Sorry, “Home Improvement” fans. A reboot of the massively popular sitcom — which ran from 1991 for eight seasons and starred Tim Allen as a goofy, fun loving dad to three sons — is not coming out of the tool shed.
Sources tell Variety there have been discussions over the years to get the Taylor family back together again. Patricia Richardson, who played the matriarch Jill Taylor, has indicated a willingness to return to the role. But there have been stumbling blocks to securing participation from the three Taylor boys: the eldest son Brad (Zachary Ty Bryan), middle son Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and youngest son Mark (Taran Noah Smith).
“They keep talking about how it could move forward, but they get stuck [because] there are some personality problems right now with the boys,” Allen said in a recent interview. “They’ve got their own issues. I always thought it would be cool if it was a story about them. That’s a little challenging right now, to put it mildly.”
Bryan, who is now 44, is currently serving a 16-month sentence in a California jail stemming from a 2024 DUI arrest. Bryan has been arrested on multiple DUI and domestic violence charges in the past several years.
In addition, an Oregon judge recently sentenced Bryan to 19 months behind bars in that state due to violating his probation on a 2023 domestic violence conviction. He will serve that sentence following his release from jail in California. He is also due to be extradited to Oklahoma to face sentencing for a DUI arrest from 2024.
Meanwhile, Bryan’s onscreen brothers are no longer acting and haven’t been onscreen for many years. Smith’s last acting credit was a voice role in the show “Batman Beyond” in 1999. He has been involved in several businesses since, including working for the Community Submersibles Project, where he taught people how to pilot submarines.
As a teenager, Thomas famously played the voice of young Simba in 1994’s “The Lion King,” and he headlined such family films as 1995’s “Man of the House” and 1998’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” His last Hollywood credits did involve Allen, though. Thomas appeared in four episodes of Allen’s ABC sitcom “Last Man Standing” between 2013 and 2015, including one episode that reunited him not only with Allen but his former onscreen mom Richardson. Thomas also directed three episodes of the show.
Finally, fellow cast member Earl Hindman, who played the Taylor’s neighbor Wilson Wilson, died in 2003. Wilson was most often seen behind his fence (with his face mostly obscured), offering moral guidance and wisdom to Tim and the rest of the Taylor family.
While a straight up revival of the show is not looking likely, there have been reunions of the cast over the years. In addition to the previously mentioned episodes of “Last Man Standing,” Allen reunited with several cast members in Season 2 of his current ABC series, “Shifting Gears.”
In the second season opener, Richardson popped up alongside Richard Karn (Al Borland) and Debbe Dunning (Heidi) as members of a grief support group. According to sources, Thomas was asked to appear as well but ultimately decided not to participate.
If there’s one thing that Hollywood TV executives love, it’s a reboot of a beloved TV show. After all, nostalgia rates, which is why in recent years we’ve seen casts come back for new seasons of “Will & Grace,” “Full House,” “Roseanne,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Scrubs,” and “King of the Hill.” But as for the Taylor family, it looks like they have hot rodded off into the sunset for the last time.
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