Home Improvement: The Complete Seventh Season (DVD)

"More power! More power!" And more laughs as Home Improvement launches its seventh season. As ever, Tim Allen stars as Tim Taylor, host of the popular cable-TV fix-it series "Tool Time," with Patricia Richardson as Tim's wife, Jill, and Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith as the Taylors' ever-growing sons Brad, Randy, and Mark. With this season, Debbe Dunning moves out of the "recurring" category to become a full-fledged regular in the role of Tim's TV "Tool Girl" Heidi. Episodes worth noting during season seven include "Losing My Religion," with Dan Aykroyd appearing as Father Mike Weber, the actor's character on the like-vintage sitcom Soul Man; "The Dating Game," in which Tim's assistant, Al (Richard Karn), must face the fact that his former fiancée, Ilene, has found someone else; "Bright Christmas," featuring Polly Holliday as Jill's flibbertigibbet mother; "An Older Woman," wherein son Brad may or may not be getting married to a college girl; and the season's next-to-last installment, "Tool-Thousand-One: A Space Odyssey," featuring guest appearances by real-life astronauts Ken Bowersox and Steve Hawley. Home Improvement tied with Frasier as America's tenth most popular series during the 1997-1998 season. Also, after missing out the previous year, lighting director Donald A. Morgan won his sixth Emmy award.