Home Improvement

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This show was brilliant...had philosophical musings from the neighbor behind the fence, great humor (although I couldn't get into the parts with the kids very much) and hilarious creations, all tied together with a plot that had a good overall message. Never will be a show like it again it would seem, msot these days just go for crude humor.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCDekoM120[/youtube]

I used to watch this!

One of the classics of American comedy, along with Married......with Children and Happy Days.

I disliked Home Improvement quite a bit because it seemed to me like it was all about the wife pointing out how stupid the men on the show were. I get enough of that in real life.

MWC, on the other hand, I really liked. Partly because every now and then, Al actually would have something go right for him, and then partly because of... well, ya know, Kelly Bundy. After a while it did seem like the series went downhill and just got kinda gross. But when I heard they were in their last season, I did go watch one of the tapings.

Charles is totally right on this. Al would occasionally win and get sweet revenge or come out the winner.

Meanwhile in Home Improvement Tim became a cheap comedy punching bag setup to repeatedly fail. After a while it becomes formulaic and stale.

I think this is what eventually happened to The Simpsons. IMO Homer used to have small victories like Al Bundy, but over time that was replaced by "D'oh!" moments of pain following the Home Improvement pattern.

These two ideas are an interesting commentary on comedy.

I also thought Jill's forgiveness threshold was way to high. Tim would do that same formula pattern of screw ups, destroy something in the house, somehow by the end all is forgiven.

If Tim accidentally cut his wife's hand off with a power saw by the end of the episode it would be reattached and all forgiven.

EEEEEEEOOOOOAAA!
Got the song in my head.