Customer Reviews

Home Improvement - The Complete First Season

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've only recently started to watch Home Improvement in syndication for the first time, and as soon as I got into it it has become one of my favourite sitcoms. The humoar is very original and the concept was very bright and fresh when it came along on ABC in 1991.
It wasn't just that that made it one of the most popular shows of the 90's, it was also the strengh of the characters. Tim Allen's portrayel of accident proned chauvanistic tool man Tim Taylor helps make the show along with his sidekick Al, wife Jill and three kids Brad, Randy and Mark.

This show also provided more realism than a lot of other shows of its kind, for example the relationship between the boys and their regular fighting seems a lot more true to life than other shows that often represent people as constantly loving and everything always patched up by the end of the show. Home Improvement still has many tender moments that are always well acted.

As well as the 24 episodes on this DVD set, you also get a gag reels of jokes from the show and a commentary by the creators. It's good to see that a lot of these sets now have extras and that the companies are going to the trouble of adding nice touches to the tv shows we know and love.

So overall, this set is one that you should definetly add to your collection, whether you want to re-discover the classic first season once again or watch this show for the first time and introduce it to your family who may not have been around then; either way you are very unlikely to be diassapointed! "I don't think so Tim!"
Highly recommended!

I liked this show, but the family values issues did get on my nerves a lot, and how Jill (the wife) would always jump down Tim's back about the littlest things - it seemed.

The neighbor, Wilson, was pretty cool, always with some wise information for Tim and the others. And this first season, possibly the next one too, had Pamela Anderson in it as the Tool Time girl. Here's a description of the episodes on this set:

"Pilot" - Tim wrecks the dishwasher, while trying to give it more power; Jill gets a job interview
"Mow Better Blues" - Mark breaks a tool of Tim's, which Jill was told to stay away from
"Off Sides" - Tim hires a magician as a babysitter
"Satellite on a Hot Tim's Roof" - Tim installs a satellite dish; one of Jill's teachers visits
"Wild Kingdom" - Tim hears some weird noises in the basement
"Adventures in Fine Dining" - Tim bets Jill that he can teach their kids some table manners
"Nothing More Than Feelings" - Tim tells his Tool Time audience that his wife drove with the oil light on; the other guys say that their wives don't respect their tools
"Flying Sauces" - The K & B Construction guys show how to make hot gourmet meals while on the job, on Tool Time; Brad and Randy tell Mark that Brad, Randy, and their parents are aliens
"Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble" - Tim puts another sink in their bathroom
"Reach Out and Teach Someone" - Tim does a Tool Time episode for women to teach plumbing; Brad worries that he's going to do bad on a test at school
"Look Who's Not Talking" - At a presentation for the Library Association: Jill gets stage fright
"Yule Better Watch Out" - Tim competes in a neighborhood Christmas light competition; Brad and Randy tell Mark that Santa Claus is dead
"Up Your Alley" - Tim and Jill go bowling; the kids get in trouble at a local arcade
"For Whom the Belch Tolls" - Jill doesn't want an old college friend of Tim's to stay with them
"Forever Jung" - Karen comes to visit; Jill teaches Brad to dance
"Jill's Birthday" - Tim buys Jill a lifetime membership to a health club; after wasting all their money, Brad and Randy put together a scheme to get Mark's money
"What About Bob?" - Tim competes against Bob Vila in a trivia game; Randy pulls a prank on a nerd at school
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Tim's boss has Tim and Jill go camping to promote some new camping gear. The problem is that they had a romantic weekend planned instead
"Unchained Malady" - Tim throws away a chain letter; Randy gets dared to do a trick on his bike
"Birds of a Feather Flock to Taylor" - Jill tells Tim that he's a bad listener (happens to me all the time); Brad and Randy try to get Mark to eat a worm
"A Battle of Wheels" - Tim lets Al host Tool Time; Tim accidently breaks some of Jill's pottery
"Luck Be a Taylor Tonight" - Jill's sister and Al ruin Tim's poker night
"Al's Fair in Love and War" - Tim wants to read Jill's old diary; Al tries to ask a girl out
"Stereo-Typical" - Tim and Jill argue over stereo volume

So buy this set, my favorite segments were always the Tool Time scenes of the episodes. There should be an option of the DVDs to view only the Tool Time scenes, oh well.

Home Improvement was on the air at a time when sitcoms were a good source of bread and butter for network television. During its prime, Home Improvement made its share of money for ABC, as the show appealed to a broad audience, from kids to adults.

The complete first season of Home Improvement takes us back to the very beginning of the show. We meet Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor, the host of a local cable home improvement show, his wife Jill and their three kids. While much of the show dealt with the television show, the prime focus was on the family aspect of Tim's life and how it affected his work and vice versa.

Stand-up comedian Tim Allen brought the character of Tim Taylor to life. His observations about everyday life, along with his penchant for getting himself into fine messes, usually involving "more power," made for some interesting situations. While Tim is by no means a stupid guy, he quite often misinterprets advice given to him by his neighbor Wilson, or the meaning of any number of things that his wife says. Somehow he always manages to get everything to work out the way it needs to. If only life were so easy.

Patricia Richardson stars as Tim's wife Jill. She is the perfect co-star for Allen. While she can stay in the background as he goes off on his antics, she is also quite capable of stepping into the spotlight with some great jokes of her own. As the only woman in a house full of males, she finds herself constantly outnumbered, but usually manages to get her way.

Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Taran Noah Smith star as the Taylors' three kids. Through the years viewers got to watch the kids grow and got to see how their parents influenced them as they grew up. Looking back, the kids look incredibly young in this very first season. It is amazing just how much older they look at the end of the show. The kids have some great moments, mainly with the older two picking on their younger brother, but the focus of the show is the family, and if the kids do something wrong, the parents are there to try to teach them right from wrong.

Richard Karn stars as Al, Tim's assistant and Earl Hindman stars as Wilson. Both characters provide some great supporting parts and it is interesting to see all the ways that the show's powers that be find to hide Wilson face, which is never fully visible. The show also started the career of Pamela Anderson, who was Lisa, the original Tool Time girl.

Two of the show's producers provide commentary on a number of episodes, and the commentary is quite interesting and a good addition to the set. This set is worth the purchase for anyone who remembers the good days of television sitcoms.

I too live in the U.K. and are an avid Home Improvement fan, I watch it every day. I just love the way it is just so true! I can certainly identify with wanting to make things bigger and better. It is also the only television show to have made me laugh out loud until it hurts. I am looking forward to seeing the early episodes again, although they still seem so fresh. I have pre ordered my copy, although region 1, as the dvd player I have (pacific 1002w from Asda for 35.00 quid) is multiregion and can even play RCE disks without problem. I hope that the following series are released soon, because I cant wait to get More Power!

I really enjoy watching Home Improvement. (The show itself would get 5 stars!) I was able to get in to watch the show taped twice. I've visited every Disney store I was ever around to ask why they didn't have HI merchandise and asked the store people to make the suggestion to higher ups.

I was signed up for notice of the release of these on Amazon several months before it came out. I forwarded the information to many of my friends who also enjoy the show.

I love having all 24 episodes, commercial free in DVD quality video and sound.

HOWEVER, it gets only 2 stars because there are virtually no extras. There is commentary by writers, producers or someone on THREE episodes. THREE? Why not get some of the cast involved. Why not do ALL of the episodes. This looks like just enough effort to be able to say "commentary available" or something like it on the case.

Extras? About 10 minutes of collected moments from the show grouped into 9 topics like Tim Grunting, Jill's bites, Wilson's Intro's, Al's Comebacks and some more. While it is entertaining (minimally) it is only barely worth considering as an extra. In my opinion, it shouldn't even count as an extra because it's nothing that isn't in the episodes anyway.

Having watched the DVD's of other "TV Seasons" with cast and crew commentary on every episode, outtakes, interviews and other "insider information" I was very disappointed.

There are NO out takes. That's right NONE. The first season doesn't even include the ones at the end of the show - these were introduced in later seasons. Having seen filming twice, I can tell you that as good as HI is, the stuff that gets cut is many times FAR, FAR funnier than what made the screen.

I'm not sorry I bought them. I'll buy several more seasons. I'm just disappointed that the studio didn't spend more time beefing up the offering. Future purchases will certainly not be made with anywhere near the sense of expectation. I'll probably just wait a few months until after the releases and pick them up used. I guess I just hoped for too much from Buena Vista.

It's about time they came out with Season 1 on DVD. I have been wondering about this for quite some time now, and every time I see a TV show come out on DVD, even the older ones, such as I Love Lucy. I have all the episodes recorded on VHS. Now I can have them on DVD and throw away the tapes! I am sooooo excited! I can't wait until Christmas! I want it now! I could watch these episodes over and over again. They have happy, sad, and funny moments, which is why this show is the best show ever. It is better than the new ones that have just premiered and the ones that will be coming out in the future. I urge you to buy this DVD. It is worth your money! I have seen every episode, obviously since I have all of them on tape. It will be worth it to watch them on DVD, especially since it will have a clear crisp picture. This item will be #1 on my Christmas list, well, it is now! I know for sure I will be buying the rest of the series as soon as they come out and I suggest you do the same!

When it comes to shows like "Home Improvement" that are aired in syndication seemingly a dozen times a day in any given market (when you account for cable and local station airings), it becomes very important for the DVD presentation to provide something extra.

Thankfully, this set provides the most important thing first: UNCUT episodes. As most fans by now know, most if not all shows are edited down when put into syndication. Usually, a couple of minutes are trimmed. This, as well as the second and presumably all seasons sets of "Home Improvement" feature unedited shows as they originally aired. This is important, because over the course of a season's worth of episodes, about two episode's worth of running time is cut when two minutes are clipped from each episode.

Visually, this set looks as good as it possibly could. Early 90's videotape. It sounds just fine as well.

The rest of the extras aren't much. The three commentary tracks are pretty interesting. They're a bit dry, but very informative overall. It's a shame they couldn't put more commentaries on this set. There were no commentaries for the second season set.

The "Loose Screws" montage is not really an extra, as it simply slices up little bits of footage from the actual episodes.

Apart from perhaps offering more extras (more commentaries, documentaries, etc.), this set is perfect. I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if I could.

If you like Everyone Loves Raymond, you will like Home Improvements. Every episode is kid friendly. There is always a good mix of adult humor and humor that appeals to even the youngest person in the family. The wacky family situations in the series are not all that different from real family experiences. My kids ask to watch this before anything else. Looking forward to the other seasons!

Although I have not seen the DVD yet, I have seen the entire series more than once on TV, and I can truly say that it is the ONLY show that I sit down and watch again and again if its on at the time - how many of you out there catch a repeat of another show and press the "Next Channel" button on your remote control, simply because you've already seen it before? Not this show - my Wife even says to me - haven't you already seen this episode to which I reply "nearly thirty times and it still gives me the same laughs as it did the first time I saw it!"

As usual, Tim Allen is hilarious. We liked these dvds but had a problem with the language in them. WE also own season 3 and prefer those due to cleaned up language. They just must've worked the bugs out after the first season. Other than the language while watching with the family, they're very good.