Home Improvement: The Complete First Season

One of the biggest sitcoms of the ‘90s, Home Improvement today seems almost quaint: the humor is sharper in such current favorites as Everybody Loves Raymond, and the family depicted in HI is far from the dysfunctional norm of contemporary fare. Nonetheless, the show holds up reasonably well, and while the 24 episodes of the first season aren't the best, they still provoke plenty of chuckles, if not guffaws. Standup comic Tim Allen plays Tim Taylor, the host of a do-it-yourself TV show called Tool Time and an inveterate tinkerer whose own home-improvement efforts rarely turn out the way he expects. Patricia Richardson costars as his wife, a feisty character in her own right who never hesitates to deflate her husband whenever he puffs himself up. The 1991-92 season also features star-in-the-making Pamela Anderson as Tool Time's sexy cast member and Richard Karn as Al Borland, an initially minor character who eventually became a sidekick. And then there's Earl Hindman as Tim's never-fully-seen neighbor Wilson, an avuncular figure always happy to dispense advice. Buena Vista's stripped-down collection is light on extras: there are only three episode commentaries (all by executive producers Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean) and a brief montage of toolman Tim bumbling around with the implements of his trade. Still, the commentaries supply some interesting facts: costar Richardson, for example, was a last-minute replacement for an unnamed actress who reportedly had no chemistry with Allen (Richardson, at that time the new mother of twins, stepped into the role and shot the pilot after just a day and a half of rehearsal). Karn, we're told, took the role as a favor to the producers when the actor originally cast bowed out just before taping the pilot. Optional. (E. Hulse)