List of Home Improvement characters
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This article contains character information for the American television sitcom Home Improvement.
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[edit] Taylor family
[edit] Tim Taylor
Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (played by Tim Allen) — Tim Taylor (the character has a birth date of October 1954) is the father of the family. He believes he has an incredibly wide knowledge of tools, electronics and general mechanics. In reality, he is highly accident-prone. He actually does have a significant amount of skill as a general handyman, but can be overly confident. He often forgets a crucial step, ignores instructions, or comes to inaccurate conclusions. Taylor's "arch enemy", so to speak, was the real-life home improvement specialist, Bob Vila. Tim hosts a home improvement show called "Tool Time" with his close friend, Albert Borland. While Al is his co-host, Al constantly must remind Tim of safety regulations and practices. Tim often ignores Al's advice, and this frequently results in an accident. While it is constantly mentioned that Tool Time is a limited local home improvement show that sits very high on the channel dial, Tool Time seems to have a very wide audience in the Detroit area. Tim often boasts at his popularity for hosting the show, but very many people like Al better. In later seasons it is learned that Tim actually has a higher fan base than Al, the characters just don't mention it to keep the show funny. Because of the numerous accidents he is involved in both on his TV show and at home, it is a recurring joke that Tim is on a first name basis with the hospital staff, and it is often suggested that Tim has special offers available to him for being a repeat customer. Another gag is that "Tool Time" fans believe his many accidents are staged, to show people what not to do. However, many of Tim's modified inventions work but are often too powerful, like his new ice cube dispenser in season 2.
While Tim has a very good relationship with his wife, he is quick to admit defeat in any conflict they become engaged in. He also has a very healthy relationship with his three sons, but his wife often seems annoyed at the idea that Tim's mental age is closer to his sons than she would like.
Tim also seems to have a chauvinistic attitude, usually putting women down or sometimes seeing them as inferior. Tim is an avid fan of all the local sports teams; the Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons, the Detroit Red Wings, and the Detroit Tigers. He is also a big fan of boxing, the Indy Racing League, and tractor pulls. Many scenes take place in the garage during his favorite hobby, working on his hot rod which he built from the ground up.
While there is often word that Tim may quit, Tim remains the main host of Tool Time for the entire running of Home Improvement. It is often mentioned that before he was cast on Tool Time, he worked as an out-of-town tool salesman. Tim barely graduated college, but later receives an honorary Doctorate from Western Michigan University. Tim is most famous for his ever-popular noise that he refers to as a "Simian Grunt." It's been shown that Tim can be so desperate to getting to the hot rod, he will go to lengths just to do so.
His mother is alive for the entire series, however his father died when Tim was eleven years old. It is stated that Tim has seven brothers, but only two (Marty and Jeff) were ever shown on screen.
[edit] Jill Taylor
Jillian "Jill" Patterson Taylor (played by Patricia Richardson) — Jill (born November 1956, but this varies from season to season) is Tim's first and only wife and the mother of all three boys. Jill is always portrayed as very intelligent and spends a good amount of time on the show working towards her Master's Degree in psychology. While she is an overall domestic character, she is apparently a very bad cook, as Tim and the three boys often make remarks about her cooking. Jill comes from a strong military family, and sometimes uses her upbringing to solve several family squabbles. She often appears overwhelmed at the fact that she is the only female in a family with three sons and no daughter, but never gets too bothered by it. She appears closest to her youngest son, Mark, as she remarks a few times that Mark is the only one who still has the ability to be open-minded to accept the things that Jill likes as opposed to being the typical "boy." During most of the series, Jill is a psychology student, though she had an unstable journalism career in the early seasons. However, there are several shows that depict Jill as an enthusiastic humanitarian and volunteer of numerous benefits and banquets. Jill is a big fan of the opera and the ballet, and while she tries to be interested in sports and tools in several episodes, her attempts to relate to her husband this way usually end up fruitless.
[edit] Brad Taylor
Bradley Michael "Brad" Taylor (played by Zachery Ty Bryan) — Brad (born January 1981) is the oldest and the most athletic of the three boys. While all three boys are portrayed as troublemakers at one point or another, he is the only one to have a run-in with the police (after throwing rocks at windows in an abandoned greenhouse) and also, in one episode, the only one to be discovered smoking cannabis. On the other hand, Brad was the only Taylor son to co-host an episode of Tool Time, and the only one to be seen physically working on Tim's Hot Rod. He has extraordinary athletic ability, especially in the game of soccer. Throughout the series, he has been offered numerous opportunities to make a career out of soccer, including the offer to play for a professional team in England (the fictitious Birmingham Chubbs). This was rejected when his parents refused to allow him to give up college to play professional soccer. Later in the series, despite a knee injury that would plague his potential for a long time, he earned a college scholarship. Brad has a prominent attraction to women, including his mild infatuation with Tool Time 's Heidi Keppert.
[edit] Randy Taylor
Randall William "Randy" Taylor (played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) — Randy (born February 1982) is the middle brother, the jokester of the family, and the most malicious troublemaker. He is also the shortest Taylor boy. Whenever Tim was in trouble with Jill, Randy was always there with a quick remark that would almost always get him in trouble. Throughout adolescence, Randy became very conscious about the environment and civil rights. He also became very skeptical of the intentions of organized religion, especially Christian denominations. When he joined the school newspaper in Season 6, one of his early works was to criticize Binford for its pollution record, which didn't go well in his father's eyes. Randy had many disagreements with Tim over various things, but they were always able to work it out. In Season 8, Randy participated in an environmental program that landed him in Costa Rica for one year.
[edit] Mark Taylor
Marcus Jason "Mark" Taylor (played by Taran Noah Smith) — Mark (born March 1985) is the youngest of the three boys (though turned out to be the tallest by the last season). He never really had the same interests as his brothers, and in the early seasons was often the victim (due to his naiveté) of some cruel joke that Brad and Randy had thought up on the spot for him. During adolescence, Mark began to adopt a more "goth" look and an anti-establishment kind of attitude. For a short time, he was learning to be a pilot. While Mark's darkening demeanor worried Tim and Jill on several occasions, it never turned into anything extremely destructive--they even became more confident in themselves as parents, as they were never really shocked by anything he did. His gothic attitude was gone by the end of the series. Mark also grew a fondness in the areas of film production and music, and became a proficient cook.
[edit] Marty Taylor
Martin "Marty" Taylor (played by William O'Leary) — Marty (born in 1964) is Tim's younger brother by ten years. It's been mentioned that, growing up, since their father died when Tim was 11 and Marty was 1, Tim was just as much of a father to him as a brother. He is often seen bouncing from job to job, unable to hold a steady career due to his Asperger's Syndrome. In his earliest appearance, Marty was married to a woman named Nancy, and they had twin baby girls, Gracie and Claire played by Haley and Holly Evans. Much later in the series, Nancy divorced Marty, and he and the girls moved in with Tim's family.
[edit] Jeff Taylor
Jeffrey "Jeff" Taylor (played by Tom Sharp) — Jeff is Tim's older brother (exact age unspecified). He suffers from male-pattern baldness, making him a frequent target of jokes by Tim. Like Marty, Jeff hasn't been shown with a steady job. It is mentioned that he has made a number of bad business ventures (such as a drive-thru pet store), was divorced twice, and that he didn't finish college (as mentioned by Jill's sister in one episode).
[edit] Friends of the family
[edit] Al Borland
Al Borland (played by Richard Karn) — Al (born February 17, 1956) is Tim's assistant and unlikely best friend. His personality is an exact opposite of Tim's — he is reserved, quiet, does not show much enthusiasm and has a wide array of professional knowledge concerning tools. Al made frequent suggestions that he should be the host of Tool Time instead of Tim. Al could be characterized as a "mama's boy"; he spent a great deal of time attempting to please his mother Alma — who was severely overweight (though she was never seen) she died near the end of the series. His father was 60 when Al was born. Al was engaged to an orthodontist named Ilene for a time, but they ended up calling off the wedding. He also dated Greta Post who appeared a few times in the series. In a later season, Al met a wealthy exterminator named Trudy. They hit it off and were married in the show's final episode. Al might have been based on Norm Abram of This Old House because of the resemblance in flannel shirts, beard, pudgy, etc. Al has a brother named Cal who is a physicist, and unlike some other siblings across the world, they had never gotten into a physical fight. Instead, they usually settled their disputes over a cup of tea. In a flashback episode of the premiere "Tool Time" Al was a pices, a master plummer and without a beard-while Tim had a beard. Al was also a US Navy Seabee-in Nevada.
[edit] Wilson
Wilson W. Wilson Jr. (played by Earl Hindman) - Tim's neighbor and confidant, Wilson (born in March of an undetermined year). He has traveled the globe, learned much from virtually every culture in existence, and his house contains a veritable treasure trove of artifacts, along with a pet parrot named Mozart who appeared infrequently. Wilson was married at one point, but his wife, Cathrine, died before the series began. When it came into question whether "Wilson" was the character's first name or last, he explained that his full name was actually Wilson Wilson, Jr., his father's name having been Wilson Wilson, Sr. In Season 6, it would also be revealed that his cousins were a more famous family of Wilsons, namely those of The Beach Boys (However, Carl was the only Wilson brother to appear with the band.) He also has a niece named Willow. His usual greetings are well "Hi-de-ho..." or "Hi ho" there "neighbor" or "good neighbor" when greeting Tim, "neighborette" when greeting Jill, and "Taylor lad(s)" when greeting the Taylor boys. Many feel that Wilson represented a sort of "God figure" in the show, always doling out advice to the Taylor family, and seemingly knowing just what to say to solve a problem.
A recurring gag was that all of Wilson's face was never shown, the bottom half was invariably hidden by several different props—the most notable of which being the fence in the Taylor's yard. However, there was at least one instance where the bottom half is shown and the top is hidden.
[edit] Lisa
Lisa (played by Pamela Anderson) — Binford's first "Tool Girl." A secondary cast member on Tool Time, Lisa's job was to introduce Tim and Al or to hand them any tool they requested. When Pamela Anderson chose to leave Home Improvement to pursue a role on the syndicated series Baywatch, she was written out of the series after Season 2, and it was stated that she was training to be a paramedic. She returned for a guest appearance several years later, having become fully qualified.
[edit] Heidi
Heidi Keppert (played by Debbe Dunning) — The second "Tool Girl" (beginning in Season 3), Heidi became a more well-rounded character than Lisa. Her personal life crossed paths with Tim on a number of occasions, giving birth to a daughter and suffering marital problems during the show's run. In the last episode of the series, Heidi revealed she was pregnant for a second time.
[edit] Harry Turner
Harry Turner (played by Blake Clark) — Owner of "Harry's Hardware", where Tim spent a great deal of his time (and money) and in which Al eventually became part owner. He is married — not-so-happily — to Delores, and the couple bad-mouths one another behind their respective backs on every occasion. Also has a son, Dennis, with whom he has a somewhat rocky relationship.
[edit] Benny
Benny Baroni (played by Jim Labriola) - One of Tim's buddies who hangs out at the hardware store. Benny is a bit of a slacker and notoriously known as a freeloader. When Tim and his family are moving furniture back into Benny's house in one episode, Benny, rather than help out, lies back on a lawn chair to watch the others do the work. He is also known for being inconsiderate of others; at one point, he even ate at a soup kitchen regularly to avoid paying for meals.
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