Home Improvement was one of the most popular sitcoms in the 1990s.
Now a secret about the show is being revealed for the first time.
And Tim Allen was shocked when a co-star made this confession about Home Improvement.
Home Improvement co-star says the show ended over a pay dispute
ABC’s hit sitcom Home Improvement ran for eight seasons from 1991 to its finale in May 1999.
Actress Patricia Richardson – who played Jill Taylor on the show – said that she used a salary demand to bring the show to its conclusion.
“I told everybody, ‘There’s not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year,'” Richardson told The Los Angeles Times. “This show is over. It needs to end.”
Richardson went to the network and asked to be paid the same amount as her co-star Tim Allen.
She said that before the conclusion of the 8th – and final season – ABC came to her about doing another 25-episode season.
ABC was willing to pay her $1 million per episode while Allen was offered $2 million per episode.
Allen was willing to come back and play Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor for season 9.
But Richardson wanted more time with her family because she had recently gotten divorced from actor Ray Barker.
So she made a counteroffer that she knew the network would never accept.
Richardson asked for the same $2 million per episode that Allen was offered and to become an executive producer.
“I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much,” Richardson explained. “That was my way to say ‘no’ and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney. I’d been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my a** off. I was a big reason why women were watching.”
That decision to walk away from their successful sitcom caused a rift between her and Allen.
“I was mad at Tim because he was leaving me alone being the only person saying no, which made me feel terrible and like the bad guy,” Richardson recounted. “And he was upset with me for leaving.”
Home Improvement co-creator and executive producer Carmen Finestra told the Times that the sitcom wouldn’t have worked without Richardson’s character.
Executive producer Elliot Shoenman explained, “Without her, it just didn’t make any sense.”
Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson reunite again on TV
Richardson later appeared on Allen’s sitcom Last Man Standing in a guest role for two episodes.
She added that she “never stopped loving working with him.”
But the pair aren’t in touch anymore after working together on Home Improvement for eight seasons.
Allen floated the possibility of bringing the beloved sitcom back with a spinoff in a 2023 interview.
“One of the conversations we’ve had recently is how weird it would be if Home Improvement would be about the kids’ kids,” Allen said. “Like if all of them had children, and I’m a grandparent. Home Re-Improvement or something like that. It’s come up.”
Richardson closed that door on the possibility by saying that she’s done playing Jill Taylor.
Read All About It will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
