Tim Allen revealed why he found it difficult to be a mentor of his television children home improvement.
“It was new to me and it took a while for me to be that (father figure). I felt more like a fun, naughty older brother for quite a while, especially to the home improvement guys,” Allen, 72, said exclusively. Us Weekly about working with Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas i Taran Noah Smith.
Allen addressed the lessons learned at that time.
“It’s hard because I said when it was easy to be a TV dad, it’s easy. When it’s hard to be a TV dad, you really have no value,” he noted of how some of his former co-stars went through “horrible personal trauma” in their lives. “(For example, with the) home improvement kids, it was a long time ago and I was new to it and it was really hard for me to be around a mentor or guide.”
Does everyone know what time it is? That was the famous line that came out of Home Improvement, the ABC sitcom that aired from September 1991 to May 1999. The 30-minute sitcom followed Tim “The Toolman” Taylor (Tim Allen) as he hosted a home improvement show called “Tool Time,” though it’s not at all (…)
Allen continued, “It was really hard to step in and it wasn’t until later that I became more of a mentor. But they all had great parents.”
Allen got his sitcom debut on Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999 and also starred as Thomas, Patricia Richardson, Smith, Bryan, Richard Karn i Debbie Dunning. The comedian continued to find success playing Mike Baxter The last man standing from 2011 to 2021 before returning to television alongside her on-screen daughter Kat Dennings in Shiny gears.
“On Last Man Standing with Kaitlyn Dever, I was a mentor because I aligned with her style of comedy,” Allen continued. “I was really into cheering her on as best I could. She was listening and I didn’t know I picked it up until occasionally in her scenes.”
After playing a sitcom dad on several shows, Allen continued to keep in touch with his TV kids, telling us, “What we do is holidays, birthdays, weddings and, unfortunately, funerals. Their lives have gone on (but) I’ve done the voice of Buzz Lightyear for (my co-stars’ kids).”
Allen previously teased whether his former on-screen children might appear in Shifting Gears.
“Everything is a possibility,” he shared with Us in January 2025 before addressing a possible Thomas appearance after stepping back from the spotlight. “He just came back (to the last episode we shot). He showed up on set.”
Allen he said he wouldn’t love anything rather than sharing the screen with Thomas again. “He’s literally my son. I raised this kid for eight years with home improvement,” she added. “These are all my children, and I’m kind of sick about it.”
Allen then recalled the close bonds he formed with his on-screen children over the years.
“(My former on-screen wife) Nancy Travis once said (something) to me after I called her during Last Man Standing. I said, ‘Did you talk to the girls (who play our daughters) over the summer?’ Then there’s a long pause and she’s like, ‘Tim, these aren’t our daughters and I’m not actually your wife,'” he joked. “She was so wonderful because sometimes when they were in trouble on the show, I’d say, ‘How do you think they feel?’ And she’d say, “Tim, they’re actors.” We just read (what’s on the page though) she’s not very sad.”
Gear change airs on ABC on Wednesdays at 8 pm ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.