DVD Review: Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season

Writers: Various
Directors: Various
Cast: Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Zachery Ty Bryan, Taran Noah Smith, Richard Karn, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Earl Hindman, Debbe Dunning, William O’Leary, Megan Cavanagh
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Touchstone & Walt Disney
Release Date: June 10, 2008

Home Improvement is one of those shows nearly everyone has seen, especially if they were alive in the 1990s (or happen to really like Nick at Night). I was a teenager throughout the shows’ eight year run. I watched plenty of episodes of Home Improvement in my youth. I remember when the cast came back to do the eight season of the show. They all knew it was going to be the last season so all of the episodes, especially the last one, were rather bittersweet.

Over the years, some of the humor from Home Improvement had lost its edge. Of course, the show was still worth watching. The last season the episodes were exceptionally well written and even with middle son, Randy (fan favorite, Jonathan Taylor Thomas), gone from most of the episodes, fans huddled around the TV each night the show was on knowing they’d soon be saying goodbye to Tim the Tool Man and his family. This was one of the last great family sitcoms and it holds a place in the hearts of those who grew up with the show, especially with the death of the sitcom, which has become a reality of the 21st Century.

Release Information:
Home Improvement’s first season showed episodes from September 1991 to May 1992. The show ran for eight seasons. This review is of Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season. This was the shows’ final season. It ran for 28 episodes. The half-hour long episodes are spread out across four discs and feature all of the latest, greatest moments of the last season for a show that had been nominated for multiple Emmys and Golden Globe Awards (and actually won).

The Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season Box Set is released courtesy of Touchstone and Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Walt Disney). This DVD set became available on June 10, 2008. You should be able to find it, and all of the previous seasons of Home Improvement at nearly any online and offline retailer selling DVD Box Sets. At Amazon, you can pick up a copy of the Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season DVD Box Set for $19.99 USD.

The Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season Plot
While the vast majority of television shows, especially sitcoms were known to go downhill as the years have passed, Home Improvement seemed to get better with age. I don’t know if it is because Tim Allen and the rest of the cast and crew knew the eighth season would be their last season or not, but for a last season, Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season is surprisingly strong. There was as much humor in the last season as there was in the first. This was one of the main reasons as to why it was so hard for fans to see this show go off the air.

Just as a refresher (and for those who have never seen the show), Home Improvement told the story of Tim ‘the Toolman’ Taylor (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson), and their three sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). Tim works on his very own television show “Tool Time”, which airs in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. “Tool Time” isn’t always the perfect show for the power-hungry Tim. Luckily, he is joined by his much more talented sidekick (as a tool-master) Al Borland (Richard Karn) and their eye-candy assistant Heidi (Debbe Dunning). Additionally, Tim (and the rest of the cast) often gets advice from his backyard neighbor, Wilson Wilson Jr. (Earl Hindman), because he always needs it!

In the eighth season of Home Improvement the boys have all grown up and are moving out of the Taylor household. Considering the boys had grown up on television, this season is a personal experience for all of the fans, myself included, who invested the time (years) into the show. The writers of Home Improvement seem to be incredibly sensitive and in tune with the needs of their audience and the episodes all wind down into one final hurrah before the Taylor family says their final goodbye.

The episodes in the Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season box set are spread across four discs. Here’s the episode breakdown, per disc:

-DISC ONE-
#8.1 – “Whitewater”
#8.2 – “Adios”
#8.3 – “All in the Family”
#8.4 – “Taylor Got Game”
#8.5 – “Al’s Fair Lady”
#8.6 – “Bewitched”
#8.7 – “Not-So-Great Scott”

-DISC TWO-
#8.8 – “Tim’s First Car”
#8.9 – “Mr. Likeable”
#8.10 – “Thanks, But No Thanks”
#8.11 – “Home for the Holidays”
#8.12 – “Plays for Tots”
#8.13 – “Chop Shop Til You Drop”
#8.14 – “Home Alone”
#8.15 – “Knee Deep”

-DISC THREE-
#8.16 – “Mark’s Big Break”
#8.17 – “Young At Heart”
#8.18 – “Love’s Labor Lost – Part 1”
#8.19 – “Love’s Labor Lost – Part 2”
#8.20 – “Neighbors”
#8.21 – “A Hardware Habit to Break”
#8.22 – “Loose Lips And Freudian Slips”
#8.23 – “Trouble-A-Bruin”

-DISC FOUR-
#8.24 – “Dead Weight”
#8.25 – “The Long and Winding Road – Part 1”
#8.26 – “The Long and Winding Road – Part 2”
#8.27 – “The Long and Winding Road – Part 3”
#8.28 – “Home Improvement Backstage Pass”

There were some touching moments, some hilarious moments and some poignant ones throughout the eighth season of Home Improvement. While nearly all of the episodes had redeemable qualities, there were some episodes that were my absolute favorites. These episodes stood out as the best amongst the rest.

I really liked “Tim’s First Car”. When Tim finds his first car in a junkyard about to be crushed, he tries to convince Jill he needs to save it. Jill would prefer that Tim purchase a replica of the car instead. In the meantime, Mark helps Brad make his college video, which he sends out to prospective colleges. The three part finale, “The Long and Winding Road” was surreal. The fact that the show allowed the audience to make up their mind about the ending (I say the tugboat thing was Tim’s imagination in overdrive) was respectful of the fact that many of us wanted to remember the show as it was, where it was, without imagining the characters moving on in such a drastically different fashion.

“Bewitched” was a typical Halloween episode of Home Improvement, with Halloween episodes being amongst my favorite of the series, over the years. Notorious for playing pranks on friends and family, Tim gets a prank pulled on him and Wilson disappears, in the process. Finally, “Chop Shop ‘Til You Drop” is typical Home Improvement hilarity. Al and Tim go undercover when Brad’s new car is stolen. As you can imagine, this leads to plenty of laughs.

Home Improvement had a cast that worked remarkably well together. The show was always at the top of the ratings and this season was no exception. I really can’t argue about anything in relation to this show, save for a lack of Jonathan Taylor Thomas (who left the show to pursue academics) throughout most of the season. This is a minor flaw and one that doesn’t hurt the show too much. If you’ve never seen this show, check out reruns on TBS or Nick at Night. The show airs regularly in reruns on both networks. Otherwise, if you’ve seen the show, you probably already know this box set is a must purchase set.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
The video quality for Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season is standard 1.33:1 full frames. Standard for television shows and with the look of a cheaply shot show of the 1990s, this video quality is about as standard for a show from the 1990s. Seriously, the show looks exactly liked it did when it first aired. There doesn’t seem to be anything added or updated. There are some visual errors, compression artifacts, and the occasional instances of dirt and grainy moments, but nothing so bad it will affect your viewing pleasure.

It’s no surprise that the Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season box set features English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Sound. This is standard for television and everything sounds good for such a dialogue driven show. This isn’t a spectacular track, but it isn’t bad. There is no need for volume toggling. Everything comes through clearly and evenly. Closed Captioning is available for the hearing impaired.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
There are two bonus features. The first is a blooper reel. Home Improvement was notorious for airing bloopers at the end of each show. This shows a very nicely put together and fun set of bloopers from the eighth season. This set of bloopers is just over six minutes long. Fans of the show will be thrilled that this was included in this set.

The second bonus is a featurette called “Tim Allen Presents: The Home Improvement User’s Guide”. This actually aired back in 2003. Tim Allen wanted to do a retrospective and somewhat reunion for the show. Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning co-host this featurette, which did not feature any other members of the cast, but did feature multiple clips from the series. Tim wanted to do something while the show was still fresh in people’s minds, though perhaps another reunion in the next few years will be in the works for fans who miss this sitcom.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
Home Improvement was to the 90s what The Cosby Show was to the decade prior. This was the number one family sitcom of the 1990s and it clearly reigned supreme in both ratings and in the number of fans that still remember and love this show. The amazingly powerful and funny eighth season is available in this must have Box Set. I highly recommend you purchase Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season and all the other seasons of this remarkable show. There may never be another family sitcom that can compare to Home Improvement and its predecessors. That makes this DVD worth every penny you will pay for it.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: Home Improvement: The Complete Eighth Season, DVD Review, TV Show, Box Set, Walt Disney, Touchstone, Tool Man, Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas

Written by Dominick Evans - Visit Website
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Dominick is in his late 20s. He lives in Michigan with his life partner, Ashtyn, their 14 year old son Robert, and their Shih-Tzu, Oliver. Dominick is a writer and the head editor for both LI Kids and Literary Illusions. He enjoys composing music and is an aspiring director/screenwriter. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family, playing and watching sports, playing video games, watching movies, and singing.