‘Home Improvement’ Co-Star Patricia Richardson Says Pay Disparity With Tim Allen Ended Show

Richard Reinsdorf / TV Guide / ©ABC / courtesy Everett Collection

Patricia Richardson, who starred as family matriarch Jill Taylor on the hit ABC sitcom Home Improvement, said she used the large pay gap between her and co-star Tim Allen to avoid continuing with the show.

“I told everybody, ‘There’s not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year,’” she said in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times. “This show is over. It needs to end.”

Richardson claims ABC offered her $1 million per episode and Allen $2 million per episode for a 25-episode ninth season. Allen was willing, but Richardson wanted to spend more time with her family in the wake of her divorce from Ray Baker.

Still, she claimed gave her pitch to ABC: pay her the same amount as Allen and give her an executive producer credit on the show. Then would she sign on for another season.

She offered it knowing it was doomed.

“I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much,” she told the Times. “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.”

The show ended after its eighth season in 1999. That led to some bad blood.

“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.”

Richardson and Allen later reunited on his series Last Man Standing. She said she’s “never stopped loving working with him.”