Patricia Richardson says Home Improvement ended because of the pay gap

Patricia Richardson says it was not possible to save any amount of TLC – total cash likewise Home improvement.

The actress, who played family matriarch Jill Taylor on the popular ABC sitcom, revealed that she used the huge pay disparity between her and actor Tim Allen to get out of having to film another season.

“I told everyone that there was not enough money in the world to complete the ninth year,” she recalled in a new interview with the magazine. Los Angeles Times. “This show is over. It has to end.”

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Just months before production on Season 8 wrapped, Richardson claimed ABC offered her $1 million per episode and Allen $2 million per episode to have the duo return for a 25-episode ninth season. While she claimed Allen was on board with the deal, Richardson wasn’t interested because she wanted to spend more time with her family in the wake of her divorce from Ray Baker.

So, she allegedly returned to the network with her own offer: pay her the same amount as Allen and give her an executive producer credit on the show — which ABC also reportedly offered the actor — and only then would she sign on for another season. She made the proposal knowing full well that it was doomed from the start.

“I knew there was no way Disney would pay me that much,” she said. times. “It was my way of saying ‘no’ and it was a bit of a reflection on Disney. I’d been there all this time, and they’d never paid me even a third of what Tim was making, and I was working. I was a big reason why women were watching.”

ABC rejected her proposal, so the show ended after its eighth season in 1999, Richardson said.

Her decision led to conflict between her and Allen. “I was angry with Tim because he was leaving me alone being the only one to say no, which made me feel bad like I was the bad guy, and he was upset with me for leaving,” she recalls.

Allen’s representative declined Entertainment WeeklyRequest for comment. but, Home improvement Carmen Veenstra, co-creator and executive producer, told times He could not “remember a single discussion” about continuing the show without Richardson, stating that “it wouldn’t have worked.”

“Without her it wouldn’t have made sense,” added executive producer Elliot Schuneman.

Richardson and Allen later reunited for his series The last steadfast men. while The couple are no longer in contact, and she said she “never stopped loving working with him.”