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Patricia Richardson had a “Home Improvement” reunion with two of her on-screen sons, Taran Noah Smith and Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
“My other boys,” Richardson captioned the photo with a heart emoji. (Richardson has three
real-life adult kids of her own.) For eight seasons of the 1990s ABC sitcom, Richardson played Jill Taylor, the wife of Tim Allen’s character Tim Taylor. Smith and Thomas played two of their sons, Mark and Randy Taylor.
Thomas, now 44, had not been photographed publicly in years after he (mostly) stepped away from Hollywood in the early 2000s. His child stardom started with the “Brady Bunch” sequel series “The Bradys,” before Thomas went on to play Randy in 179 episodes of “Home Improvement.” During that time in the 1990s, he also voiced Young Simba in “The Lion King” and starred in family films “Man of the House” and “Tom and Huck.”
Thomas left “Home Improvement” about a year early, putting his Hollywood career on hold so he could explore the real world and go to school. He went on to attend Harvard, Columbia and St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. “I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old. I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break,” Thomas told People magazine in 2013. “To sit in a big library amongst books and students, that was pretty cool. It was a novel experience for me.”
After finishing his studies, the actor returned to Los Angeles and started directing and writing. From 2013 to 2015, he appeared a few times on Allen’s 2010s sitcom “Last Man Standing.” In one episode, he reunited with Richardson on screen and played a character named Randy, a nod to his time on “Home Improvement.”
“I never took the fame too seriously,” Thomas told People in 2013. “It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me. When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers.”
In June, while promoting “Toy Story 5,” Allen spoke about the possibility of a “Home Improvement” reboot, noting that it would be unlikely due “personality problems” relating to the actors who played his sons. Variety reported that there have been discussions over the years to get the Taylor family back together on-screen, but “there have been stumbling blocks to securing participation from the three Taylor boys,” which also includes Zachery Ty Bryan, who played eldest son Brad.
Bryan, who is now 44, is currently serving a 16-month sentence in a California jail stemming from a 2024 DUI arrest. Bryan has been arrested on multiple DUI and domestic violence charges in the past several years. In addition, an Oregon judge recently sentenced Bryan to 19 months behind bars in that state due to violating his probation on a 2023 domestic violence conviction. He will serve that sentence following his release from jail in California. He is also due to be extradited to Oklahoma to face sentencing for a DUI arrest from 2024.
For now, “Home Improvement” fans will have to cherish the cast reunion on Richardson’s Instagram.
