On "Home Improvement," the show's characters rarely got into serious trouble. But it was a different story for the actors who played them. From Pam Anderson's flashing allegations to Tim Allen's rehab stint, the cast members' personal lives were anything but perfect.
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00:00On Home Improvement, the show's characters rarely got into serious trouble, but it was
00:05a different story for the actors who played them. From Pam Anderson's flashing allegations
00:11to Tim Allen's rehab stint, the cast members' personal lives were anything but perfect.
00:17Tim Allen made a name for himself as the lovable, yet sometimes chauvinistic craftsman and family
00:22man Tim Taylor on Home Improvement. However, his past painted him as quite the opposite,
00:28seeing as he previously spent time in jail for cocaine trafficking. While in college,
00:33Allen developed a drug addiction and began dealing to fund his habit.
00:37In October 1978, he was arrested in Michigan with more than 650 grams of cocaine on him.
00:43He pleaded guilty and agreed to provide intel about big-time drug dealers to the FBI, ultimately
00:48serving less than two and a half years in prison.
00:51I screwed up, and I spent a little over two years in prison for it, and I learned my lesson.
00:57And speaking about his time behind bars, while on Marc Maron's WTF podcast in March
01:022021, Allen remarked,
01:04"...I learned, literally, how to live day by day. I learned to just shut up and did
01:08what I was told. It was the first time ever I did what I was told and played the game."
01:13Pamela Anderson appeared in over 20 episodes of Home Improvement as Lisa the Tool Girl.
01:18Of course, the Playboy model left the show after just a couple of seasons to play a lifeguard
01:22on Baywatch, and she may have even been glad to leave the cast after her alleged run-in
01:28with Tim Allen on set.
01:29In her 2023 book, Love, Pamela, a memoir of prose, poetry, and truth, Anderson made a
01:34shocking accusation against the star of Home Improvement. She wrote,
01:38"...on the first day of filming, I walked out of my dressing room, and Tim was in the
01:42hallway in his robe. He opened his robe and flashed me quickly, completely naked underneath."
01:48Allen denied Anderson's claims, and during an interview with ET Canada a week after her
01:52book's release, Anderson explained why she believed the actor wouldn't fess up. She said,
01:57"...he has to deny it because look at the times we're in. If he said, oh yeah, I did
02:01that, a lot of these stories are just the tip of the iceberg."
02:05Randy Taylor, the middle child of the Taylors, was a fan favorite played by Jonathan Taylor
02:10Thomas. Despite being just 10 when the show premiered, he hadn't come onto the set as
02:14a complete newbie into the acting world. In fact, Thomas had already appeared on a few
02:19episodes of The Bradys in 1990. However, while filming the sitcom, Thomas struggled
02:24with the nearly 10-hour days on set. In speaking with People magazine in August 1994, the young
02:30actor remarked,
02:31"...you have school, friends, learning your lines, and making sure your performance is
02:34up to speed. I can't tell you how many shows I've done with full-blown migraine headaches."
02:39When he wasn't working on Home Improvement and appearing on millions of television screens
02:44across America, Thomas was attending school in Los Angeles or racking up even more film
02:49and television credits. Perhaps it was the constant strain and workload that caused the
02:53child actor to walk away from the industry later in life, but he made quite the name
02:57for himself in his prime.
02:59By the sixth season of Home Improvement, Allen's career had really taken off. He had starred
03:04in The Santa Clause, had led his voice to Toy Story as Buzz Lightyear, and was still
03:09starring on the ABC sitcom when he was busted for drunk driving in May 1997. He had reportedly
03:14been driving his Ferrari 30 miles over the speed limit. Allen later admitted to having
03:19five drinks throughout the day.
03:21The actor's alcohol use began when he was just 10 years old, and when he was 11, his
03:25father died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. But it seems like the 97 arrest
03:31was the wake-up call Allen needed. After he pleaded guilty to the charges and was ordered
03:35to attend alcohol counseling, he decided to make a huge change in his life. In April
03:40of 1998, he entered into a rehabilitation center and has been sober ever since. While
03:46speaking on WTF with Marc Maron in March 2021, he said,
03:51"...I'm going on 23 years sober and clean of everything. I have so much shame at the
03:55things that I did, especially driving people around and coming from a dad that was killed
04:00that way, it's difficult to get past."
04:03While everyone on Home Improvement seemed to get along just fine, there was a slightly
04:07different dynamic behind the scenes. One of the rocky relationships on the show was between
04:12on-screen father and son duo Allen and Thomas, caused by the latter's early departure from
04:17Home Improvement in 1998. Allen told TV Guide the following year,
04:21"...He was a little miffed at me. I was a little confused at why he didn't want to do
04:24this whole year. He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films. Did
04:29he want to do films? Did he want to go to school? It got mixed up in the translation.
04:33I don't think he liked that."
04:35"...I just missed the kid, that's all."
04:36It was reported that Thomas refused to return for the show's finale because of Allen's remarks.
04:41Thankfully, the drama seems to have calmed down between them in the years since. Thomas
04:45even made a few guest appearances on Allen's show, Last Man Standing. Thomas' filmography
04:50has been spotty since the mid-aughts, but as he told People in March 2013, he has no
04:55regrets about leaving acting behind. He told the outlet,
04:58"...I never took the fame too seriously. It was a great period in my life, but it doesn't
05:03define me."
05:04Mark Taylor was the baby of the Home Improvement family, and Taron Noah Smith was only 7 years
05:09old when he joined the cast. Over the course of his short-lived acting career, he appeared
05:14in over 200 episodes and earned a trust fund worth a staggering $1.5 million. Sadly, Smith
05:20alleged years later that his parents had been mismanaging his earnings.
05:24In 2001, the Home Improvement star fought to become emancipated in order to gain early
05:29access to his trust fund, but the courts didn't roll in his favor. He didn't gain access to
05:34his money until his 18th birthday. Smith's parents maintained they'd never touched their
05:39sons' funds, but he didn't believe them for years. In speaking with the Marin Independent
05:43Journal in May 2015, the actor's mother remarked,
05:46"...It was in a trust fund. We couldn't have touched it if we wanted to. Smith was trying
05:51to get it when he was 17, and we were trying to protect it. Luckily, the Marin courts were
05:56very good about it and didn't give it to them."
05:58Speaking with the same outlet at the time, Smith explained,
06:01"...I'd gotten out of the teenage phase and realized my parents weren't doing anything
06:05wrong but were trying to protect me. I apologized to them, and they were very forgiving and
06:09apologized too."
06:11Earl Hindman had been acting since the 60s, yet he was best known for his portrayal of
06:16Wilson, the Taylors' next-door neighbor on Home Improvement. He would give Allen's character
06:20advice on whatever trouble he'd found himself in that episode, always obscured by the fence
06:25and his hat. Despite never showing his entire face, Hindman was an iconic part of the cast,
06:31so it was especially tragic when he died on December 29, 2003, from lung cancer at 61
06:37years old.
06:38Allen paid tribute to his late co-star on a 2021 episode of Last Man Standing in which
06:43his character discusses his neighbor Wilson who passed away. His character admits,
06:47"...I miss Wilson. I miss a lot of stuff."
06:51Allen spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the line at the time, saying,
06:55"...Earl meant the world to me and everyone at Home Improvement. It was an organic moment
06:59to settle on, both on the set and in our hearts."
07:03If you've ever wondered what happened to Patricia Richardson after Home Improvement, you can
07:07rest assured that the actor continued her 40-plus year career long after the sitcom
07:11ended. However, the actor unfortunately endured a tragic loss in December 2005 when her
07:17father, Lawrence Richardson, died from progressive supernuclear palsy, or PSP. PSP is a rare
07:24neurological condition. While Richardson was devastated by her dad's death, she decided
07:29to put the tragedy to good use and became the national spokesperson for Cure PSP. She
07:35penned an article for the foundation about her dad, in which she wrote,
07:38"...I never in a million years would have imagined that my father would put up with
07:41the life that he lived in those last years. Yet he did put up with it. In bed or a wheelchair
07:47or the recliner that we got for him that lifted him to a standing position."
07:50Richardson credited Cure PSP's website with informing her of the condition for the first
07:55time. She and her family decided to donate Lawrence's brain to Cure PSP, where the foundation
08:01verified his diagnosis. To this day, Richardson continues to raise awareness around the lesser
08:06known condition.
08:08Like many child stars, Terrence Smith seemed to struggle with his transition into adulthood.
08:13When he was just 17, he controversially married vegan chef Heidi Van Pelt, a woman twice his
08:19age. Of course, the gossip columns harped on their relationship, but they remained together
08:23until 2007. Smith spoke about his relationship with Van Pelt during a May 2015 interview
08:29with the Marin Independent Journal, saying,
08:31"...She was 15 years older than me. I knew my parents would not be excited by that, so
08:36I told them she was 9 years older, the same distance as my parents in age. But they eventually
08:41figured it out, and that's when they tried to push her out of my life."
08:44Years later, in February 2012, a then-27-year-old Smith made headlines yet again. This time,
08:51he had gotten himself into some trouble with the law when the police had found him to be
08:55in possession of marijuana and under the influence. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three
09:00years of probation in December of that same year.
09:03Avid fans of the sitcom may remember Pete Bilger, the bearded K&B construction worker
09:08known for his catchphrase,
09:10"...That would be me."
09:11He was played by Mickey Jones, a professional drummer-turned-actor who had worked with the
09:16likes of Bob Dylan and Kenny Rogers during his years as a musician. In Jones' 2007 memoir,
09:22which he aptly titled That Would Be Me? Rock and Roll Survivor to Hollywood Actor, he reminisced
09:27fondly about spending time with the cast of Home Improvement, most notably with the show's
09:32leading man. He wrote,
09:33"...Hanging out with Tim Allen, all we did was laugh all day, and the funniest stuff
09:37was between takes."
09:39After an impressive 40 years spent in front of the camera, Jones sadly died on February
09:437th, 2018, of complications from a long illness. He was 76 years old.
09:49Zachary Ty Bryan played Brad on Home Improvement, the eldest son of the Taylor family. On February
09:5617th, 2024, Bryan was arrested for a DUI. Since Bryan had already received a DUI conviction
10:02and had previously been ordered to forego alcohol consumption as part of his probation,
10:08he was charged with a felony. In addition, Bryan received a misdemeanor charge for a
10:11hit-and-run. Back in 2022, Allen was asked by The Hollywood Reporter about his former
10:17co-worker. He told the outlet,
10:18"...Zach is a great kid who has grown into a complex man. All you can do is step aside
10:23and let somebody go through their process."
10:25At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who was reacting to situations
10:30that I had nothing to do with and can't control.
10:33If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit
10:38the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's
10:43National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP 4357.