Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season

What time is it? That’s right, Home Improvement fans, it’s once again Tool Time. Unfortunately for the show’s followers, Season 8 would be its last outing. It’s always nice to see shows go out on their own terms and in their own time. Home Improvement is one of those series. It leaves a void. This was one of those rare shows that didn’t rely on sex and innuendo for cheap laughs. Don’t get me wrong, who can forget Debbe Dunning as Tool Time girl Heidi, but there was never any attempt to debase the character. We all knew she was there mainly for her looks, but it fit the theme of the cable tool show. No, most of the laughs came from Tim’s over the top manly man humor. As much as we were laughing at Tim, we were really laughing at ourselves.

Home Improvement was based on a stand-up routine that made a name for Tim Allen. In his act he would talk about his experiences with power tools and other manly misadventures. He came across as a comedic Bob Vila. Somewhere along the line it was decided this had the makings of a good sitcom for television. It was a rather inspired idea, and for many years it was one of the funnier shows on the tube. I often find myself referring to the show as Tool Time, which in reality is the cable handyman show Tim hosts. The reason for this almost constant confusion is simple. It is the Tool Time bits where the show was always at its best. Tim’s rapport with co-host Al Borland (Karn) is always worth a few laughs. Tim lives next door to Wilson (Hindman) who often has long winded words of wisdom when Tim finds himself befuddled by life’s complications. As a running gag, we never see Wilson’s face below the nose until the end. Most of the time the privacy fence they spoke over served to cover these areas, but often other well placed items did the job. Tim had a family. His wife Jill (Richardson) tolerated Tim’s antics, all the while seeing him as an adolescent. The couple had three kids who were quite young as the show began. By season 6 the boys had grown, which demanded more screen and story time.

The final year of Home Improvement did bring some memorable moments, to be sure. The season opens with Tim’s birthday. Jill gets him a white water rafting trip, but Tim’s just fine in his new Lazy Boy. Hey, aren’t we all? That’s Whitewater, and season eight is off and running. Al’s got a new lady in his life in Al’s Fair Lady. She’s got some serious jack and is lavishing expensive presents on the big guy. Is Tim jealous? Home Improvement delivers a sweet Halloween episode, Bewitched. Tim thinks that Wilson’s new lady is a witch, and he convinces Wilson to dump her. Now Wilson’s disappeared, and the cops have a number one suspect… Tim. Every guy longs for those first wheels we had as teenagers. I still have the rearview mirror from mine. In Tim’s First Car Jill tries to hook Tim up with a replica of his first car. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say we can relate to Tim. Al lands a movie role with Morgan Fairchild in Mr. Likeable. You’d think his best pal Tim would be happy for him. Is Tim ready to let Al have some spotlight? Is Tim messing around with his new woman mechanic? A compromising video turns up to put the damper on Tim and Jill’s 19^th anniversary in Young At Heart.  Home Improvement gets serious in the two part episode Love’s Labour Lost. Jill needs emergency surgery. There are some rather nice moments between the two here that work all the more because we knew by then these were getting to be our last few moments with the Taylor family. A Hardware Habit To Break finds Tim buying the hardware store, but maybe he’s not the hardware guru he thought he was… you think? Finally we say our goodbyes in the three part episode The Long And Winding Road. The Taylor’s are moving, and Tim says goodbye to Tool Time forever.

Video

Home Improvement is appropriately presented in its original full frame 1.33:1 format. While this is a fairly recent series, it was merely a sitcom. Not to degrade the genre, but the studios don’t put a tremendous amount of production value in that kind of a series. Still, colors are solid. Black levels are average. This is pretty much as good as this kind of programming gets. Better overall than the broadcast versions.

Audio

Dialogue is pretty much all you should care about in this Dolby Digital 2.0 track, and it delivers just fine. The show’s trademark sound effects are there just as you remembered with no problems at all.

Special Features

Home Improvement Backstage Pass: A fitting farewell look behind the scenes of the show’s final episodes. This was also broadcast as a farewell the night of the last episode as a tribute to the show.

Final  Thoughts

It almost doesn’t really feel like Home Improvement is really gone. The last episode aired way back in 1999; it seems like another millennium from now. But fans have been enjoying the show in steady reruns on heavy rotation since that time. Here in the Tampa area it is second to only Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond in repeat performances. Of course, the DVD collections are uncut, for the most part, and in somewhat better condition, but even with the last of these sets now available Tim the Tool Man Taylor doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. We’ll miss ya, Tim, Al, and the Taylor clan, but they’ll always be just as close as our DVD shelf. Look under H for Home Improvement. Will we ever get over Tool Time? “It could take years.”