Friends of the family List of Home Improvement characters

1 friends of family

1.1 al borland

1.1.1 family, fashion sense, , career
1.1.2 al s beard
1.1.3 al s knowledge of tools , home improvement
1.1.4 love life
1.1.5 running gags surrounding al


1.2 wilson wilson, jr.
1.3 lisa
1.4 heidi keppert
1.5 harry turner
1.6 benny baroni

friends of family
al borland

albert e. al borland (richard karn) – master plumber , licensed contractor, al tim s un-hip sidekick on show-within-a-show tool time , best friend. personality exact opposite of tim s – reserved, quiet, not show enthusiasm , has wide array of professional knowledge concerning tools. al made frequent suggestions should host of tool time instead of tim. al not make money tim, in fact implied salary not big @ all. in episode, brothers , sisters , al says gets small paycheck. in episode, fifth anniversary , revealed big reason why al chosen tim s assistant because al assistant applicant willing work salary offered. al characterized mama s boy ; spent great deal of time attempting please mother alma – severely overweight (though never seen). died heart attack near end of series after al asked permission marry trudy. father 60 when al born. young al has mechanical talent-constructing model crane out of wood. al engaged orthodontist named ilene time, ended calling off wedding. dated greta post appeared few times in series. in later season, al met wealthy exterminator named trudy. hit off , married in show s final episode. al might have been based on norm abram of old house because of resemblance (flannel shirts, beard, pudgy, etc.) , fact al real work on tool time show (much norm did on old house). in episode no, no, gadot , tim , al arrested scalping hockey tickets. in holding cell, inmate named george approached them , asked if guys tv tool show , , tim responded why, yes, m bob vila, , norm . al has big brother named cal physicist, , unlike other siblings around world, had never gotten physical fight. instead, settled disputes on cup of tea. in flashback episode of tool time premiere, al noted pisces , had clean-shaven face, while tim had beard. al has own fan club. tim, al left-handed , favorite board games parcheesi, chinese checkers, scrabble , bingo. favorite movie fair lady. 1 episode had pet of al s, turtle named scooter, tim accidentally dropped in cement. dry wit, al serves show s (both tool time , home improvement) straight man wackier, more outgoing tim. beginning @ end of fifth season, al invented second source of income himself inventing board game based on tool time, features tim, al , heidi playable characters.

family, fashion sense, , career

borland overweight, , seen wearing flannel, tim cracks jokes consistently. reason wears flannel came father, who, when asking young al assist in own various home projects, put old flannels on al keep him clean or warm. al wears flannel tribute him after died.

tim criticizes al s mother, alma borland, never seen (except hand , forearm), apparently severely overweight. in 1 of later episodes, al announces mother getting married. afterwards, screams, passes out, , dies. (she holding breadstick, seen) when hearing news, breadstick shook violently , fell over. coffin, shown @ funeral, double-wide keep humorous tone.

al has brother, cal, looks , dresses him, though physicist ( sisters , brothers ). in episode commentaries featured on season 1 dvd set, executive producers reveal cal fan texas sent photo in fan letter. upon seeing resemblance al, producers brought him in al s brother, cal.

when al younger, took fencing in school , served in navy lt (j.g.) seabees, , although wanted see world, stationed in fallon, nevada (interestingly enough, in episode al mentions this, uses shibboleth pronunciation of nevada , uncommon outsider, living in midwest). after finishing military service, al construction crane operator (afl–cio local 324), apparently got certified master plumber , carpenter before getting job on tool time. al drives 1983 mercury grand marquis station wagon mother passed down him, , has put time , effort preserving vehicle. while al has similar interests of tim such cars, has rather odd interests, such being able deduce different types of wood smell rather appearance or texture.

al gets along tim s sons. however, tim, al has faced problems , needed seek advice of wilson. outside of job, al has made investments such becoming part owner of harry s hardware , marketing successful board game based on tool time, object avoid hospitalization.

al s beard

al s beard constant joke tim. in 1 episode tool time celebrating fifth anniversary show, al shown in first ever episode of tool time clean shaven, while tim has beard.

al s knowledge of tools , home improvement

he knows doing more tim, , seems have better knowledge of tools , home improvement tim. in first episode of tool time, described master plumber tim taylor. serious job, unlike tim, jokes , messes project. al speaks fondly of time u.s. navy seabee. although tim 1 messes of projects on tool time, al 1 blamed mishap, or injured mishap. on rare occasions al cause mishap of own, these more due overcalculating tim s attitude of more power . despite this, tim , al friends offstage, , al helps out, either helping home projects, or watching children.

love life

throughout series, al has had 4 different girlfriends. in season one, al went out greta post, whom met while volunteering out during tool time show. al showed interest in jill s friend karen, when learned found man al took , rebounded. went out tim s ex-girlfriend stacey lewis, however, wasn t interested in as thought. seasons 3 through five, al went out dr. ilene markham, orthodontist sisters 1 of jill s co-workers. got engaged, decided @ wedding shouldn t marry. al met woman named trudy in season 7 , married in finale episode in 1999.

running gags surrounding al

his overweight , overbearing mother.
tim jokes al s mom looking smorgasbord .
he wearing flannel.
his beard.
his popularity female tool time fans, source of amazement , confusion tim.
his love of bingo.
his fanatic admiration of fellow home improvement television host bob vila.
whenever tim suggests doing particularly stupid, dangerous or both, al replies in deadpan fashion, don t think so, tim .
when tim make particularly sexist or otherwise offensive remark, al hold large sign tim s mailing address , say, s tim taylor, care of tool time, po box 32733, detroit, michigan, 48252 tim rip sign half-way in sentence, al pick sign , finish.
his unlucky relationship women, despite (or possibly because of) him being more sensitive tim.

wilson wilson, jr.

wilson (right) speaking behind fence tim.

wilson w. wilson, (earl hindman) – tim s neighbor , confidant. child, parents did not allow him speak neighbors, likes talking tim , jill. wilson serves all-wise sage in show, doling out advice taylor family , seemingly knowing solve problem. while of appearances taylors, on seldom occasion in extended family, or nonmember, such al, seek out wilson s advice. has traveled globe , learned virtually every culture in existence. has ph.d. in cultural studies, studying extinct languages , forgotten cultures. house full of artifacts along pet myna bird named mozart appeared infrequently. wilson married @ 1 point, wife catherine died long before series begins (in november 1994 episode, wilson revealed that month ve marked , catherine s 25th anniversary).

at first unclear whether wilson first name or last, full name revealed wilson wilson, jr. in season 6, revealed cousins wilsons of beach boys. has grown niece named willow wilson (china kantner), appeared regularly in seventh season when moved in him while. usual greetings well, hi-dee-ho ... or hi ho, there neighbor or neighbor when greeting tim, neighborette when greeting jill, , taylor lad(s) when greeting taylor boys.

a visual gag wilson s face isn t shown in entirety, (and commonly) bottom half obscured tall privacy fence separates neighbors yards. gag extended on course of series other objects (or beard) obscuring bottom of face, or bottom half showing top obscured (such mask), or full face shown covered paint. audience sees earl hindman s full face unobscured in series finale s curtain call. based on how tim allen saw next-door neighbor when growing up.

lisa

lisa (pamela anderson) – binford s first tool girl. secondary cast member on tool time, lisa s job introduce tim , al , hand them tool requested. when pamela anderson chose leave home improvement pursue role on syndicated series baywatch, written out of series after season 2 , stated lisa training paramedic. returned guest appearance 4 years later, having become qualified.

heidi keppert

heidi keppert (debbe dunning) – second tool girl (beginning in season 3) , master electrician. initially, character seen in , around tool time set. in later seasons, personal life crossed paths tim , al on number of occasions. gave birth daughter (amy) , suffered marital problems during show s run. in season 8 episode 24 (dead weight), heidi reveals tim breasts twitch when nervous. in last episode of series, heidi revealed pregnant second time. outfits typically showed off large cleavage during tool time episodes. tim speculated many men came show see heidi. revealed in multiple episodes tim s son, brad, has crush on her. in seasons 7 , eight, role on tool time increased given main cast billing in opening credits.

harry turner

harry turner (blake clark) – owner of harry s hardware , tim spent great deal of time (and money) , in al became part owner. married  – not-so-happily  – delores (shirley prestia), , couple bad-mouths 1 behind respective backs on every occasion(but dolores follows rule). has 4 sons, 1 dennis (david deluise), whom has rocky relationship. in 1 episode harry told tim had gotten vasectomy. in episode mentioned served in united states marine corps in vietnam war.

benny baroni

benny baroni (jimmy labriola) – 1 of tim s buddies hangs out @ hardware store. benny bit of slacker , notoriously known freeloader – trademark being drinking coffee , eating donuts. benny has not had job in years, because doesn t work. makes money gambling , betting on horse races. on 1 episode ( house divided , season 4.18) while tool time crew fixing benny s aunt s house, structure blown due benny s negligence , not tim s fault; furthermore when tim , family moving furniture twice repaired benny s aunt house, benny, rather helping out, lies on lawn chair watch others work. known being inconsiderate of others; @ 1 point, ate @ soup kitchen regularly avoid paying meals. 1 episode ( , season 5.07) tim selling season pistons tickets (tim had 2 tickets each game , each pair cost $100) , benny not able or willing buy of tickets kept offering go games people buying them, people didn t know, go games without paying ticket. ironically in rare instance of performing earnest work, benny once appeared on episode of tool time tim , al s fantasy kitchen , shown cutting meat inside walk-in freezer.