The Real Reason The Mom On Home Improvement Was Recast
"Home Improvement" was one the most popular comedy shows of the '90s. The series centered around the character Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (Tim Allen), and his family. The show was a staple on ABC and ran from 1991-1999 on the network. Tim's role as a husband and father was at the heart of the show. However, It also took a deep dive into his career as the host of a home improvement television series in Michigan. He and his trusty assistant, Al Borland (Richard Karn), demonstrated DIY projects for their viewers, with Tim always finding a way to hurt himself or mess things up. Of course, this left Al to clean up his messes.
At home, there was much of the same. Tim's wife, Jill Taylor (Patrica Richardson) ran their household and often had to steer Tim in the right direction when it came to parenting their three sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). While Jill was a beloved character, who held her own against Tim's larger-than-life personality, fans almost saw a very different dynamic between the onscreen husband and wife.
Patricia Richardson wasn't originally cast as Jill Taylor
Patricia Richardson and Tim Allen shared some awesome chemistry during their eight seasons as Jill and Tim on "Home Improvement." However, Richardson wasn't the first choice to play the role. Instead, actress Frances Fisher was initially cast as Jill. Fisher is often remembered for her roles in "Guiding Light" and "Titanic." She's well-known in Hollywood, but it seems that she just wasn't right to star opposite Allen.
"Frances is a great actress, but in this role with Tim, she came off more as a victim to him than his equal," Richard Karn told Australia's News.com. However, it seems that Richardson fit the bill perfectly. "After the first read-through, it was a very different thing going on with the same words. Pat was way more of an equal to Tim," Karn said.
The opportunity to star on the series came at an awkward time for Richardson, as she had just given birth. "I had never heard of Tim and I didn't know anything about it," she told HuffPost. "And they sent me a tape of Tim. And I said, 'look, I'm nursing twins. You have to wait for me for 40 minutes while I'm doing that.' And they said, 'oh yeah, we'll do anything,'" she revealed. Of course, it all worked out for Richardson. "Home Improvement" went on to become a huge hit and landed the actress four Emmy nominations for her work.
The actress swap wasn't the only big potential change on the show
Despite the show's success, Patricia Richardson was ready to leave after the eighth season. The Jill Taylor actress cited Jonathon Taylor Thomas' departure from the show and a lack of fresh material as reasons for leaving in a Biography feature of the cast. On a more personal level, Richardson wanted to spend more time with her family.
Following Richardson's decision to leave, "Home Improvement" producers and the show's leading man, Tim Allen, tried to convince the actress to stay to no avail. "So, then they went to Tim, and they said, 'Let's do it with dead Jill,'" Richardson revealed to Entertainment Tonight. "And then Tim was like, 'I don't think we can do that.' So then he went out and said, 'Well, I think it's time to end [the show].'"
Like the original casting of Frances Fisher as Jill, ending the series by killing off the Taylor family matriarch would have certainly changed the color of the entire series. And indeed, Richardson's decision not only led to ABC canceling "Home Improvement," but it affected her relationship with Allen as well. Although the pair joined forces again for Allen's new sitcom "The Last Man Standing," the actress told Entertainment Tonight that she worried Allen had "never really forgiven me for not wanting to do the ninth year." Ultimately, the show solidified its place in the American pop culture canon with only eight seasons, suggesting that perhaps Richardson was right to call it quits.