And I’m pretty sure that one wasn’t natural.
Looking at the early season DVDs, it’s the other way around. The elder two were blonde, the youngest was brown-haired. Might have changed as they grew older, though.
No. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played the middle son, was always brunette. The other two were blonde, though that might have changed over time.
As a young semi-heterosexual girl around the age of J.T.T., I am veeeerrry sure what their hair colors were.
I’m just basing it off the video image. Neither the youngest nor JTT have hair I’d consider blonde, but the oldest is at least passable.But, you have a point. My hair was bleach blonde when I was a child, and got more and more brown over time.Now it’s leaving me altogether.
…Don’t most sitcoms pretty much coast on success after Season 2? I mean, assuming they had any intention of doing anything “groundbreaking” anyway?The only time you ever see sitcoms do anything more than that is when the lead actor actually gets to be in charge (such as Alan Alda on M*A*S*H or Will Smith on Fresh Prince) and has specific ideas they want to do, and Patricia Richardson was NOT the star of Home Improvement.
What are you talking about? Most sitcom’s don’t even get good until season 2.
She had to leave for, get this, the show was canceled.
Wikipedia confirms they wanted a 9th season, but she and Allen wanted to walk away. Nice attempt at snark though.
No snark, I really appreciated how passionate she came across about her work. Kudos to any celebrity who walks away from more work in favour of spending time with their family (lookin’ at you, Moranis and Carvey).
Garner
OK, now I need to know what role on a drama that she turned down after HI that went on for 7 years and won a bunch of Emmys.
I’m going to wildly guess that since she appeared in the final seasons, it’s The West Wing.Timing matches up. 7 seasons. HI ended in May 1999TWW started in September 1999.Could have been up for CJ.
Or Dr Bartlett
Dr Bartley’s only appeared in 5 episodes on Season 1 and was a recurring still in Season 2.Would Richardson really have turned down a recurring role or did she turn it down because she didn’t want to be a regular after so many seasons of HI?
She’s a garbage person and I don’t gaf what she has to say. She can shove her conservative bullshit up her ass. Interview better people please.
Are you confusing her with Patricia Heaton from Romanos?
Wrong Patricia. https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/patricia-richardson.asp?cycle=12
She briefly played a Republican strategist on West Wing. Maybe they’re confusing her with that character.
Wait – did you even look at her donations? It’s all like Hillary.Also a lot of rich people vote R based on the tax thing. You shouldn’t approach everyone with different political views with hate. How are you going to talk them around if you offend them into not speaking with you?
1. You’ve got the wrong person.2. Don’t click on the article then.
I ALMOST made this mistake as well, but we were thinking of Ray’s wife, not Tim’s wife.
She was fantastic on the last season and a half of The West Wing too…
“Hey, instead of transcribing this interview, let’s just post it online as is. That way, everybody will still open the page, but fewer people will enjoy the content”
“Diabolic! Make it so”
Yeah… I’m only reading the comments because I hoped someone would summarize the interview.
I just came here for the mocking and nostalgia. Not disappointed.
Wow. She seems… insufferable. What show did she think they were making? On the one hand, everybody can do a charged-up half hour monologue about this stupidity and injustice of their previous jobs, but the difference is most people have a sense of proportion about it. This was like sitting in a plane in the window seat, next to some overly Pinot Grigio-ed angry white lady who thinks her inconvenience at having to check a bag is uniquely painful and significant, let alone interesting to anyone who isn’t her. Put your shoes back on and be quiet, Patricia.
Yep, this post reveals a whole lot about other people.
I loved Tool Time.I loved Wilson.I hated everything that wasn’t Tool Time or Wilson.
Tim Allen is a fucking scumbag piece of shit, maybe that’s why?
One of the things I liked about Home Improvement was the dynamic between Allen and Richardson’s characters. It was different from the typical idiot husband/father, perfect wife/mother. Yes, Tim was a dope, but he was lovable and Jill loved him rather than looked down on him. Richardson really sold it too.
It’s been a while since I watched it, but I remember that they also had plenty of scenes that showed they genuinely loved each other (unlike, say, Everybody Loves Raymond) and that whenever Jill had a major thing going on, Tim genuinely did his best to support her however he could.
Ray and Deborah were honestly both pretty terrible people with few redeeming qualities.
Anytime I think about Home Improvement it blows my mind that it was nominated for Outstanding comedy series in 1993, 1994 and 1995, and the Simpsons wasn’t. Those years were basically the peak years for The Simpsons (seasons 4-6) where they were doing Last Exit to Springfield, Homer Goes to College and the Shinning Halloween episode). The Emmys even changed the rule so animated series could compete in the main category. And yet it still couldn’t get a nomination while Home Improvement could.
She was just still pissed at what Tim did to her Nomad wagon. This scene pissed off the vintage Chevy fanboys because it was a 4 door wagon done up to look like a 2 door Nomad.