Hey Gruntheads!
We're off the next two weeks while we prep for season three!
In the meantime, enjoy this mixtape of our funniest moments and outtakes from season two!
Part Two of our Season Two Super Spectacular in which we cover our fan theories (with special guest Erik Montgomery from Fan Theory World!), our favorites, listener shoutouts, and a few other surprises.
Well, Gruntheads, it's been a crazy, wild, and long season two, but here we are at the end! Crack open the bubbly, we're celebrating the last season of Grunt Work and Home Improvement with the first part of our end-of-the-season Super Spectacular!
In this episode we brainstorm plans for a Home Improvement theme park ride, mention the "More Power!" Thor moment from Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War, Truman reveals his current line-up of XCOM soldiers which he
Cue up your old VCRs, hit Top Menu on your DVD remotes, pop in your laserdiscs, and open up your favorite streaming service. It's time for our first ever Audio Commentary!
As voted by you, our Twitter Gruntheads, we are covering Roomie for Improvement, in which Tim must temporarily stay with Al while Mark recovers from the chickenpox. In fact, the episode tied in votes with Haunting of Taylor House, but won the electoral vote by
Tool Time has run a poll amongst its audience to vote on their favorite guest star: George Foreman, Mario and Michael Andretti, or Dwayne from K&B Construction. The result, to Tim's surprise, was Bob Vila, who received 112 write-in votes. Making his second appearance on the show, Bob more or less challenges Tim to a lawnmower race for charity. Tim supes up his already suped up mower with a helicopter engine and enters the race…
Part Two of our Season Two Super Spectacular in which we cover our fan theories (with special guest Erik Montgomery from Fan Theory World!), our favorites, listener shoutouts, and a few other surprises.
Well, Gruntheads, it’s been a crazy, wild, and long season two, but here we are at the end! Crack open the bubbly, we’re celebrating the last season of Grunt Work and Home Improvement with the first part of our end-of-the-season Super Spectacular!
In this episode we brainstorm plans for a Home Improvement theme park ride, mention the “More Power!” Thor moment from Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War, Truman reveals his current line-up of XCOM soldiers which he has made in the image of your favorite characters from Home Improvement, and discuss what it would be like to watch an entire episode of Tool Time.
We also cover the end-of-the-season Grunt Count, go over some production tidbits from season two, and have a very robust, albeit problematic final visit to Pam’s Corner where we have a Star and Star Struck book club meeting.
Cue up your old VCRs, hit Top Menu on your DVD remotes, pop in your laserdiscs, and open up your favorite streaming service. It’s time for our first ever Audio Commentary!
As voted by you, our Twitter Gruntheads, we are covering Roomie for Improvement, in which Tim must temporarily stay with Al while Mark recovers from the chickenpox. In fact, the episode tied in votes with Haunting of Taylor House, but won the electoral vote by having more grunts.
This is our first experiment with this sort of conceptual episode, so please leave us some feedback!
Audio Commentary Instructions
This commentary starts at the beginning of the episode, so be aware if the service on which you’re viewing has studio logos beforehand (ala Hulu). Likewise, this commentary does not account for commercials. If your service has commercials, simply pause this commentary until the episode commences.
This commentary is interactive! At times the commentary will instruct you to pause the screen in order to give you greater detail and extended goofers.
Where to Pause
05:12
Backyard – As Wilson grills behind his side of the fence.
07:25
Al’s Apartment – As Tim sits on stool, just as Al disappears into the bathroom
11:05
Taylor House – Just returning from the commercial break, Mark lies on the couch in the foreground
13:12
Tool Time – Right after Tim introduces Mario and Michael Andretti, a wide-shot.
Tool Time has run a poll amongst its audience to vote on their favorite guest star: George Foreman, Mario and Michael Andretti, or Dwayne from K&B Construction. The result, to Tim’s surprise, was Bob Vila, who received 112 write-in votes. Making his second appearance on the show, Bob more or less challenges Tim to a lawnmower race for charity. Tim supes up his already suped up mower with a helicopter engine and enters the race… and when it inevitibly goes awry, the I-96 Highway.
At home, Brad and Randy force Mark to eat a tadpole, and Jill exacts her revenge on them by making them tadpole stew.
Tim is on the verge of finally starting the engine on the hot rod that he’s been building for over a year, but he’s spending so much time in the garage working on it that he’s ignoring all of the other household chores that Jill has asked him to do. When Tim procrastinates too long, Jill finally hires a repairman which infuriates Tim as it challenges his authority as “The Tool Man”. Wilson reminds Tim of one of his own quotes, “What every job has in common is that every job must be done and must be done well,” and Tim resolves to do better at fixing things around the house, and helps teach Jill some home improvement skills of her own.
Meanwhile, it’s Lawn Week on Tool Time where Tim and Al get into trouble when they accidentally behead a guest’s topiary flamingo.
This week, John Pasquin, the first producer and director of Home Improvement, sits down with us to discuss the show’s beginnings, his development the unique look and feel of the show, his beginnings on Roseanne, the origin of The Santa Clause, working with Tim Allen, the possibility of a Home Improvement and Last Man Standing reboot/revival, his methodology in working with politically charged material, and more!
Our absolute thanks for Mr. Pasquin for his time. You can currently see his work on the new episodes of Roseanne on ABC.
Jill Taylor (Patricia Richardson) has a single Mother’s Day wish: That Tim (Tim Allen) and the boys get her an actual heartfelt gift this year, rather than something store-bought at the last minute. In response, Tim, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan) and Mark (Taran Noah Smith) take over the garage and begin building Jill gifts out of wood. But when Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) doesn’t want to build a gift, it takes some advice from Wilson (Earl Hindman) and Jill for Tim to learn that he should let his boy express his love in his own way.
Meanwhile, on the set of Tool Time, Tim and Al (Richard Karn) are joined by the K&B Construction guys to pay a very special tribute to mothers everywhere.
When Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) runs into his ex-girlfriend Stacey (Kathleen Garrett) at a bar, their brief reunion unexpectedly leads to her dropping by the house to meet Jill (Patricia Richardson). When Tim’s ex meets the woman he left her for, it comes out that Tim’s breakup with Stacey was a little less than chivalrous.
Meanwhile, Al Borland (Richard Karn) finds himself kindling a romance of his own with the newly-single Stacey. But when his passion cools before hers does, it puts both him and Tim in an awkward position.
Guest Host Corner!
You can find Sam Wessel on her podcast Part Time Superhero. Be sure to check it out!
Jill (Patricia Richardson) is on edge because her mother Nana (Polly Holliday) is coming to visit and she wants everything to be perfect. When Jill finds out that Nana is giving her an old tea set while giving a treasured family heirloom to Jill’s sister, Jill is furious – but she forbids Tim (Tim Allen) from getting involved. Tim tries to keep the secret, but when Nana suggests that Jill’s anger and frostiness is related to a bedroom issue, Tim spills the beans. In response, Nana and Jill have a talk in the backyard in which Jill learns the true significance of the tea set Nana gave her.
Meanwhile, on Tool Time, Tim and Al (Richard Karn) build a deck.
Betsy Randle
Bob Vila
Earl Hindman
Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Pamela Anderson
Patricia Richardson
Richard Karn
Taran Noah Smith
Tim Allen
Zachery Ty Bryan
