Fans of the beloved 1990s sitcom Home Improvement hoping for a revival will likely have to wait a while longer — if it ever happens at all. Tim Allen, who starred as the lovably accident-prone Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor for eight seasons, says the long-discussed reboot remains stalled, and he’s pointing to difficulties involving the actors who played his television sons as a key reason why.
Allen, now 72, told Us Weekly in a recently published interview that even though interest in a reboot or sequel series exists, it is not likely to get off the ground in the near future. He acknowledged that conversations about moving the project forward have repeatedly hit a wall, with the central sticking point being the three young men who grew up on screen alongside him. Allen did not go into specifics, but made clear that the situation involving the former child actors is, in his words, challenging.
The three actors in question are Zachery Ty Bryan, Taran Noah Smith, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played their on-screen sons during the show’s run between 1991 and 1999. Each has taken a very different path since the series wrapped, and none of those paths has made a reunion particularly simple to arrange.
The most serious situation involves Bryan, who played the eldest son, Brad Taylor. In February 2026, Bryan was sentenced to 16 months in prison in connection with a DUI arrest in 2024. The following month, he was sentenced to an additional 19 months for violating a condition of his probation after a previous assault charge tied to a 2023 domestic violence conviction. Bryan had also been arrested in February 2021 on a felony assault charge in Oregon, stemming from an incident in which he allegedly strangled his then-girlfriend. His mounting legal troubles represent the most visible obstacle to any reunion effort.
The other two sons present different, though equally complicated, challenges. Both Taran Noah Smith and Jonathan Taylor Thomas have largely stepped away from acting, according to their on-screen mother, Patricia Richardson. Richardson noted in a 2024 podcast interview that Smith had not acted since leaving the show and no longer considers himself an actor. Thomas, who was arguably the breakout teen heartthrob of the cast during the show’s peak popularity, has similarly retreated from Hollywood life, rarely making public appearances and giving few interviews over the past two decades.
The irony of the situation is that Allen himself has been the most consistent advocate for bringing the show back. He had been publicly interested in a reunion or one-off TV event as far back as 2018, when he told E! News he wanted to center such a project on his on-screen sons. He reiterated that desire in conversations with TVLine in 2020 and again with The Messenger in 2023. His original vision was always focused on catching up with where the Taylor boys had ended up in adulthood — a premise that now carries a certain painful real-world resonance.
Home Improvement was one of the defining sitcoms of the early 1990s, regularly ranking among the top-rated shows on American television throughout much of its run. Built around Allen’s stand-up comedy persona and a sharp ensemble cast, it blended family dynamics with workplace humor through Tim’s fictional home improvement show-within-a-show, Tool Time. The series made Allen one of the biggest television stars of the decade and launched the careers of its young co-stars.
For now, the prospect of a revival — whether a full reboot, a limited series, or even a one-time special — appears to be on indefinite hold. Allen remains busy professionally, with his voice work in the Toy Story franchise continuing to keep him in the public eye. But for the nostalgic fans who grew up watching the Taylor family fumble through backyard projects and heart-to-heart conversations over the fence with the mysterious Wilson, a proper Home Improvement reunion looks further away than ever.
