Tim Allen once joked about flashing his Home Improvement co-star Patricia Richardson in a recently resurfaced blooper. The clip came to light after Variety published an excerpt from Pamela Anderson’s new memoir in which she claimed the comedian flashed her on the set of the sitcom. Allen has denied the alleged incident took place.
In the scene, Allen is wearing a kilt. Richardson, who played Allen’s on-screen wife Jill Taylor on Home Improvement, jokingly tells him the kilt “hangs long, I just wish it was shorter.” As the in-studio audience howled with laughter, Allen lifted the kilt, causing Richardson to break into a fit of laughter as well. The camera is positioned so the viewer can’t see below Allen’s waist.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The clip spread around Twitter after Anderson’s claims surfaced. TMZ spoke with Richardson, who insisted that Allen was not really naked under the kilt. “People ask me what was under the kilt when he flashed me, he was well dressed under there, I was just shocked that he lifted the kilt, not by a man in boxer shorts,” she said.
Anderson got her start as an actress on Home Improvement, playing the original “Tool Time Girl” in the first two seasons. In Love, Pamela, Anderson recalls an alleged incident in which Allen flashed her on the first day of filming. Allen allegedly made a joke about how everyone had seen her nude in Playboy, so they were now “even.”
“On the first day of filming, I walked out of my dressing room, and Tim was in the hallway in his robe,” Anderson wrote, reports Variety. “He opened his robe and flashed me quickly – completely naked underneath. He said it was only fair, because he had seen me naked. Now we’re even. I laughed uncomfortably.”
Allen denied the incident ever happened. “No, it never happened,” he told Variety in a statement. “I would never do such a thing.”
Home Improvement aired on ABC for eight seasons from 1991 to 1998 and is now streaming on Hulu. Allen played Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor, who hosted his own home improvement show Tool Time with his friend Al (Richard Karn) in Detroit. He lived with his wife Jill (Richardson) and their sons, Brad (Zachary Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The Tool Time show-within-a-show often featured a “Tool Time Girl,” first played by Anderson’s Lisa and then Debbie Dunning’s Heidi. Allen now stars in Disney+’s The Santa Clauses, a spin-off from his The Santa Clause movie franchise.
After leaving Home Improvement, Anderson went on to become a star on Baywatch. Anderson’s new book Love, Pamela will be published by HarperCollins on Jan. 31. Netflix will release the documentary Pamela: A Love Story on the same day.