This show went really down hill...
when Jonathan Taylor Thomas left. Anybody else agree?
It went downhill when they started to rely more on gags and forced jokes instead of sentiment.
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MovieChat Forums > Home Improvement (1991) Discussion > This show went really down hill...
I have to agree--a "family" show that loses its only child actor who can really act is probably in trouble.
shareWell, you have a point...although, it was only 1 season anyway. JTT left after season 7.
Frankly, season 8 was weak because the writing was subpar compared to the heyday of mid-seasons. Episodes "Whitewater" and "Home Alone" told me that the end of Home Improvement was near.
Yes, JTT had something to do with that. They lost the most popular of the 3 kids.
JTT leaving hit the show hard but I am at least happy they didn't try to shove a Cousin Oliver in there to replace him. That would have made things much worse.
shareThey didn't shove a Cousin Oliver but they did have Marty and his girls living with the Taylors during that final season. That was almost as close in my opinion. It was nicer when Tim's brothers would show up a few episodes a season but Marty seemed to be their every week for most of this season (my memory may be off on how many though as has been a while since I last saw it).
shareI don't know. I kind of liked Marty...and by Marty, I also mean his wife, Nancy. I thought "The Naked Truth" was one of the funniest episodes.
I think people were annoyed by the twin girls of Marty, and how they inexplicably aged the twins from toddlers to pre-teens in the matter of about a year.
In Season 8, though, Marty and Nancy separated, which is why Marty and the twins moved in w/Tim and Jill. I think that whole separation storyline was a transparent plot device to get the twins involved on the show. I didn't particularly care for it, nor did I enjoy the twins in S8. They were too old. I think the show jumped the shark long before that, but the Marty/twins addition didn't really help matters, IMO.
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I really wouldnt call a show "going really down hill" if after seven good seasons the last one happends to be kinda weak in comparison.
Its just the usual - the actors get bored with the show, the writers get bored with the show, the producers get bored with the show, and so on.
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Disagree about season 6 going downhill. I thought it was among the best seasons. Home Improvement was great through 6 seasons.
Season 7 was when it started going downhill. Randy got so damn socially conscious, and it just made him not as funny as the obnoxious/smartazz/problem child to Tim he was in the show's heyday.
And, don't get me started on Mark. Season 7 is when Mark started going goth, being obsessed with wearing black, and the video camera. Enter that silly Halloween video he made where everyone dies and he winds up with Heidi. OK, the end of the video with Heidi was actually pretty cool...*LOL*
I wish this show was on TV so I could watch it again. I wasn't a huge fan of the show when it was on air in the 90s but I would watch it here and there. JTT was a cutie back then and I agree that he could act.
shareI got the whole series on DVD...Not with the red Binford toolbox, but ordered each season individually from Best Buy. They came together in one box, though. They were like $12.99 each season, so it wasn't bad, compared to sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, where it was $150-$200 for the toolbox set.
That was a couple years ago. Of COURSE, that was before the entire series was put on YouTube. Here you are...
https://www.youtube.com/user/HomeImprovement2013
I have the entire set too, but I wish they'd do a "special" set that features the holiday shows; I totally love the Halloween and Christmas shows, but hate going through 8 disks and skipping around to see them, lol.
shareI really think the show never reached a point that it went bad so clearly that the term "going downhill" actually qualifies, at least in respect to how I personally use and understand this term.
The last season was clearly weak. But still not so bad that it wasnt actually enjoyable anymore. Before there was a certain decline, too, but really not a substantial one.
What happend to Home Improvement is not compareable to, for example, Boy meets World. A show that after a decent start declined quickly and only astonishes in how awful it can get.
Or to Sabrina, the teenage witch. A show that had three great seasons and then only ever got worse and worse.
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I agree I mean the show got really lazy in season 8. Brad injures his left knee in “Knee Deep” and then when he has another shot at UCLA it is his right knee that was the injured knee. Kind of a big goof there.
shareSounds to me like the overall complaint is that the show was dependent on the kids and their roles, which I don't think was the case. Not much changed with the adults which was more integral to how the show worked. If Jill or Al or Wilson had disappeared, then I would have had serious complaints. Otherwise it stayed relatively strong, albeit with the afterschool special episodes, but those characters always stayed pretty true to their element.
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