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A '90s sitcoms juggernaut, Home Improvement today seems almost quaint; the humor is sharper in other favorites like Everybody Loves Raymond, and the family depicted in Improvement lacks the dysfunctional quirks that have helped make Arrested Development a hit. Nonetheless, the show holds up reasonably well, and while the 24 episodes of Season 1 aren't the series’ best, they still provoke plenty of chuckles, if not guffaws. Stand-up comic Tim Allen stars as Tim Taylor, the host of a do-it-yourself TV program called Tool Time and an inveterate tinkerer whose own home-improvement efforts rarely turn out the way he expects. Patricia Richardson costars as his feisty wife, Jill, who never hesitates to deflate her husband whenever he puffs himself up. The three Taylor boys, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith), look up to their bumbling father while ensuring that he suffers realistic parental stress. The 1991-92 season also features star-in-the-making Pamela Anderson as Lisa the Tool Time Girl and Richard Karn as Al Borland, an initially minor character who eventually became a sidekick. And then there's Earl Hindman as Wilson, Tim's never-fully-seen neighbor, an avuncular figure always happy to dispense advice over the backyard fence. Disney's collection is light on extras: There are only three episode commentaries (all by executive producers Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean) and a brief montage of tool man Tim bumbling with the implements of his trade. The commentaries supply some interesting facts, however: Costar Richardson, for example, was a last-minute replacement for an unnamed actress who reportedly had no chemistry with Allen; newly the mother of twins, she stepped into the role and shot the pilot after just a day and a half of rehearsal. Karn, we're told, initially took the role as a favor to the producers when the actor originally cast bowed out just before taping the pilot. Ed Hulse

Product Details

• UPC: 786936245844
• Source: ABC STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround
• Language: English
• Time: 9:26:00
• Sales Rank: 1,399

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• Home Improvement: Pilot
• Home Improvement: Mow Better Blues
• Home Improvement: Off Sides
• Home Improvement: Satellite on a Hot Tim's Roof
• Home Improvement: Wild Kingdom
• Home Improvement: Adventures in Fine Dining
• Home Improvement: Nothing More Than Feelings
• Home Improvement: Flying Sauces
• Home Improvement: Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble
• Home Improvement: Reach Out and Teach Someone
• Home Improvement: Look Who's Not Talking
• Home Improvement: Yule Better Watch Out
• Home Improvement: Up Your Alley
• Home Improvement: For Whom the Belch Tolls
• Home Improvement: Forever Jung
• Home Improvement: Jill's Birthday
• Home Improvement: What About Bob?
• Home Improvement: Baby, It's Cold Outside
• Home Improvement: Unchained Malady
• Home Improvement: Birds of a Feather Flock to Taylor
• Home Improvement: A Battle of Wheels
• Home Improvement: Luck Be a Taylor Tonight
• Home Improvement: Al's Fair in Love and War
• Home Improvement: Stereo-Typical

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