HOME IMPROVEMENT: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere of this comedy series about the host of a cable television fix-it show and his wife and three sons. Tim Taylor, host of the home improvement cable television show “Tool Time,” tries to get his family, including his wife Jill and his sons Mark, Brad, and Randy interested in his show, although they don’t share his enthusiasm for it. Tim wants to go out to a hardware sale, but Jill reminds him that she has an important job interview with a department store personnel manager that day, and she needs him to watch the kids. She convinces him not to go, and vehemently insists that he not try to fix their dishwasher, as his attempts to improve their appliances often end disastrously. Despite this, Tim immediately sets upon rewiring the dishwasher when Jill leaves, trying to enlist the aid of his neighbor Wilson. Tim wants to do it in order to show Jill who the “man of the house” is, but Wilson intuits that Tim is actually undergoing something of an identity crisis, believing that men need to “reclaim a primitive spirit.” Tim tries to enlist the kids’ aid in rewiring the dishwasher, hoping to complete it before Jill gets home. In the process he accidentally electrocutes himself and breaks the dishwasher. Tim receives a call informing him that Jill didn’t get the job. Jill returns home, unaware that she was rejected and convinced that her interview went particularly well. Before Tim can inform her of the bad news, she finds out that he was working on the dishwasher and demands that he take out the new power source. Tim’s attempt to demonstrate the new dishwasher ends when the device suddenly explodes. She then finds out from Mark that Tim received the call about her job, leaving her furious. She starts cleaning up the mess, feeling depressed that she seems to be unable to get a job and desiring a life outside being a housewife. Tim tries to talk with her, but she is dissatisfied with his attempts and with his behavior both at home and on his television show, and she walks off. Wilson advises him that Jill simply needed him to listen to her problems. On the next episode of his show, Tim takes time for a monologue to serve as a veiled apology to Jill. She watches the episode and appears to accept his apology, but gets revenge on him by locking him in the garage while she purchases a new dishwasher. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: September 17, 1991 Tuesday 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:23116
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1991-1999
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Fleischmann’s corn oil spread
- TV – Commercials – Mazda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Neutrogena shower gel
- TV – Commercials – Old El Paso salsa
- TV – Commercials – Sears department stores
- TV – Commercials – Sprint phone service
- TV – Commercials – Toyota automobiles
- TV – Commercials – “Necessary Roughness” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Super Mario World” video game
- TV – Promos – “Good Morning America”
- TV – Promos – “Roseanne”
- TV – Promos – “Sibs”
CREDITS
- Carmen Finestra … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- David McFadzean … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Matt Williams … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- John Pasquin … Producer, Director
- Gayle S. Maffeo … Producer
- Frank McKemy … Associate Producer
- Dan Foliart … Music by
- Tim Allen … Cast, Tim Taylor
- Patricia Richardson … Cast, Jill Taylor
- Earl Hindman … Cast, Wilson Wilson Jr.
- Taran Noah Smith … Cast, Mark Taylor
- Zachery Ty Bryan … Cast, Brad Taylor
- Jonathan Taylor Thomas … Cast, Randy Taylor
- John Cothran Jr. … Cast, Handyman
- Richard Karn … Cast, Al Borland
- Pamela Denise Anderson … Cast, Lisa