Tim Allen Details Challenges Preventing Home Improvement Revival

Thomas, who played middle child Randy Taylor, quickly rose to teen heartthrob status in the 1990s, though he largely retired from acting following a handful of appearances in the early aughts. (Though he did reunite with his onscreen dad in a few episodes on Allen’s sitcom Last Man Standing.) 

Smith had a similar trajectory after playing youngest son Mark Taylor, working on a few projects in the 1990s before pivoting to a life outside of Hollywood. 

Bryan, however, has had a more fraught path since his time as oldest Taylor son Brad. While the now 44-year-old worked steadily in the years during and following Home Improvement, he has faced a number of arrests since 2020 and is currently serving a 16-month prison sentence in California related to DUI charges from a February 2024 arrest.

He was given a separate prison sentence of 19 months in Oregon in March after admitting to three probation violations related to a 2023 domestic violence conviction.

But even if Bryan’s legal challenges were not an issue, Allen’s former onscreen wife Richardson previously detailed her own reasons for why a revival is unlikely to get off its feet.

“Taran [Noah Smith] hasn’t acted since he left the show, he’s not an actor anymore,” she said in a March 2024 episode of the Back to Best podcast. “Jonathan’s not really interested in acting, he wants to direct and write.”

Plus, heartbreakingly she noted that Earl Hindman—who played the Taylors’ neighbor Wilson on the series—died in 2003 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

“So, if they did it without Earl and also just two kids, probably, if that, it’s not gonna be the show at all,” Richardson continued. “People think we can just magically go back to who we were 30 years ago and do a show that was 30 years ago. And we’ve all changed quite a bit, I think, since then.”

So, with two of the Taylor brothers currently living lives away from Hollywood, the third navigating ongoing legal troubles and an actress reticent to step back into her role, revisiting Home Improvement is indeed proving to be, as Allen put it, a “little challenging.”

As for other shows that have either been greenlit or cancelled this year, read on.