Starring Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Richard Karn, Earl Hindman, Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Taran Noah Smith, Pamela Anderson
Written By: Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean
Directed By:
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buy on Amazon.com

Home Improvement was one of my favorite shows growing up. I hated the family-related junk but seeing Tim Allen hurt himself on the show over and over was some funny stuff!

If you never saw Home Improvement, it’s about Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor” (Tim Allen) who has a local TV show called Tool Time. Each episode usually starts off with Tool Time and Tim hurting himself or Al (Richard Karn), his assistant. Then the rest of the episode is Tim spending time with his family. Jill (Patricia Richardson) is his wife and she mostly stays home but also goes to college for psychology, not sure if she does in the earlier episodes. They have 3 sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan) and Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) are the mischievous ones and Mark (Taran Noah Smith) is the young and innocent one. Also on the show is Tim’s wise and all knowing neighbor, Wilson. You only see part of his face and never see his entire face. I guess it’s meant to represent Tim’s conscience or something. Personally, I think the gimmick gets old fast and I didn’t really care for his character on the show. But then again, I suppose Wilson is a good balance to the other characters on the show. And they do find some clever ways of hiding his face over the years.

The first season of Home Improvement has a lot of classic episodes that were really great. I think the first episode that I thought stood out from the rest was when Tim takes the family camping in the winter time. Some of the jokes in that episode made me realize that this show was going to stick around for awhile. For example, the classic scene when Jill and the kids hear a loud howl in the forest, and later find out it was Tim using a pine cone to wipe his butt. Now that’s funny! I thought the material of the show was good, because well, i’m a guy and could relate to a lot of the stuff Allen demonstrated on the show & in his stand-up act. I thought the sons were very realistic because kids are like that. They can be crude, loud, annoying brats and that’s exactly how I was….Ok, still am! Yeah i’m 26, but I still act like a 10 year old and write like one too! Anyway, some of the stuff Brad and Randy did to Mark I could relate to because my older brother used to pick on my brother and I like that. I believe I got the “you’re adopted” thing once or twice.

The reason why I loved this show was all the bad accidents that happened to Tim during Tool Time, and during his personal life. I think my favorite episodes of the series is when Tim ate something bad and stayed up all night, watching all different clips from Tool Time. Just seeing all the clips together makes me belly laugh. Another highlight of the show is the Tool Time girl, which for the first couple of seasons was an unknown hot blonde named Pamela Anderson. Later on, it was on Debbie Dunning, who I actually think is a lot more prettier than Anderson. Plus she’s more “real” too, if you catch my drift fellas. But with the DVD, it comes with a small 2005 calendar with Pamela Anderson as the Tool Time girl.

Extras contain a few selected audio commentaries with the creators of the show (Carmen Finestra & David McFadzean), also a featurette containing bloopers, and other hilarious moments. I didn’t get a chance to check out the commentary because I wanted to watch the show instead. The featurette with the hilarious moments was pretty good. It featured clips of the cast screwing up lines, but also funny scenes that happened throughout the series. There should have been some look-back retrospective feature on the show, or at least get the cast to come back and comment about Home Improvement. Besides Tim Allen making Xmas movies every damn year, the rest of the cast hasn’t really been busy lately. But i’m just glad that the episodes are finally on DVD. I never know when the show is on TBS or whatever station is airing the episodes. If you liked the show when it first aired, and want to laugh, check out the Home Improvement DVD set. If you buy it, the early the 2nd season will get made (which I think it’s already coming out in the Spring). So yeah, stop reading and go buy. Arr Arr Ho ho ho ho ho.

Features:
Loose Screws – The Show’s most Hilarious moments
Audio Commentary From the Show’s Co-Creators and Executive Producers Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean
2005 Calendar of Pamela Anderson as the Tool Time Girl

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Surround CC

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Satellite on a Hot Tim’s Roof, Flying Sauces, Yule Better Watch Out, Baby It’s Cold Outside
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 566 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: