Tim Allen and Richard Karn reunite for new show about giving household objects more power

By Sam Barsanti | August 25, 2020 | 10:21pm

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Tim Allen and Richard Karn reunite for new show about giving household objects more power

Richard Karn and Tim Allen in 2009 Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez

Last Man Standing is (somehow) still doing well enough in its second chance at life that star Tim Allen doesn’t need to give in to desperate nostalgia bait with a full Home Improvement revival, but that doesn’t mean he’s above desperate nostalgia bait in general. In fact, he’s teaming up with his old Home Improvement buddy Richard Karn to do that very thing for the History channel. According to a press release, the two of them are going to host a new competition show on History tentatively called Assembly Required, and in case having Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor and Al Borland host the show isn’t enough of a clue about what they’re going for here, the press release says it’s essentially about contestants taking everyday household items and rebuilding them with more power—you know, like the thing he would do and say on the show!

Oh, and just in case you’re still not convinced, the press release includes a statement from Allen that makes it sound like he thinks Home Improvement was a documentary about the time he made a show called Tool Time with his friend Al. Here it is in full, because that’s how it deserves to be read:

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Let’s face it—we’re living in a throwaway society. We buy, break, replace… rinse and repeat. Whatever happened to repair and rebuild? There are some people who unfriend, unfollow, and dispose of anything that offends, annoys or breaks—so I’ve created a show to remind people of the satisfaction and pride that comes from rebuilding something on their own. And who better to join me than my buddy from the old Tool Time days—Richard Karn! Now we’re talking More Power! Albert Einstein once said, ‘I’m not a genius, I’m just passionately curious.’ Well, let’s get curious! Even a chimpanzee would at least show interest, right? Wait—I think I just came up with another idea for the show! R-R-R!

Did you catch the part where he subtly turned this toward politics? That’s definitely what he’s talking about with the line about unfriending people who offend or annoy you, right? Well, since he brought it up, let’s talk about the time Tim Allen said that Hollywood liberals are the real Nazis, or the time when he refused to admit that he’s a Trump supporter but did admit that he really appreciated all of the stuff Trump was doing and liked watching “the theater of it.” If you want a timeline of what “theater” he’s talking about, this was before Trump watched as 170,000 or so Americans died from the coronavirus, but after Trump started putting children in cages at the border. Allen has proven several times that he really only cares about himself, which is fine, but he insists on presenting it as some kind of respectable, blue-collar way to live even in his dumb, self-referential statement in a press release.

Oh wait, this story is about a TV show, right? It’ll premiere at some point in 2021.