Patricia Richardson Reveals Frosty 'Home Improvement' Pay Dispute Ended Tim Allen Series

Richardson and Allen were offered unequal salaries for a potential ninth season.

By Megan Behnke

It's been 25 years since the series finale of beloved sitcom Home Improvement, and Patricia Richardson is still salty about how things went down thanks to a pay dispute. Richardson starred as Jillian "Jill" Taylor on all eight seasons of the Tim Allen-led series, and even though they played husband and wife, it wasn't so equal between the two of them.

In an interview with The L.A. Times, Richardson recalled her time on Home Improvement in the later seasons. The Emmy-nominated actress had a divorce and wanted to be in her children's lives more. Her seven-year contract was extended to include one more season, but if she had been paid enough, a Season 9 could have happened. Despite telling others "there's not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year," she did provide a big number in response to when ABC's attempt to produce Season 9.

At the time both she and Allen agreed the series needed to end, especially since ratings were decreasing and fan-favorite Jonathan Taylor Thomas had exited at the beginning of Season 8. Additionally, Allen and Richardson kept working with new directors and had to make sure their storylines were right for their characters. However, soon, Richardson got an offer of $1 million per episode while Allen would get $2 million for a 24-episode Season 9. While Allen "jumped at the offer," Richardson did not. She tried to counteroffer $2 million, so she was paid the same amount as her on-screen husband.

"All I really care about is having enough money to live on, get my kids to college, and leave them some," Richardson explained. "I don't need a plane. I don't need a boat. I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much. That was my way to say 'no' and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney. I'd been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my ass off. I was a big reason why women were watching."

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Even though the deal was shot down, producers didn't see the point of doing the show without Patricia Richardson. After eight seasons and 204 episodes, Home Improvement officially came to an end on May 25, 1999, by having the Taylors move from Detroit to Indiana for Jill's new job. Now, fans are continuing to watch Home Improvement and still hoping for any type of reboot, but that may be hard for some of the cast members.

The pay dispute put a damper on Richardson and Allen's relationship as Richardson said, "I was mad at Tim because he was leaving me alone being the only person saying no, which made me feel terrible and like the bad guy, and he was upset with me for leaving."

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