This isn’t a conventional article regarding the home and garden industry. “Tool Time” was a show within a show. That’s right; a show within a show. “Tool Time” was the brainchild of Tim Taylor, played by Tim Allen, on the hit sitcom “Home Improvement.” “Home Improvement” was a show that featured a family of five, an assistant, a tool girl and an incredibly weird neighbor whose face the audience at home never saw. It was always covered by different objects, most notably the fence that separated Wilson’s yard from the Taylors’ yard.
The main character of “Home Improvement” was Tim Taylor, a father or three who was the host of the hit show “Tool Time.” His assistant was played by Richard Karn, whose character name was Al Borland. The two would fix, build, paint and show their audience and viewers at home how to do things in the construction industry. The running gag on the show was that Tim Taylor was a klutz. Tim would set fires, break expensive objects and physically harm himself with his tools.
Whenever there was work that needed to be done around the house Tim’s wife, Jill, would rather him hire another contractor or have Al do the work because she knew what Tim’s track record was.
“Tool Time,” although a fictional show within another show, did actually offer some interesting home improvement and renovation tips. The tips ranged from fixing a broken sink to building a garage for a classic car. The show also included a tool girl with the most popular one being named Heidi. She lasted the longest as a member of the cast. Heidi was played by Debbi Dunning. One of the other tool girls was played by Pamela Anderson in the early days of the sitcom.
Another recurring segment on the show “Tool Time” was the appearance of the gang from K and B Construction. The crew would come on the show to explain to the audience how they would use their tools to groom themselves and even cook their food with their construction tools.
The show “Tool Time” was created within the series “Home Improvement” to be somewhat of a spinoff of “This Old House” which was hosted by Bob Vila. Tim Taylor’s character was basically based off of Vila except that Vila isn’t a real life klutz. Repeatedly throughout the show Bob Vila would make appearances on “Tool Time” to have renovation competitions with Taylor, whom disliked Vila because of his enormous success. The two would have competitions that involved sawing wood, trimming trees, racing lawnmowers and even building entire houses. A couple of times Taylor would knock out Vila, not on purpose, or so the audience was made to believe it was by accident.
“Home Improvement” still airs today, only re-runs though, on the TBS Superstation weekdays from Noon until 2pm. It also runs nightly on Nick at Nite from Midnight to 1am. “Home Improvement” is also out on DVD for purchase. The show within the show was what made “Home Improvement” so popular.