Patricia Richardson Defends Tim Allen – Says Her ‘Home Improvement’ Co-Star Deserves More ‘Credit’

Patricia Richardson starred with Tim Allen on the sitcom “Home Improvement” from 1991 until 1999, and in a new interview, she’s speaking out to defend her former co-star by saying that she feels he’s not given enough “credit.”

‘People Don’t Give Tim Enough Credit’

“People don’t give Tim enough credit for the acting that he was doing,” Richardson, 72, told Fox News. “He had never acted before. He was getting acting lessons on the side.”

Richardson, who’d had years of experience working in the theater, noticed immediately that Allen, 69, was a natural when it came to acting. 

“I’d worked in New York theater for years, and all actors sometimes have trouble listening,” Richardson said. “We’re self-conscious or we don’t know what we’re doing or we’re not really listening to the other person and just trusting ourselves to just respond. Tim did that immediately. Tim did that to such a degree that it scared him.”

“Early on in the first couple of episodes, if I would cry about something — the first time that I did that — he was so listening, and he was always so involved and just bouncing back,” she added. “We were always just so listening to each other and reacting that I saw tears starting to come out of his eyes. And that totally freaked him out. And he stopped everything and just said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute! She’s upset!’ [Director John] Pasquin said, ‘She’s acting, Tim.'”

Related: Patricia Richardson Defends Tim Allen After He’s Accused Of Flashing Pamela Anderson On ‘Home Improvement’ Set

Richardson And Allen Connected ‘Immediately’

Richardson went on to say that she and Allen connected “immediately,” and that she defended him often in the early days of the show.

“I kept telling the guys who would like, bug him, and after our first couple performances, they would be on him,” she said. “And I would be like, ‘Why are you giving him such a hard time? He’s brilliant. He’s better than a lot of actors I’ve worked with that are really actors in New York who don’t even look at you, you know?’ So, I was like, ‘Stop. Leave him alone. He’s doing great.’ And I always thought so.”

Richardson then said that because “Home Improvement” explored some heavier themes, Allen had to display more of an acting range than other sitcom stars. 

“Obviously, Jerry Seinfeld was so charming and great,” she said. “But I don’t think you ever had to see Jerry do something serious, you know, like losing his parents or talking about the death of his father or dealing with lots of things that we dealt with in that show.”

“Tim was right there for it always,” she continued. “And so it’s not surprising that he went on to a long career of doing a lot of movies and other shows.”

Related: Patricia Richardson Fears Her ‘Home Improvement’ Costar Tim Allen Has ‘Never Really Forgiven’ Her For This

Richardson Praises Roseanne Barr

In this same interview, Richardson praised Roseanne Barr for changing the way women were portrayed on television. 

“I always give credit to ‘Roseanne’ because before ‘Roseanne,’ every mother sort of had to look perfect. Be perfect,” she said. “That was what I loved so much about her when I was, you know, in bed with my pregnancy and just being a mom. And I would watch her, and I’d be like, ‘Yes, this woman, oh my gosh, this woman, this family.’”

Though it’s been over 20 years since “Home Improvement” went off the air, it is still beloved by millions of fans to this day. We’re so glad to see that after all these years, Richardson still has Allen’s back in such a devoted way!