This article contains character information for the American television sitcom Home Improvement.
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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. Ever the know-it-all, Tim 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 and prone to spectacular mishaps. He often forgets a crucial step, ignores instructions, makes ill-advised modifications, or comes to inaccurate conclusions. The only exception to this ineptitude is when working on cars, at which he excels. He is left-handed but actually does a great deal of his work with his right hand. 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 best friend, Al 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 state of Michigan, and is progressively broadcast to more outlets across the Midwest (A Season 5 episode has Tim, Al and Bud brainstorming for ideas on how to bring the show into the Chicago markets). Tim often boasts at his popularity for hosting the show, although many people state that they like Al better. A running gag involves people encountering Tim in public and stating, "Oh, we always watch Tool Time...we LOVE Al." To which an annoyed Tim would reply, "Oh yeah, we ALL love Al." In later seasons, however, it is learned that Tim actually has a higher fan base than Al.
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. Tim often garbles advice he heard from Wilson and or otherwise makes stupid remarks—although on one episode Tim stuns Jill and Wilson by putting forth sound advice of his own. Another running gag is Tim accidentally causing damage or destruction with anything he touches—such as destroying the world's smallest car or running over golf carts-with a Marine Corps tank. Tim has an unhealthy obsession with Halloween and Christmas, going to extraordinary lengths to scare others and competing with "Doc Johnson" in the annual neighborhood Christmas lighting contest, which he has never won.
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 works hard to maintain healthy relationships with his three sons, although he relates most closely with Brad than with Randy or Mark.
Tim is occasionally chauvinistic in attitude, usually putting women down or sometimes seeing them as inferior. He also tends to mock those who are overweight, such as Al's mother or his mother in law (until she loses weight), and can be juvenile in attitude on many occasions. A running gag involves Jill's distaste for his attitude, in that she says "You're Pathetic" every time he goes too far. 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 one of his two hot rods, one of which he built from the ground up, and the other he converted from an existing vehicle.
While he occasionally considers moving on professionally, Tim remains the main host of Tool Time until the final episode of Home Improvement. Before he was cast on Tool Time, he worked as a traveling tool salesman. Tim barely graduated college, but later receives an honorary Doctorate from Western Michigan University. Tim is famous for his ever-popular noisemaking, which he refers to as a "Simian Grunt."
His mother is alive for the entire series, however his father died when Tim was eleven years old. There has always been some disparity between how many brothers Tim has. On several occasions in the later seasons it is mentioned that Tim has four brothers, but in earlier seasons he is stated to have five, however six have been mentioned by name (Marty, Jeff, Rick, John, Steve and Danny).
Tim always thinks things need more power, and is often seen wearing sweaters from Michigan based schools. Tim thinks he knows everything there is to know about tools. He has more of a relationship with Wilson than anybody and he is always kidding around except on one rare occasion when he was serious and didn't break anything after overhearing his son Randy making fun of him.
Tim is the only character to appear in every single episode. A close second is Jill, who only missed the second part of the series finale (unless one counts the flashbacks shown).
Jillian "Jill" Patterson-Taylor (played by Patricia Richardson) — Jill (born November 1956) is Tim's wife and the mother of Brad, Randy, and Mark. Jill graduated from Adams High School (taken from an actual high school in Rochester Hills, MI) in 1973. Jill is intelligent, practical, and has a dry sense of humor that doesn't often fly with her family. After she decides that her career is not fulfilling, Jill dedicates herself toward earning her Master's Degree in Psychology. While she is very motherly and domestic in nature, she is apparently a very bad cook, as Tim and the three boys often make remarks about her cooking. Her strong femininity is often in direct conflict with Tim's masculinity, occasionally leading her to wonder why they work as a couple.
Jill comes from a strong military family, and sometimes uses her upbringing to solve several family squabbles. Her father was a Colonel in the US Army and is referred to as such. Jill has four sisters, all of whom have appeared, Robin, Carrie, Tracy and Linda. She often appears overwhelmed at the fact that she is the only female in a family with three sons and no daughter. 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." Early on, she has a temporary job working at a magazine, and later in the series, Jill is a psychology student. She also does a significant amount of volunteer work, especially for the local library.
Jill has a strong feminist side and enjoys opera, theatre, and the ballet. She occasionally tries to be interested in sports and tools, but always ends up relating to her husband over his buried sensitivity. Jill also considers it her mission to get Tim, Brad, Randy, and Mark to do the right thing. Jill refers to any or all of her sons, as well as Tim by their full names when she is angry. Jill likes to "match-make", with mixed results, as she did set up Al with Ilene, who were together for a few seasons, and Wilson and one of her professors in another successful relationship. She also has a thing for cars -- driving at different times an Austin-Healey (Which Tim hates because he doesn't understand British wiring) and a cherry red Chevy Nomad; in two memorable episodes, Jill is furious with Tim for driving her Healey without permission and for wrecking her Nomad. In other memorable episodes, Jill is extremely angry at Tim when he calls her an "old Hen" on TV and when she finds out he bought $4000 worth of game tickets for the Detroit Pistons.
Bradley Michael "Brad" Taylor (played by Zachery Ty Bryan) — (born January 1981) is the oldest, most athletic and strongest of the three boys, once seen throwing Randy around when they got into an argument. While all three boys are portrayed as troublemakers at one point or another, Brad gets into the most serious trouble. He is the only one to have a run-in with the police (after throwing bricks at windows in an abandoned greenhouse) and was once discovered in possession of marijuana, which he admitted to smoking. On the other hand, Brad was the only Taylor son to co-host an episode of Tool Time, and the one seen doing the most extensive work on Tim's Hot Rod, and is the son to which Tim relates to the easiest. Although he often struggled with his school work, he has extraordinary athletic ability, especially playing soccer. Throughout the series, he was 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 which threatened to put an end to his athletic pursuits, he earned a college scholarship. Brad has a prominent attraction to women, including his mild infatuation with Tool Time 's Heidi Keppert. Brad and Tim enjoy working on classic cars.
Brad got along well with Randy, especially early on in the show. The two are often seen working together to pick on Mark, attempting to cover up Brad's actions to keep him out of trouble, or just hanging out together. Brad and Mark don't share many things in common until they get older, especially in the 8th season where they develop a close bond while Randy is away in Costa Rica.
Randall William "Randy" Taylor (played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) — Randy (born February 8, 1982) is the middle child, ultimately the smartest of the three boys, and frequently the most mischievous troublemaker. Randy's intelligence eventually led to him skipping ahead to advanced math and science classes, and was often the cause of sibling rivalry with Brad. Randy inherited Tim's talents as a jokester. Randy in the later seasons is noticeably alote shorter than his brothers and his height is often made fun of by Brad. Whenever Tim was in trouble with Jill, Randy was always there with a quick remark that would almost always get him in trouble. Although initially sharing mostly the same interests as Brad and his father, throughout his adolescence Randy became very conscious about the environment and civil rights. He became very skeptical of the intentions of organized religion, especially Christian denominations, and became a vegetarian in later seasons. He wrote for the school newspaper, where he concentrated on social and political issues, including criticizing Binford for its pollution record, which led to a fierce disagreement with Tim. Unlike Brad who dated many different girls, Randy, for the most part, only dated one girl, Lauren, whom he remained with for the rest of the series.
In the Eighth Season of the show, Randy leaves for Costa Rica (along with Lauren, who stayed in a nearby town), reappearing in only one episode when he came back for Christmas. On that occasion, Randy felt that so much had changed in his absence that he no longer fit in with the family, although confiding in Wilson aided his feelings. Unlike Tim and Brad, Randy is not good with his hands and does not enjoy working on crafts or the Hot Rod. Randy often relates more with his mother, with whom he shares his intelligence and enjoyment of acting (although Tim embarrassed Randy during one acting scene thanks to a malfunctioning stage prop).
Early on in the show, Brad and Randy were portrayed as "partners in crime". While they did argue like normal brothers, they generally bonded over their mutual enjoyment of picking on Mark. As they got older, they grew apart somewhat, as Randy became more focused on school and social issues and Brad became more focused on athletics and girls.
Early on Randy and Mark generally only get along when united against Brad, though things improved somewhat as they got older.
Marcus Jason "Mark" Taylor (played by Taran Noah Smith[1]) — Mark (born March 1985) is the youngest and most sensitive of the three boys.[2] He relates very closely with his mother, especially after the first season. He does not share many interests with his brothers or father, 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. Mark is not a troublemaker, as he doesn't possess a joking demeanor. On the rare occasions that Brad or Randy include him on pranks, Mark often blows their cover by responding to someone when he is not supposed to or divulging too much information. During adolescence, Mark began to adopt a more "goth" look and an anti-establishment kind of attitude, the cause of which was founded in his feelings of social isolation. While Mark's darkening demeanor worried Tim and Jill on several occasions, it never turned into anything extremely destructive, although a homemade horror movie he created was a bit more twisted than they expected. His Gothic appearance was gone by the end of the series. Mark enjoys film production and music, took karate and pilot training, and became a proficient cook. During the early seasons of the show Mark is seen in a Cub scout uniform-sans badges.
Mark's relationship with Brad and Randy was often adversarial, especially in early seasons as he was often the butt of their jokes or pranks. While Mark never truly bonded with Randy, in the final season Mark and Brad grew very close as the result of the dynamic of their relationship changing when Randy left for Costa Rica. Mark eventually became taller than Brad and Randy.
Martin "Marty" Taylor (played by William O'Leary) — Marty (born in 1964) is Tim's youngest brother by ten years. As their father died when Marty was just one year old, Tim is the closest thing he knows to a father. Marty was often picked on by his older brothers, much as Mark is by Brad and Randy. He is often seen bouncing from job to job, unable to hold a steady career. For the majority of the show's run, Marty was married to Nancy (Jensen Daggett), and they had identical twin girls, Gracie and Claire. Marty and Nancy often had marital problems, largely focused on Marty's inability to hold a job, and the stress of parenting. Much later in the series, Nancy divorced Marty, and he and the girls moved in with Tim's family.
Jeffrey "Jeff" Taylor (played by Thom Sharp) — Jeff is Tim and Marty's oldest brother (exact age unspecified). He is extremely frugal and suffers from male-pattern baldness, both of which make him a frequent target of Tim's jokes. Like Marty, Jeff has trouble maintaining 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 didn't finish college (as mentioned by Jill's sister in one episode). Jeff eventually makes an investment in Tim's hardware store.
| Al Borland | |
|---|---|
| Home Improvement character | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "The Long and Winding Road" |
| Portrayed by | Richard Karn |
Albert E. "Al" Borland (played by Richard Karn) — Al is Tim's un-hip sidekick on the show-within-a-show Tool Time 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 from a heart attack near the end of the series after Al asked her permission to marry Trudy. His father was almost 60 when Al was born. Young Al has mechanical talent-constructing a model crane out of wood. 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 (flannel shirts, beard, pudgy, etc.) and the fact that Al does all the "real work" on the Tool Time show (much like Norm did on This Old House). Al has a big brother named Cal who is a physicist, and unlike some other siblings around 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 Pisces, a master plumber and without a beard-while Tim had a beard. Al was also a US Navy Seabee in Nevada. Another episode shows Al in a US Navy Uniform with rank of Lieutenant (Junior Grade). He was also a construction crane operator with Local 324. Al has his own fan club. Two episodes show Al inventing a Tool Time board game, the object being to not end up at the "hospital"; one of the player tokens is Tim in a body cast. Like Tim, Al is left-handed and his favorite board games are Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, Scrabble and Bingo. One episode had a pet of Al's, a turtle named "Scooter," which Tim accidentally dropped in cement. With his dry wit, Al serves as the show's (both Tool Time and Home Improvement) straight man to the wackier, more outgoing Tim. According to the season 1 DVD, the character's original name is supposed to be 'Glenn'.
Borland is slightly overweight, and always seen wearing flannel, which Tim cracks jokes about consistently. He wears flannel so often that, in the wedding episode, Tim bets his friends that Al is wearing a flannel thong. The reason he always wears flannel came from his father, who, when asking young Al to assist in their own various home projects, would put his old flannels on Al to keep him clean or warm. Al wears flannel as a tribute to him after he died.
Tim also often criticizes Al's mother, Alma Borland, who is never seen, but is apparently severely overweight. She died in one of the later episodes when Al asks for her permission to marry Trudy (She was holding a breadstick, which was all that was seen) and when hearing the news, the breadstick shook violently and fell over. The coffin, shown at her funeral, is double-wide to keep the humorous tone.
Al also has a brother, Cal, who looks and dresses almost exactly like him, though he is a physicist ("Sisters and Brothers"). In the episode commentaries featured on the Season 1 DVD Set, the executive producers reveal that "Cal" was a fan from Texas who sent his photo in a fan letter. Upon seeing his resemblance to Al, the producers brought him in to be Al's brother, Cal.
When Al was younger, he took fencing in school and served in the Navy as a Lt {j.g} with the Seabees, and although he wanted to see the world, he was stationed in Fallon, Nevada (Interestingly enough, in the episode where Al mentions this, he uses the native pronunciation of "Nevada", which is uncommon for an outsider, especially someone living in the midwest). A year after getting out of the service, Al was a construction crane operator with Local 324. Al owns a 20% share in Harry's Hardware, a local hardware store. He drives a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis which his mother passed down to him. He collects keys from classic cars and even designed a board game based on Tool Time, which he sold and marketed to great success-the object being not to end up in a hospital. Al also has his own fan club. He has several years of his life on several VHS tapes.
Al's beard is also a constant joke by Tim. In one episode where Tool Time is celebrating their fifth anniversary show, Al is shown in the first ever episode of Tool Time clean shaven, while Tim has a beard. This is a homage to This Old House where in the first season Norm Abram is clean shaven.[3]
He generally knows what he is doing more than Tim, and he seems to have a better knowledge of tools and home improvement than Tim. In the first episode of Tool Time, he was described as a "master plumber" by Tim Taylor. He also is very serious about his job, unlike Tim, who often jokes and messes up the project. Al often speaks fondly of his time as a U.S. Navy Seabee. Although Tim is the one who messes up most of the projects on Tool Time, Al is often the one who is blamed for the mishap, or is injured by the mishap. On rare occasions Al would cause a mishap of his own, but these were more due to overcalculating than Tim's attitude of "more power". Despite this, Tim and Al are good friends offstage, and Al often helps out, either by helping with home projects, or by watching his children.
Throughout the series, Al has had four different girlfriends. In season one, Al went out with Greta Post, whom he met while she was volunteering to help out during a Tool Time show. He almost went out with Tim's ex-girlfriend Stacey Lewis, however, he wasn't interested in her as much as he thought. From seasons three through five, Al went out with Dr. Ilene Markham, an orthodontist who is sisters with one of Jill's co-workers. They got engaged, but they decided at the wedding that they shouldn't marry. Al met a woman named Trudy in season seven and married her in the finale episode in 1999.
Wilson W. Wilson, (played by Earl Hindman) — Tim's neighbor and confidant. As a child, his parents did not allow him to speak to his neighbors, so he really likes talking to Tim and Jill. Wilson serves as an all-wise sage in the show, doling out advice to the Taylor family and seemingly knowing just what to say to solve a problem. He has traveled the globe and learned much from virtually every culture in existence. He has a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, studying "extinct languages and forgotten cultures". His house is full of artifacts, along with a pet myna bird named Mozart who appeared infrequently. Wilson was married at one point, but his wife Catherine died before the series began. He once had a relationship go sour when his commitment to laissez-faire capitalism conflicted with his girlfriend's neo-Marxism.
At first it was unclear whether "Wilson" was his first name or last, but his full name is revealed as Wilson Wilson, Jr. In Season 6, it is revealed that his cousins are the Wilsons of The Beach Boys. He has a grown niece named Willow Wilson (China Kantner), who appeared regularly in the seventh season when she moved in with him for a while. 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.
A recurring visual gag is that Wilson's face isn't shown in its entirety, originally (and most commonly) with the bottom half obscured by the tall privacy fence that separates the neighbors' yards. This gag is extended over the course of the series with other objects (or a beard) obscuring the bottom of his face, or the bottom half showing but the top obscured (such as by a mask), or his full face shown but covered by paint. The audience finally sees his full face unobscured in the series finale.
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 and 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 Lisa was training to be a paramedic. She returned for a guest appearance several years later, having become fully qualified.
Heidi Keppert (played by Debbe Dunning) — The second "Tool Girl" (beginning in Season 3). Initially, the character was seen only in and around the Tool Time set. In later seasons, her personal life crossed paths with Tim and Al on a number of occasions. She gave birth to a daughter (Amy) and suffered marital problems during the show's run. In the last episode of the series, Heidi revealed she was pregnant for a second time. Her outfits typically showed off her very large cleavage during the "Tool Time" episodes. Tim speculated that many men came to the show just to see Heidi; a producer for the network that airs Tool Time once mentions that "Heidi tested better than Santa Claus" (a reference to Tim Allen's role as the title character in the Santa Clause franchise). It is revealed in multiple episodes that Tim's son, Brad, has a crush on her. In seasons seven and eight, her role on Tool Time, and indeed the series, increased so much that she was eventually given main cast billing in the opening credits. In later episodes, Heidi is seen more as a third host of Tool Time than just the tool girl.
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 (played by Shirley Prestia), and the couple bad-mouths one another behind their respective backs on every occasion. Also has four sons, one Dennis (David DeLuise), with whom he has a somewhat rocky relationship. In one episode Harry told Tim that he had gotten a vasectomy. In another episode it is mentioned he served in the United States Marine Corps.
Benny Baroni (played by Jimmy 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 -- his trademark being drinking coffee and eating donuts. On one episode of Tool Time ("A Divided house", Season 4.18) Benny's aunt's house is blown-up due to Benny's negligence and is not Tim's fault; furthermore when Tim and his family are moving furniture back into Benny's aunt house, Benny, rather than helping 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. Benny also "guest-starred" on Tool Time as a meat cutter for the show's "Man's Kitchen" episode.
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