‘Home Improvement’ star Patricia Richardson claims Tim Allen pay gap ended show: ‘He was upset with me’
There was nothing that could’ve gotten her to do more “tool time.”
Patricia Richardson, who starred in “Home Improvement” as family matriarch Jill Taylor, shared that she used the large pay gap between her and Tim Allen to get out of shooting another season of the hit ABC show.
The 73-year-old made it clear at the time that Season 8, which they filmed in 1998, would be her last.
“I told everybody, there’s not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year. This show is over. It needs to end,” she told the LA Times.
According to the outlet, both Richardson and Allen, 70, agreed that it was time to end the beloved show — but ABC made an offer to get them both to come back for a a 25-episode ninth season.
The network offered $1 million per episode for Richardson and $2 million per episode for Allen, and, according to Richardson, Allen was all for accepting the offer.
Richardson claimed she countered, telling the network that she’d stay if they agreed to pay her the same $2 million per episode that Allen was offered.
“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,” she said. “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.”
As she expected, the offer was turned down, resulting in the show ending in 1999 with Season 8.
But this series of events led to tension between her and her co-star.
“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,” she said, “and he was upset with me for leaving.”
The Post has reached out to Allen’s rep for comment.
“Home Improvement” co-creator and executive producer Carmen Finestra, meanwhile, told the LA Times that he couldn’t “remember one discussion” about continuing the show without Richardson. “It just couldn’t have worked,” he said.
Executive producer Elliot Shoenman added, “Without her, it just didn’t make any sense.”
Allen and Richardson reportedly don’t keep in touch, but the pair reunited in 2015 to film two episodes of his series “Last Man Standing.”
She praised his talent to the Times and said she “never stopped loving working with him.”
Richardson also recently responded to Allen’s claims that the entire “Home Improvement” cast was on board for a reboot, saying she was never asked about the possibility.
“It was so weird. I would hear he was coming out publicly and saying this stuff about everyone was on board to do a ‘Home Improvement’ reunion, but he never asked me and he never asked [series co-star] Jonathan [Taylor Thomas],” Richardson said on an episode of the “Back to the Best” podcast.
“I called Jonathan one day and said, ‘Has he asked you about this?’ He went, ‘No,’ ” she said of Thomas, who played her son Randy on the sitcom.
“So why is he saying everyone is on board when he hasn’t talked to you or me?” Richardson said about her conversation with Thomas.
