If you love revving engines, family-based laughs, and the everyman humor of Tim Allen, then you’re probably a fan of ABC’s “Shifting Gears.” With the sitcom currently between seasons, it’s a great time to check out the show that made Allen famous in the ’90’s: “Home Improvement.” Between its similar themes of family togetherness, the joys of mechanics, and manly bonding, there’s plenty for “Shifting Gears” fans to love in “Home Improvement.”
There’s another excellent reason to revisit “Home Improvement” right now if you’re a “Shifting Gears” fan — there’s going to be something of a reunion between Allen and his old castmates on the newer sitcom, as Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn, and Debbe Dunning are all set to appear in “Shifting Gears” as new characters. Before that, why not get to grips with “Home Improvement,” which is available to stream in its entirety on Netflix.
Home Improvement had a long run on ABC
“Home Improvement” follows a family man named Tim Taylor (Tim Allen), who hosts a show called “Tool Time.” His long-suffering assistant, Al Borland (Richard Karn), is the one who brings order to the chaos and whose careful mechanical and scientific calculations are often thrown out the window by Tim. Another staple of “Tool Time” is the Tool Girl. For the majority of the show’s run, that position was filled by Heidi (Debbe Dunning), but the original girl with the socket wrench was played by Pamela Anderson. The part of Lisa was a breakout role for Anderson, who left “Home Improvement” after Season 2 when she was offered “Baywatch.”
Away from the show-within-a-show, we get to see Tim at his home in suburban Detroit, where his pragmatic wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) rules the roost. Also about are his three sons: Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and youngest Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The boys can be bratty and hijinks-driven, often playing pranks on one another and making Tim’s home life even more chaotic. When things go wrong, Tim seeks advice from Wilson (Earl Hindman), his next-door neighbor who is always half-hidden by his fence (here’s the real reason “Home Improvement” never showed Wilson’s face).
“Home Improvement” ran between 1991 and 1999, standing tall as ABC’s top sitcom for most of that time. It turned Allen from a stand-up comedian into a bondafide TV star and paved his path to the big screen — by the time the ’90s was done, he’d starred in the likes of “The Santa Clause” and “Toy Story,” voicing Buzz Lightyear. All eight seasons of “Home Improvement” are available to stream on Netflix at the time of this writing, so if you’re a “Shifting Gears” fan, you’d be crazy not to check it out.