It's a new season of Home Improvement, which means all new ventures for our beloved characters. A little more of the same, and some significant changes. While Tool Time is unfortunately staying the same, they have managed to get a new tool girl: Heidi Keppert, replacing Lisa who went on to Baywatch...er, I mean college. Anyway, today on Tool Time, the subject is sticks. Tim presents a pair of sticks he paid $15 for, and wants to demonstrate how to start a fire by rubbing the sticks together. Trust me, it works, so long as you know what you're doing. Tim doesn't, and yet he still stars a fire. He ignites his whole sleeve--I guess he washes his clothes in gasoline--and Al douses him in retardant...very appropriate. At home, Jill tries to get the boys ready for their first day of school, and regales them with her own twisted, boring school days and how she was a teacher's pet and got beat up on a daily basis. On the lighter side of the news, Jill's sister Plot-Point...er, Carol, just had a baby. This gets Jill feeling all sentimental and gets her remembering the babies she had. Putting together a box of the boys' old baby things, she comes across a pink blanket she'd knitted when she was pregnant with Mark. Jill had hoped he'd be a girl--this explains so much. She opts to hold on to the blanket, just in case...
When Brad and Randy find out about the blanket and about Jill praying for Mark to be a girl, they take it upon themselves to tell him. They point out to Mark all the girlie things Jill does with him, and that she's pretending he's her daughter. While their intentions are mean- spirited, there's actually a fair amount of truth in what Brad and Randy are saying. As a result, he rejects Jill's invite to bake a cake that day. Other than that, Jill's still got babies on the brain and seems to really want to have another kid. Tim is dead-set against it. He's put his foot down, and hopefully not in his mouth. Now we jump over to Tool Time where Tim and Al talk about tool sharpeners. To demonstrate the sharpness, Tim tries to shave Al's beard, but he refuses, so Tim brings out Test Dummy Al, a life-size duplicate of Al "except more animated." When giving him a shave, he takes a little too much off the top--of his neck. Ha....ha. At home, Jill and Mark finally get to talking. He tells about finding out Jill's secret pining for a girl when he was born, and after Jill grounds Brad and Randy for telling him, she says she loves him exactly the way he is and wouldn't trade him for anything. Brad and Randy, on the other hand... and Tim talks with Wilson, who helps put the baby thing into perspective: Tim has three boys to whom he can bestow his manly knowledge, but Jill doesn't have a girl on to whom she can bestow her feminine knowledge. Therefore, Tim decides to be more open to talking about possibly having another child. Fortunately for him, she's changed her mind about having a baby. All she wanted really was for Tim to listen to her. And remember, guys, that's ALL a woman really wants: for you to listen...while she does all the talking. So, how do we cap off this little misadventure? Tim sneaks Test Dummy Al in flannel pajamas into bed to surprise Jill. Her reaction is not quite what Tim expected.
That prank at the end was pretty funny, and I'd have to say this episode as a whole was pretty good. A worthy start to Season 3, and it's also where we're introduced to Heidi who, as far as acting goes, is a little better than Lisa. It's ironic that in Season 7, there would be a similar scenario where Tim spends some time with his niece and decides he wants a girl, and Jill is the one who shuts the door on the whole thing. I wonder what would've happened if they actually decided to let the Taylors have another child? I can just imagine it: a lot of pregnant jokes about Jill lugging that stomach around. Maybe Tim could invent a stroller to support it...and then when the baby is born, maybe it could be born right in the house, or even on Tool Time because...why the hell not? True, there wouldn't be much to do with it as a baby, but when she got older, then there could be feasible story lines. Well, at least Claire and Gracie filled in as surrogate Taylor daughters later in the series. I do recommend Maybe, Baby. It has a good story and I think it's relatable to most couples out there who are anticipating adding another little mouth to feed to their family. And if you don't, I suggest using protection.
When Brad and Randy find out about the blanket and about Jill praying for Mark to be a girl, they take it upon themselves to tell him. They point out to Mark all the girlie things Jill does with him, and that she's pretending he's her daughter. While their intentions are mean- spirited, there's actually a fair amount of truth in what Brad and Randy are saying. As a result, he rejects Jill's invite to bake a cake that day. Other than that, Jill's still got babies on the brain and seems to really want to have another kid. Tim is dead-set against it. He's put his foot down, and hopefully not in his mouth. Now we jump over to Tool Time where Tim and Al talk about tool sharpeners. To demonstrate the sharpness, Tim tries to shave Al's beard, but he refuses, so Tim brings out Test Dummy Al, a life-size duplicate of Al "except more animated." When giving him a shave, he takes a little too much off the top--of his neck. Ha....ha. At home, Jill and Mark finally get to talking. He tells about finding out Jill's secret pining for a girl when he was born, and after Jill grounds Brad and Randy for telling him, she says she loves him exactly the way he is and wouldn't trade him for anything. Brad and Randy, on the other hand... and Tim talks with Wilson, who helps put the baby thing into perspective: Tim has three boys to whom he can bestow his manly knowledge, but Jill doesn't have a girl on to whom she can bestow her feminine knowledge. Therefore, Tim decides to be more open to talking about possibly having another child. Fortunately for him, she's changed her mind about having a baby. All she wanted really was for Tim to listen to her. And remember, guys, that's ALL a woman really wants: for you to listen...while she does all the talking. So, how do we cap off this little misadventure? Tim sneaks Test Dummy Al in flannel pajamas into bed to surprise Jill. Her reaction is not quite what Tim expected.
That prank at the end was pretty funny, and I'd have to say this episode as a whole was pretty good. A worthy start to Season 3, and it's also where we're introduced to Heidi who, as far as acting goes, is a little better than Lisa. It's ironic that in Season 7, there would be a similar scenario where Tim spends some time with his niece and decides he wants a girl, and Jill is the one who shuts the door on the whole thing. I wonder what would've happened if they actually decided to let the Taylors have another child? I can just imagine it: a lot of pregnant jokes about Jill lugging that stomach around. Maybe Tim could invent a stroller to support it...and then when the baby is born, maybe it could be born right in the house, or even on Tool Time because...why the hell not? True, there wouldn't be much to do with it as a baby, but when she got older, then there could be feasible story lines. Well, at least Claire and Gracie filled in as surrogate Taylor daughters later in the series. I do recommend Maybe, Baby. It has a good story and I think it's relatable to most couples out there who are anticipating adding another little mouth to feed to their family. And if you don't, I suggest using protection.
