Figure 1.--Here we see the three "Home Improvement" boys. The boys clothes are a good representation of popular American styles at the time. There was on exceoption. The boy's never wore short pants. The middle boy, Randy, went on to have a career outside of the program. He was, for example, the voice of Simba in the "Lion King".

A television handyman proves to be a klutz at home as he continues to deal with any problem by upping the wattage/voltage, horsepower, pressure, etc. If that wasn't enough for the long-suffering wife, she has three active boys. The boys Brad, ?, and Randy (Zachery Ty Bryan, Taran Smith, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas) are all pre-teens at the beginning of the run. In some episodes they hardly appear, but in others they are pictured throughout. To match their father they are usually pictured as standard American kids loving sports and hating culture. The older one seems to have many of the smarty-TV-type kid comments. While the younger one has goody-goody lines. In one episode they scream, with their father, upon hearing opera. In another, however, the little one is enthusiastic about going to the ballet, but his brothers tease him. They always wear longs. Why is it that American TV continues to keep boys in longs even though they so commonly wear shorts now adays? I have only seen one of them wear shorts briefly in one episode. Another boy was shown in out takes right before taping in shorts, but I have never seem him wear shorts in the show. Interestingly, it was when Randy was with his girl friend and his younger brothers were spying on him in the back yard. Apparently the boys caused a lot of trouble on the set, always being underfoot. So the studio hired a trainer for them. In one shot she was putting them through their paces running and exercising. The two older ones wore shorts, but the younger one wore longs. The studio also banned candy from the set to tone them down a bit, the boys complained about that.

Created: 12:23 AM 11/13/2004
Last updated: 12:23 AM 11/13/2004