The Top 10 Home Improvement Episodes

What better place to start than with the episode that introduced us to the Taylor family? While Home Improvement would certainly grow over the next better part of a decade. From this very first episode, the humor and especially the way Tim is are evident. The best part of this episode is Tim trying to fix the dishwasher and it is here we find out that he is not the best at DIY and he has a thing for “supping things up”. The scene where Tim and Mark are working together, only for Tim to get a shock and have to dance it off is the major highlight here. You know, this may be one of the better sitcom pilot episodes of the 80s and 90s in general!

One thing about this top 10 Home Improvement episodes list is that at least half of these involve Tim screwing up and his trying to hide it from poor Jill. I tell you, Jill had the patience of a saint and the dynamic between Tim Allen and Patricia Richards was such a great part of the show. In this episode, Tim is doing some filming for Tool Time and as only Tim can, it somehow results in a huge steel beam crushing Jill’s car! Tim is in a race against time to try and fix the car so that Jill does not find out about his blunder! This is an absolute classic episode of the show and one that has to be on any top 10 list!

One of the things that made Home Improvement so great was that Tim Allen has amazing chemistry with pretty much everyone on the show. Games, Flames, and Automobiles from Season 5 is an Al centric episode. Tim is always giving Al a hard time and his “I don’t think so Tim” bit is one of the most famous parts of the show. In this episode, Al has the great idea to make a Tool Time board game and he is going to use the money he makes to get married to Ilene. However, a problem with the game results in it catching fire. What is good about this episode is that it does have laughs, but we also get to see the kind and good natured side of Tim as he goes above and beyond to help his friend out of this mess. 

Back in the 80s and 90s, the Halloween special was a big deal for a sitcom and Home Improvement had some great Halloween themed episodes. What makes Crazy For You a must on this top 10 Home Improvement episodes list is that in this episode, Jill gets a real chance to shine. Jill plays a Halloween prank on Tim, sending him letters from an obsessive and crazy fan and it starts to freak Tim out. He tries to hide it from Jill, but this just makes her love it anymore. This is such a fun episode and getting to see Tim Allen act scared, while dressed up is great stuff. Jill deals with a lot being married to Tim so it is always funny when she gets to act out a little bit of payback! This episode is sure to be a favorite of many of the wives who love this show!

High School Confidential from season 5 is a prime example of how to have multiple interesting plots in one episode. The main aspect of this episode is some sibling rivalry between Randy and Brad. Randy is the smartest of the Taylor kids and here he gets the chance to take some advanced classes to push him. With Brad not being academically gifted, this does make him feel a bit threatened and jealous. Johnathon Taylor Thomas (or JTT if you want to be really 90s) and Zachary Ty Bryan do an amazing job here. As well as this, we get one of the best Tool Time segments as Tim shows off his ultimate man’s bedroom! You get a good mixture of real family drama here, along with some goofy funny stuff as well.

There is a lot going on in the Season 6 Finale. The big draw here was the return of Lisa, the original Tool Time girl, played by Pamela Anderson. Pamela Anderson was a massive star by this point so the fact they were able to get her was awesome. Heidi, the Tool Time girl that replaced Lisa feels a bit put out when Tim tells Lisa that she can come back to Tool Time anytime she wants! Also, we have young Randy who is going on a big date and we get some of Wilson’s best advice here. Usually, it is Tim who gets the benefit of Wilson’s wisdom so whenever it was one of the Taylor children, it was always a fun time. This was a great way to end the season and keep people hyped for Home Improvement to return in the fall. 

A must on any top 10 Home Improvement episodes list is The Longest Day from Season 5. It is so easy for a sitcom to just be all about the laughs and Home Improvement thanks to the excellent comedic timing of Tim Allen certainly has that. However, an episode like this shows that this series also has a lot of heart and family drama. Young Randy has a strange lump on his neck and what starts as a routine visit to the doctor turns into a cancer scare. Patricia Richards is amazing in this episode as you can truly feel how scared and heartbroken she is over the thought of Randy having cancer. You can feel her agony as she awaits the results of his tests. Even when you know what the outcome of this episode is, it is still a rather tense and uncomfortable watch.

Here we have another Halloween special on the list! This time around it is Brad who gets into the Halloween spirit. With Tim and Jill out of the house, Brad decides to throw an epic Halloween party for these new “cool” friends that he has. Mark is sick and Randy gets messed with by Brad’s friends and of course, the party gets out of control. There is a great scene with Brad and Wilson here as Brad tries to get Wilson not to narc on him. As well as the stuff with the Halloween party, we also get some awesome back and forth with Tim and one of Brad’s friends. Not to mention Tim and Al trying to win an award for Tool Time, or at the very least to stop a cooking show from winning them all. This is a fun episode and another great 90s sitcom Halloween special. 

Next on our epic top 10 Home Improvement episodes countdown, we have a fantastic Christmas episode! Johnathon Taylor Thomas left the show for a while and would only appear sporadically for a time. They wrote him out of the show saying that he was in Costa Rica. Randy surprises everyone by showing up for Christmas break, but he is shocked to see that things have changed, especially with how close Mark and Brad appear to have become since he has been gone. Feeling like a stranger after returning home is something many of us can relate to. This episode is great at showing the brotherly bond these three have. In addition to the sibling drama, this episode features Tim trying to outdo Al in the annual neighborhood Christmas light contest which as you would expect, gets completely out of control!

If there is an episode of Home Improvement that makes you say “poor Jill” it is the Season 5 premiere! Jill’s cousin is getting married and that means the Taylor clan gets to go on vacation for the wedding. Jill plans to spend some quality time writing a special poem for the wedding, but Tim and the boys just want to have fun fishing, playing on the beach, and getting up to all kinds of fun stuff. Jill feels left out and decides to join the boys, but in typical Tim fashion, Jill ends up injured! The most hilarious part of this episode is when Tim tries to help Jill after she is already sick of him and he smacks her in the face with the microphone as she is trying to say her poem. While the Tim and Jill stuff here is hilarious, this episode is also neat in that you get to see the Taylor men cut loose and have some fun while on vacation…. Even if it does end up with Jill in a sling and with tape on her face!