Home Improvement Cast: Characters of the TV Show
Taylor Family - Home Improvement Cast
Tim (The Toolman) Taylor (played by Tim Allen) - Tim is father of the family. He believes he has an incredibly wide knowledge of tools, electronics and general mechanics. In reality, however, he is highly accident prone in practice, the fact of which he is oblivious to. He frequently tries to outsmart DIY expert and rival Bob Vila. (Though his efforts are in vain, as in one episode, Bob is a guest on Tool Time, and Tim accidentally knocks him unconscious with a stray plank of wood, on cable television.) In the show, he hosts a home improvement show called "Tool Time" with his close friend Albert Borland. While Al is his co-host, Tim is constantly being advised by Al of numerous safety concerns and safer and more efficient ways to go about the daily project. Tim often ignores Al's advice, and this frequently results in Tim being involved in some sort of accident. While it is constantly mentioned that Tool Time is a limited local home improvement show that sits very high on the channel dial, Tool Time seems to have a very wide audience in the Detroit area. Tim often boasts at his popularity for hosting the show, but fans that are familiar with the show often cite Al as the host. This usually follows with Tim exclaiming, "Al is my assistant. He assists me." Because of the numerous accidents he is involved in both on his TV show and at his private home, it is a recurring joke that Tim is on a first name basis with the hospital staff, and it is often suggested that Tim has special offers available to him for being a repeat customer (in one episode, he exclaimed that if he has one more head injury, he wins a trip to Hawaii).
Tim typically uses his television show to vent about numerous problems he is having in his personal life, and Al is usually very annoyed by this. While he has a very good relationship with his wife, he is easy to admit defeat in any conflict they become engaged in. He also has a very healthy relationship with his three sons, but his wife often seems annoyed at the idea that Tim's mental age is closer to his sons than she would like. On many occasions Tim is keen for his sons to attend a trade school after high school.
Tim also seems to have a chauvinistic attitude, usually putting women down or sometimes seeing them as inferior. Tim is an avid fan of the Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons and the Detroit Red Wings. He is also a big fan of boxing, the Indy Racing League and tractor pulls. Many scenes take place in the garage during his favorite hobby, working on his hot rod which he built from ground-up. While there is often word that Tim may quit, Tim remains the main host of Tool Time for the entire running of the show. It was suggested at many times that before he was cast on Tool Time, he worked as an out-of-town tool salesman. Tim barely graduated college, but later received an honorary Doctorate from Western Michigan University. Tim is most famous for his ever-popular noise that he refers to as a "Simian Grunt."
Jill Taylor (played by Patricia Richardson) - Jill is Tim's first and only wife and the mother of all three boys. Jill is always portrayed as very intelligent and spends a good amount of time on the show working for her Master's Degree in psychology. While she is an overall decent domestic character, she is apparently a very bad cook, as Tim and the three boys often make slanderous remarks at her cooking. Jill seems to have come from a strong military family, and sometimes uses her up-bringing to solve several family squabbles. She often appears overwhelmed at the fact that she is the only female in a family with three sons and no daughter, but never gets too bothered by it. She appears closest to her younger son, Mark, as she remarks a few times that Mark is the only one who still has the ability to be open-minded to accept the things that Jill likes as opposed to being the typical 'boy.' During most of the series, Jill was a psychology student, though she had an unstable journalism career in the early seasons. However, there are several shows that depict Jill as an enthusiastic humanitarian and volunteer of numerous benefits and banquets. Jill is a big fan of the Opera and the Ballet, and while she tries to be interested in sports and tools in several episodes, her attempts to relate to her husband usually end up fruitless at the end of the road.
Bradley "Brad" Michael Taylor (played by Zachery Ty Bryan) - Brad is the oldest and the more athletic of the three boys. While all three boys are portrayed as troublemakers at one point or another, Brad is the most malicious. He is the only one to have a run-in with the police (after throwing rocks at windows in an abandoned warehouse). On the other hand, Brad was the only Taylor son to host an episode of Tool Time, and the only one to be seen physically working on Tim's Hot Rod. He has extraordinary athletic ability, especially in the game of soccer, and is portrayed as a jock through most of the series. Throughout the series, he has been offered numerous opportunities to make a career out of soccer, including the offer to play for a professional team in England. This offer was rejected when his parents refused to allow him to give up college to play professional soccer. Later in the series, however, despite a knee injury that would plague his potential for a long time, he earned a college scholarship. Brad has a prominent attraction to women, including his mild infatuation with Tool Time's Heidi Keppert. Bradley's love of soccer may have come about because Zachery plays soccer, himself.
Randall "Randy" William Taylor (played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) - Randy is the middle brother and the jokester of the family. He is also the shortest Taylor boy. Whenever Tim was in trouble with Jill, Randy was always there with a quick remark that would almost always get him in trouble. Throughout adolescence, Randy became very conscious about the environment and civil rights. He also became very suspicious of the intentions of established religion, especially the Christian Church. When he joined the school newspaper in Season 7, one of his early works was to critisise Binford for their pollution record, which didn't go down too well in his father's eyes. Randy had many disagreements with Tim over various things, but they were always able to work it out. In the 8th season, Randy participated in an environmental program that landed him in Costa Rica for one year.
Marcus "Mark" Jason Taylor (played by Taran Noah Smith) - Mark is the youngest of the three boys. He never really had the same interests as his brothers, and was often the victim of some cruel joke that Brad and Randy had thought up on the spot for him (in one episode, Brad and Randy convinced him to eat a tadpole as some sort of initiation into a non-existent club). During adolescense, Mark began to adapt a more gothic look and a more anti-establishment kind of attitude. While Mark's dark demeanor worried Tim and Jill on several occasions, it never turned into anything extremely destructive. Mark also grew a fondness in the area of film production.
Marty Taylor (played by William O'Leary) - Marty is Tim's younger brother (there is a ten-year age difference between them). It's been mentioned that, growing up, since their father died when Tim was 11 and Marty was 1, Tim was just as much of a father to him as a brother. He is often seen bouncing from job to job, unable to hold a steady career. In his earliest appearance, Marty was married to a woman named Nancy and they had twin baby girls, Grace and Clare. Much later in the series, Nancy divorced Marty and he and the girls moved in with Tim's family.
Jeff Taylor (played by Thom Sharp) - Jeff is Tim's older brother (exact age unspecified). Suffers from male-pattern baldness, making him a frequent target of jokes by Tim. Like Marty, Jeff hasn't been shown with a steady job. It is mentioned that he has made a number of bad business ventures (such as a drive-through pet store).
Friends of the Family - Home Improvement Cast
Al Borland (played by Richard Karn) - Al is Tim's assistant and unlikely best friend. His personality is an exact opposite of Tim's- he is reserved, quiet, does not show much enthusiasm and has a wide array of professional knowledge concerning tools. Al made frequent suggestions that he should be the host of "Tool Time" instead of Tim. Al is frequently mocked by Tim because of his bland personality, poor sense of humor and the excessive amounts of flannel in his wardrobe. Al could be characterized as a "mama's boy," he spent a great deal of time attempting to please his mother Alma- who was severely overweight and another target of Tim's jokes- until she died near the end of the series. Al was engaged to an orthodontist named Ielene for a time, but they ended up calling off the wedding. In a later season, Al met a wealthy exterminator named Trudy. They hit it off and were married in the show's final episode. Al also has a brother, Cal, who appears in a number of episodes. Al might have been based on Norm Abram of This Old House because of the resemblance in flannel shirts, beard, pudgy etc.
Wilson Wilson Jr. (played by Earl Hindman) - Tim's neighbor and confidant, Wilson is essentially an unseen character. He frequently gives advice to all members of the Taylor household, often reciting famous quotes for Tim (which Tim would always mess up when trying to repeat them moments later). He has traveled the globe, learned much from virtually every culture in existence, and his house contains a veritable treasure trove of artifacts, along with a pet parrot named Mozart who appeared infrequently. Wilson was married at one point, but his wife passed away before the series began.
Lisa (played by Pamela Anderson), Binford's first "Tool Girl." A secondary cast member on "Tool Time," her job was to introduce Tim & Al or to hand them any tool they requested. She was written out of the show after a few seasons, and it was stated that she was training to be a paramedic.
Heidi Keppert (played by Debbe Dunning) - The second "Tool Girl," Heidi became a much more well-rounded character than Lisa. Her personal life crossed paths with Tim on a number of occasions, giving birth to a daughter and suffering marital problems during the show's run.
Harry (played by Blake Clark). Owner of "Harry's Hardware," where Tim spent a great deal of his time (and money), and which Al eventually became part owner of. He is married-unhappily- to Delores, and the couple bad-mouths one another behind their respective backs on every occasion. Also has a son with whom he has a somewhat rocky relationship.
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