A lot of water has passed under the bridge since do-it-yourselfer Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) hosted his first episode of cable TV's "Tool Time" in the opening season of Home Improvement. As the series enters its fifth season, Tim's son Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), ten years old when the series started, is just about to begin his first year in high school, where he is destined to excel as a hockey player (and also to lose his trademarked ponytail). Season five also introduces a new recurring character: Tim's new boss, Bud Harper (Charles Robinson), who takes an instant dislike to Tim's on-air assistant, Al (Richard Karn). Additionally, more screen time is allotted to Irene Markham (Sherry Hursey), Al's off-and-on fiancée. Down from third place in the 1994-1995 ratings, Home Improvement still closed at a strong seventh place at the climax of its fifth season.

Tim Taylor (Tim Allen), self-assured authority on all things mechanical while starring in his own cable-TV series "Tool Time," continues to be an all-thumbs prophet without honor in his own home as Home Improvement enters its third season. With Tim's on-air "Tool Girl" Lisa having left for greener pastures (much like the actress who played her, Pamela Anderson), Debbe Dunning joins the regular cast as new Tool Girl Heidi, every bit as voluptuous as her predecessor. In another season-three development, Tim's "Tool Time" helper, Al (Richard Karn), a lifelong bachelor, begins yearning for a wife and kids on the occasion of his 35th birthday, thus Tim's helpful missus, Jill (Patricia Richardson), fixes Al up with her friend Ilene Markham (Sherry Hursey) -- whereupon the overwhelmed Al proposes to Ilene during a "Tool Time" broadcast! Finally, Robert Picardo joins the cast as Tim's explosive new neighbor Joe Morton, as does Mariangela Pino as Joe's wife, Marie Morton. Even as Heidi, Ilene, and the Mortons come on board, another recurring character passes from the scene: Mr. Binford, Tim's boss, sponsor, and friend. The death of Binford culminates in a touching (but still very funny) episode in which Tim is afraid to cry upon hearing the news. For the third year in a row, the series' season finale finds Tim locked in deadly competition with rival do-it-yourself TV host Bob Vila, playing "himself" for the last time (on this show, at any rate!) in "The Great Race II." Also for the third year in a row, the series' lighting director, Donald A. Morgan, picked up an Emmy award. Home Improvement closed out season three as America's second most popular series.

The first season of Home Improvement drew heavily upon the standup comedy routines of series co-creator Tim Allen, herein cast as Tim Taylor, star of the Detroit cable-TV series "Tool Time" -- sort of a low-rent version of Bob Vila's do-it-yourself opus This Old House (Vila in fact guest-starred on the episode titled "What About Bob"). Allen's humor relied upon barbed but affectionate digs at his wife and kids, and his ever-increasing ineptitude in dealing with the follies and foibles of everyday life. In Home Improvement, Tim Taylor was affirmatively master of his domain on "Tool Time" -- even though he relied a bit too extensively on his all-purpose solution to any mechanical problem, "More Power! More Power!" -- but at home he was all thumbs with the household appliances, and a stumbler-bumbler supreme when dealing with his wife, Jill (Patricia Richardson), and three sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). As for Jill, she spent much of season one fighting a losing battle to imbue her oafish husband with sensitivity and culture (specifically, trying to get him to accompany her to the opera), but loved him all the same. Jill also yearned to find a job of her own, finally landing a position on a high-profile magazine. The Taylor youngsters were typically mischievous and sometimes irksome but basically good kids, though youngest son Mark (age 6) tended to be victimized by the prankery of ten-year-old Brad and nine-year-old Randy. During the first season, Brad began squiring a classmate named Jennifer Sudarsky (Jessica Wesson), resulting in a variety of amusing and all-too-human "puppy love" situations. Also in the cast was Earl Hindman as the Taylors' philosophical, advice-dispensing neighbor Wilson, whose face was never clearly seen behind the backyard fence that separated the two neighbors' houses. Showing up on a recurring basis was Tim's long-suffering "Tool Time" assistant, Al Borland (Richard Karn), and the show's pulchritudinous "tool girl" Lisa (Pamela Anderson). Likewise making sporadic "Tool Time" appearances were Rock (Casey Sander), Peter (Mickey Jones), and Dwayne (Gary McGurk), the guys from K&B Construction. Initially telecast on ABC's Tuesday evening schedule, Home Improvement ended its first season as the nation's fifth highest-rated program. The series also earned an Emmy award for Achievement in Lighting Direction (the statuette went to director of photography Donald A. Morgan)

Television's longest running sitcom and a crowning achievement in American comedy, The Simpsons debuted in 1989. Relive the birth of this massive franchise with the complete first season in this special set -- full of special extras, commentary, and interactive original scripts.