Home Improvement is an American television sitcom created by Matt Williams, Carmen Finestra and David MacFadzean and based on the comedy of Tim Allen which centres on the antics of the Taylor family, including Tim, his wife Jill and their three sons.
The series originally aired in the USA on ABC from 17 September, 1991 to 25 May, 1999. There are 204 half-hour episodes in eight seasons.
Home Improvement originally aired in South Africa on M-Net from 3 April, 1993 to 28 October, 2002. It later aired on DStv's M-Net Series and Comedy Central channels. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 8 premiered on Comedy Central on Monday 13 August 2012, at 18h20. New episodes broadcast in a double bill daily, on weekdays. There are 28 episodes in the eighth and final season.
Synopsis
For some men, there's a cosmic relationship between power tools and parenting - the more power you have in your garage is directly proportional to the power you have in your home.
Tim Taylor, (Tim Allen), master handyman, loving husband and father extraordinaire, is one of these men. And boy is he wrong...
As the host of Tool Time, a local cable home improvement show, Tim is the king of all he surveys.
Armed with his hefty tool belt, an endless variety of power tools, and his faithful assistant Al Borland (Richard Karn), Tim is a master of every household problem from leaky faucets to sticky cabinets and he approaches every project as not only an opportunity to reaffirm his masculinity, but as a forum to make fun of Al.
However, it's Al, with his good-natured know-how, that the viewers of Tool Time have come to love.
The roar of a motor, the smell of voltage: these are the things that unleash the hairy ape locked deep inside every modern man, says Tim. But for a guy whose answer to every household problem is "more power!", Tim Taylor hasn't quite mastered his own power at home.
That's because Jill (Patricia Richardson), his loving wife of 12 years, knows her hardware-hungry husband all too well. He may be Mr. Fix-It on TV, but when he starts ogling the home appliances with that mechanical gleam in his eye, she knows better than to let him get near them - and it's not just because the fire department has to be called every time he tries to fix something.
As the mother of three sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Mark (Taran Noah Smith), Jill knows plenty about how to handle mischievous boys, whether they're 7 or 37.
Although Tim and Jill love each other and their children very much, they seem to have one basic problem: communication. She doesn't understand how a man thinks. He doesn't understand how a woman thinks.
Whenever Tim is confused, he turns to his eccentric neighbour, Wilson (Earl Hindman) for advice. A male mentor, father confessor, and cock-eyed guru in a fisherman's hat, Wilson is a storehouse of sage wisdom on being a man, a husband and a father.
Talking to Wilson helps Tim put his cosmic tumblers in order and always makes him feel a little better about his marriage and himself. Now if he could only convince Jill to let him rewire the house...
Seasons
Season 1 (24 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 3 Apr 1993 | Finale: 11 Sep 1993 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 6 Aug 2005 | Finale: 14 Jan 2006 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 11 Apr 2012 | Finale: 26 Apr 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 2 (25 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Broadcast details unavailable
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 21 Jan 2006 | Finale: 8 Jul 2006 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 27 Apr 2012 | Finale: 15 May 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 3 (25 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 23 Jan 1997 | Finale: 24 Jul 1997 | Thursdays, 20h00
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 15 Jul 2006 | Finale: 30 Dec 2006 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 15 May 2012 | Finale: 31 May 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 4 (26 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 3 Aug 1997 | Finale: 8 Feb 1998 | Sundays, 19h00
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 6 Jan 2007 | Finale: 7 Jul 2007 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 1 Jun 2012 | Finale: 19 Jun 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 5 (26 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 15 Feb 1998 | Finale: 9 Aug 1998 | Sundays, 19h00
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 14 Jul 2007 | Finale: 5 Jan 2008 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 20 Jun 2012 | Finale: 6 Jul 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 6 (25 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 22 Nov 1999 | Finale: 8 May 2000 | Mondays, 18h30
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 1 Mar 2008 | Finale: 16 Aug 2008 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 9 Jul 2012 | Finale: 25 Jul 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 7 (25 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 23 Oct 2000 | Finale: 16 Apr 2001 | Mondays, 18h30
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 23 Aug 2008 | Finale: 14 Feb 2009 | Saturdays, 19h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 25 Jul 2012 | Finale: 10 Aug 2012 | Weekdays, 17h30
Season 8 (28 episodes)
Channel: M-Net | Premiere: 22 Apr 2002 | Finale: 28 Oct 2002 | Mondays, 18h00
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 2 May 2009 | Finale: 7 Nov 2009 | Saturdays, 18h00
Channel: Comedy Central | Premiere: 13 Aug 2012 | Finale: 29 Aug 2012 | Weekdays, 18h20