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Who wouldn’t love a show featuring a dumb guy and his tools?

Sounds like a cheesy MySpace video, but writers with a knack for tool and family hilarity managed to pull it off in the popular ABC comedy, Home Improvement.

When it first aired, Home Improvement had all the elements of a witty family comedy appealing to audiences in the ‘90s. You had three cute, precocious boys, a frazzled housewife who tries to keep her TV host husband from burning down the house with each improvement project, crazy neighbors and a few glimpses of Pamela Anderson, who made brief appearances during the show’s infancy and before her “career” took off.

After the first few episodes, the Tool Time phrase “More Power” became a mantra for men wanting to feel manly with their tools, the boys went on the fast track to teenie bopper stardom, and audiences settled on the couch to catch more wisdom from the half-hidden next door neighbor, Wilson. ABC execs patted themselves on the back for creating a hit and bringing in viewers to a network sadly in need of fans. They even did everything they could to keep the show on air, including inking a deal that gave actor/comedian Tim Allen more than $1 million an episode.

After an eight-year stint on ABC, Allen’s Tim Taylor packed up his tools and moved his home to Indiana so his wife could take a job there. It was definitely time to leave. The show had become dry, with jokes too easy to be witty, flat dialogue and lackluster performances that were habitual rather than creative.

You see the denigration of the show when watching the final eighth season, now on DVD.

I had a terrible time getting through all four discs. The show was just so… BLAH. It didn’t hold my attention. The stories seemed stale, the jokes too obvious. It was Okay, but not great. It was disappointing because I had really been excited about watching the series again. When I watched, I realized why I had stopped watching when this season aired in 1999. The only episodes I found funny were two of the three final episodes, where Tim’s new Tool Time producer turns the show into a Springerfest and Tim’s friend and cohost, Al, gets married after they bid a final farewell to Tool Time fans. The finale was split into three parts. The first and third parts are worth a watch; the middle was a filler with flashbacks to when Tim’s boys were little and still cute, instead of at that gangly stage that creeps up on male actors during puberty. It aired as a 90-minute send off, with more than 35 million people tuning in to bid the Taylor family farewell. At it’s peak. Home Improvement snagged more than 36 million viewers during its third year. 

Season eight of Home Improvement is not worth the watch. It’s not terrible, but it does not offer enough originality or spunk to hold your attention. The set includes a blooper reel and a live reunion special that you can live without.

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