Tim Allen has improved his home skills over the years.
While starring as Tim Taylor on “Home Improvement” from 1991 to 1999, the actor didn’t quite know how to guide his TV sons — Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Randy), Zachery Ty Bryan (Brad), and Taran Noah Smith (Mark).
“When it was easy to be a TV parent, it’s easy. When it’s difficult to be a TV parent, you really are of no value,” Allen, 72, explained to Us Weekly.
“[With the] ‘Home Improvement’ kids, it was so long ago, and I was brand new, and it was very difficult for me to be anywhere near a mentor. It wasn’t until later that I became more of a mentor. But they all had great parents.”
“Home Improvement” followed the life of a TV host, who led a show called “Tool Time,” for eight seasons. The series also starred Patricia Richardson as Allen’s wife Jill, his right hand man Al (Richard Karn), and his neighbor Wilson played by the late Earl Hindman.
After the ABC hit ended, Allen starred on “Last Man Standing” from 2011 to 2021 and is now on his latest sitcom, ABC’s “Shifting Gears.”
In real life, Allen shares daughter Katherine, 36, with his ex-wife Laura Deibel, and daughter Elizabeth, 16, with his current wife, Jane Hajduk.
“I don’t know what it’s like to have sons,” the comedian told the outlet. “I like being a father to girls.”
“Shifting Gears,” meanwhile, sees the “Toy Story” star as Matt Parker, a man who rebuilds his relationship with his estranged daughter, Riley (Kat Dennings), after she moves back in.
Despite playing a TV dad for many decades, Allen had his fair share of personal struggles play out in the public eye.
At 25, the funny man was arrested in Michigan on drug trafficking charges. In 1980, after pleading guilty and spending two years in prison, Allen got sober and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his Hollywood career.
In 1997, he was arrested for driving under the influence. At the time, Allen was starring on “Home Improvement” and pleaded guilty.
He was ordered to counseling sessions by the court but checked into rehab himself.
“I’ve been drugs and alcohol-free for about 22 years,” he shared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in 2020. “Because I had money and I was a star, people help, they enable you to get by. The program I practice, it’s all about as soon as you get it, you gotta give it away. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a day-to-day thing. You gotta reprise every day.”
Pamela Anderson starred as Lisa the Tool Girl in 23 episodes. In 2023, she claimed that Allen exposed himself to her on set.
“On the first day of filming, I walked out of my dressing room, and Tim was in the hallway in his robe. He opened his robe and flashed me quickly — completely naked underneath,” Anderson, 58, alleged in her memoir “Love, Pamela.”
“He said it was only fair, because he had seen me naked. Now we’re even. I laughed uncomfortably,” she continued.
Allen addressed the claims shortly after.
“She was a great co-worker, I’ll tell you that. She’s a fun girl,” he told the Daily Mail at the time.
“Everybody loved her, but everybody at ABC is a little disappointed in her memory, put it that way. All of us at Disney/ABC, really,” added Allen. “She’s a good girl.”
He reiterated to Us Weekly: “No, it never happened. I would never do such a thing.”
Today, the kids of Allen’s beloved first sitcom have all moved on to different paths.
Thomas, 44, left “Home Improvement” during Season 8. He ended up going to college and appearing on a series of other shows, including “Ally McBeal,” “8 Simple Rules,” “Smallville,” “Veronica Mars” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
Thomas landed his last acting role in 2015, starring alongside his former TV parents in Allen’s “Last Man Standing.”
Since then, he has led a private life, but did visit Allen on the set of “Shifting Gears.”
Smith, 41, is now a businessman, while Bryan, 44, has had trouble with the law over the years.
In 2007, he and Carly Matros tied the knot. They share four children: twin daughters, Taylor and Gemma, born in 2014, daughter Jordana, born in 2016, and son Pierce, born in 2019, and divorced in 2020.
He was arrested in 2020 and entered a guilty plea stemming from an altercation with his then-girlfriend, Johnnie Faye Cartwright, 32, where he allegedly tried to strangle her at their apartment in Eugene, Oregon.
In 2023, Bryan pleaded guilty to felony assault in the fourth degree constituting domestic violence following a physical domestic dispute with an unnamed woman.
The actor has three additional kids with Cartwright.
In December, he was arrested for the sixth time after his fianceé allegedly attempted to run him over with their children in the car.
As Page Six previously reported, he could now face a full sentence after violating his probation three times. He admitted to the violations while appearing in an Oregon court on Dec. 29. He will allegedly be sentenced on Feb. 17.
