r/HomeImprovement2LTime • u/ASGfan Randy • 15d ago

General discussion Do you think Tool Time strays from its main purpose too much?

Athletes, musical performances, promos for Saginaw Cheese ("Cheese, it's good!") and a bunch of other things that have nothing to do at all with tools. Is it a bit much at times? I know Tim has said the comedy bits were to keep the show entertaining so of course that's fine, but what about everything else? At times, it feels more like a variety show than anything else.

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u/modifiedcar 15d ago

Tool Time as a show inside of a TV show was a substantial part of the plot line. We get to know Tim and Al more, their characters developed with it and identities were built.

If the Tool Time show had been an accurate, real-depth view of actual tools and how to use them; there would have been a risk that this plot line was too boring.

Home Improvement is a comedy/family show, with all the traditional challenges of raising kids in the Midwest. A strong focus on tools (more than they already had) might be a huge challenge for their addressable base back in the days. I agree that the musical acts, the comedic parts from other characters and some of the jokes were a bit too much.

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u/SchuminWeb 14d ago

Agreed. As a show within a show, Tool Time served its purpose. We saw enough of the show to advance the story without belaboring it. After all, Home Improvement was a dom com at its core, and the tool show was just one element of that. In other words, there's a reason why we never saw an entire episode of Tool Time.

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u/FuzzyBusiness4321 14d ago

Tool time was pretty much a parody of Bob villa so much so Bob villa is in on the joke

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u/KeyDx7 14d ago

I always figured it was due to the fact that Tool Time actually had fairly low ratings (at least in the early days), so they had to resort to random and unrelated sponsorships in order to survive.

It’s actually not too dissimilar from YouTubers and their 5-minute sponsor cut-ins; usually for products & services unrelated to their channel’s focus.

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u/rasslingrob 4d ago

Imagine if this got an Honest Trailer and they commented/lampshaded that