Fans of Home Improvement were delighted to see Patricia Richardson team up with Tim Allen again on his 2010s sitcom Last Man Standing. However, Richardson herself felt that one of her performances did not meet her usual standards.
Reflecting on her experience, Richardson, 75, shared on Instagram on Monday, July 6, “Last Man Standing, this was my first appearance which was fun,” alongside a nostalgic photo of her and Allen, 73, on the set of the show.
She explained further, “During my second appearance (with Robin Roberts also guest starring), I was in a car accident with a 93-year-old driver just two months after shoulder surgery. It was a very painful weekend, and basic pain relief was insufficient, but I didn’t want to rely on strong painkillers.”
Richardson described a challenging experience, stating, “I had to miss Friday’s rehearsal, returned on Monday after a painful weekend, and was unprepared for shooting that day. It was another tough day. We filmed the next day, and it wasn’t my best work,” she recalled about the season 5 episode, where she portrayed Helen Potts. Richardson first guest-starred on Last Man Standing during season 4 in January 2015.
Last Man Standing ran from 2011 to 2017 on ABC, marking Allen’s return to the network 12 years after Home Improvement concluded. The series then moved to Fox, continuing for three more seasons from 2018 to 2021.
Allen was known for his role as Tim “The Toolman” Taylor on Home Improvement, which aired from 1991 to 1999, with Richardson playing his wife, Jill.
More recently, Richardson joined former Home Improvement co-stars Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning in a guest appearance on Allen’s latest ABC sitcom, Shifting Gears, which aired in October 2025.
In June, Allen provided Us Weekly with an exclusive update on a possible Home Improvement reboot.
“They keep talking about how it could move forward, but they get stuck [because] there are some personality problems right now with the boys,” Allen commented about the actors who portrayed Tim and Jill’s sons, Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith.
“They’ve got their own issues. I always thought it would be cool if it was a story about them. That’s a little challenging right now, to put it mildly,” Allen added.
Zachery Ty Bryan, 44, who played the eldest son Brad Taylor, has faced several legal issues over the years. Most recently, he was sentenced to 19 months in prison in Oregon after admitting to violating his probation. This sentencing occurred in March, but he appeared virtually from a California jail where he is serving a separate 16-month sentence for a DUI offense in 2024.
