With an important conversation around gender-based income inequality in Hollywood, 90s sitcom actress Patricia Richardson revealed why she decided to leave the ABC show Home Improvement.
from left, Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson
What’s Happening:
- Patricia Richardson, known for her role as Jill Taylor on the hit ABC sitcom Home Improvement, revealed that she did not return to the show for a ninth season due to income inequality with her male co-star Tim Allen.
- Deadline reports that Richardson was offered $1 million per episode for the 25-episode ninth season. Only half of what Allen would have made.
- In the wake of her divorce with Ray Baker, Richardson wanted to spend more time with her family. This encouraged her to make a statement about her value to the series.
- In what she knew would be a doomed offer, Richardson agreed to sign on for another season if she was paid equally to Allen and given an executive producer credit on the show. She stated “I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “That was my way to say ‘no’ and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney. I’d been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my ass off. I was a big reason why women were watching.”
- With her pitch denied, Home Improvement ended after 8 seasons in 1999.
- In what was a very tumultuous period of time in her relationship with Allen, Richardson said, “I was mad at Tim because he was leaving me alone, being the only person saying no, which made me feel terrible and like the bad guy, and he was upset with me for leaving.”
- However, the two reunited on Allen’s series Last Man Standing, proving that the bad blood between them is over. She exclaimed that she’s always loved working with him.