“Couldn’t You Have Some Kind of Special Blooper Show?” “Dad Already One. It’s Called Tool Time.”
By the time season 8 of Home Improvement originally aired in 1998 and 1999, I knew it was the final season before they officially announced it. No, I don’t have any inside information or a psychic ability. I could just tell they were running out of story ideas. And an original cast member leaving certainly didn’t help.
If you’ve missed the show, it was a sitcom from the 1990’s and a huge ratings hit for much of the decade. It featured Tim Allen as Tim Taylor. His job was hosting Tool Time, a show on a local access station that talked about building, remodeling, do it your self projects, cars, and anything that would appeal to men. His cohost on the show was Al (Richard Karn) with Heidi (Debbe Dunning) their assistant.
On the home front, Tim was married to Jill (Patricia Richardson). They had three boys, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). Rounding out the cast was the Taylor’s next door neighbor, Wilson (Earl Hindman) who used his knowledge of obscure tribes and ancient philosophers to offer Tim and Jill advise with whatever issues they were facing.
As I teased earlier, Randy didn’t stick around for long this season. Jonathan Taylor Thomas wanted off the show to focus on his schooling, so they sent his character off to Costa Rica on an exchange program focused on environmental issues. He did come back for the Christmas episode, but that was the last time we saw him. We only saw him in flashbacks during the finale. Honestly, his departure left a hole in the show since his character got some of the best sarcasm and laughs of the three kids.
In order to help deal with the character loss, Tim’s younger brother, Marty (William O'Leary) became a larger presence this season. Still only a recurring character, Marty moves in with the Taylors after his marriage implodes, even bringing his twin daughters along for a few episodes.
Yep, a show bringing in young characters since their main cast is getting older. A sign a show is going to be winding down.
Over the course of this season, Brad tries to focus on soccer and his grades so he can get a scholarship to college. Jill works on her thesis to graduate with her master’s degree in counselling. Al gets closer with his girlfriend, Trudy (recurring guest star Megan Cavanagh). And, of course, we get another epic Christmas decorating episode.
Rewatching the earlier seasons, there is a clear formula to this show. Tim does something stupid. It causes an issue with Jill. Wilson sets him straight, and Tim and Jill make up. Fortunately, the show began to grow beyond that as it went along. The boys growing up certainly helped. Yes, we still get episodes like that in this season, but they aren’t as plentiful. And Jill makes a few mistakes of her own that need Wilson’s help. Could it have done better in not falling into the stupid man trope? Yes. But it was still better than it used to be.
While I’ve bemoaned the loss of Randy, the show was still very funny this season. Yes, even when the show went for the obvious joke, the actors brought their best to it and made me laugh. And there are some unexpected laughs over the course of the season. Watch this season compared to some of what passes for sitcoms on TV these days, and you can tell that the genre is in serious trouble. (Not all of the shows on today are bad, but a lot of them are. That’s a topic for another review or two.)
The actors all know their characters at this point, and they work well together to bring the laughs out of the scripts they are given. I enjoy watching the group of them together.
We even get some great laughs from the serious two parter when Jill has to get some pretty major surgery.
The show does delve into some more adult jakes than you might expect from a family sitcom. Part of me wishes they’d left things cleaner. On the other hand, most of these comes from Tim and Jill talking to each other, and I do appreciate them showing a couple that is married and still attracted to each other. And, compared to most of what was on TV then and definitely what is on today, the show is still fairly tame. Still, adults might want to brush up on what was on the show so they know what their kids might be asking them about.
Which brings us to the multi episode finale. Officially, there are three episodes in the finale, which aired over two weeks, but I feel like the episode before the official finale should be included since it sets up the multiple episode arc. It starts when new rules from Tool Time’s sponsor leads Tim to decide to quit. Jill gets a job offer that would require the family to move. And Al decides to get married. One of those episodes is a clips show, but the rest all deal with these storylines. I really liked how Tim handled Jill’s job offer. Quite possibly the most mature he was in the entire run of the series, even if he did still have to get a nudge from Wilson.
In with the episodes on these discs is the original retrospective that aired immediately after the series finale back in 1999 with bloopers and interviews with the cast about the show. This gets the episode count for the season to 28, all of which are preserved in this set in their native full frame and stereo sound.
In the way of extras, we get a season long blooper reel and a 45-minute reunion special that aired a couple of years later. It just has Tim, Richard, and Debbie before a live audience introducing clips of the show. Honestly, between that, and the clips episode of the show, we get a lot of duplicates. Still, it is fun to watch.
While not one of my all time favorite sitcoms, there is a reason people look back at Home Improvement fondly. While season 8 might not have the best episodes of the show, it still serves up plenty of genuine laughs before we leave the Taylor family.
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