Home Improvement: Season 1

An immediate hit with both fans and critics, this classic family comedy earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series in its very first season and soon found its place among the most popular and acclaimed sitcoms in television history. Tim Allen ratchets up the laughs as Tim "The Toolman" Taylor in HOME IMPROVEMENT'S landmark first season. Relive every hilarious moment with the accident-prone TV show host and the original "Tool Time" girl Pamela Anderson, in this comprehensive 3-disc set, including all 24 episodes and exclusive bonus features. It's the show you love -- with "more power" than ever! Amazon.com There's no more reliable engine for comedy than the differences between men and women; Home Improvement puts that topic front and center. Launched from the stand-up comedy of Tim Allen (The Santa Clause, the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story), this sturdy sitcom rests on the endearing, befuddled machismo of Tim Taylor (Allen), the host of a how-to-build-stuff show called Tool Time, who finds raising three sons and being a supportive husband isn't always as easy as sanding down a door frame. In the show's first season, the tried-and-true domestic plotlines (for example: wife wants to have a romantic dinner, husband wants to watch the big game--the fodder of every family sitcom since the dawn of television) are given a fresh spin by Home Improvement's embrace (and gentle mockery) of the men's movement that flourished in the early '90s. Tim's neighbor Wilson (Earl Hindman), whose face is always obscured by the fence between their yards, proves to be a font of Iron John-style wisdom--wisdom that Tim comically garbles when he puts it into practice. Allen and Patricia Richardson (as Tim's prickly but tolerant wife, Jill) immediately established a cozy but smart banter with enough bite to rise above the bland bickering of too many sitcoms. Some jokes degenerate into schtick--Tim's manly grunting becomes rote by the second episode--but Allen and his writing team consistently found surprises in this familiar territory. The capable supporting cast also includes Tim's sensitive and woefully single assistant Al (Richard Karn), his three cute sons (Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Zachery Ty Bryan, and Taran Noah Smith), and Tool Time's eye-candy (future Baywatch sex bomb Pamela Anderson). --Bret Fetzer