Catch Up on the 'Home Improvement' Ending — Just in Case There's a Reboot

The glory days of television sitcoms might just be behind us, especially since nothing will be able to make us laugh the way that Home Improvement did. After all, the show basically shafted the thoughts of critics in favor of speaking to fans and creating a story that resonated.

The show ran for eight seasons but ended in 1999. Home Improvement starred Tim Allen and gave him a foundation to build his immense comedy career and legacy. The main plot focused on the Taylor family with Tim, using his real name, as the patriarch. They were a very classic midwest family, but Tim was a television personality running a home improvement show.

The final episode of the show centered around a fateful decision: Should the family uproot their lives and move to Indiana? Jill got offered a job in the state, which was a major character growth moment for the woman who started off the show as a more reserved stay-at-home mother. She decided that she wanted to pursue the job offer.

Of course, this meant that she needed to get the rest of the family on board. Tim wasn't happy about it at all and shut her down. Moving to Indiana would be a big decision for the family and one that would change everything. Tim needed to gain perspective by going out back and chatting with his neighbor, Wilson. Fans never actually saw Wilson's whole face on Home Improvement.

The crux of the issue was that Tim didn't want to drop everything, including his home improvement show and life, for Jill's flourishing career. However, Wilson pointed out that Jill made sacrifices for her husband as his world developed and grew.

However, Wilson also gave Jill some advice when she talked to him. "Jill, there is no limit to what you can accomplish," Wilson said, "but if you want me to stand here and sell my best friends on leaving, I really cannot do that."

Tim would lose his home improvement show if they moved, according to his producer, which wasn't an easy pill to swallow. Jill started to struggle with the decision too. While Tim and the kids were all on board with the move to make her happy, she had second thoughts. A huge family conversation occurred and they all discussed their options.

Eventually, Jill pointed out that she just couldn't bear to leave the house, but Tim had an idea. A sequence concluded the show and their house was being transported to their new home via truck and boat. Whether this was a real move or just an abstract daydream wasn't clear. Their move to Indiana seemed pretty certain, but whether they moved their house to Indiana was a bit foggy.

Tim Allen gave fans accidental hope in November 2023 when he teased a Home Improvement reboot. "I see Richard Karn a lot," Tim told The Messenger. "And I talk to the boys … and I'm there as one of their friends. We keep talking about [a spinoff]." They pitched the idea that maybe the story should center around Tim's sons and him being a grandfather.

While Time told Entertainment Tonight in 2018 that he was "very interested" in a reboot, the same can't be said about the entire cast. Patricia Richardson felt that the comments that Tim made were "so weird."

"I would hear [Tim] was coming out publicly and saying this stuff about how everyone was on board to do a ‘Home Improvement’ reunion. But he never asked me, and he never asked Jonathan [Taylor Thomas], who I talk to,” Patricia told USA Today. “So, I called Jonathan one day and said, 'Has he asked you about this?' And he went, ‘No, and why's he going around telling everybody that we're all on board when he hasn’t talked to you or me?'"

So, the reality is, not everyone is on the same page about a Home Improvement reboot. While the opportunity for a spin-off isn't fully gone, this strange dynamic between Tim and Patricia about the possible production could cause some issues too.