Tim Allen and Richard Karn Are a Dynamic Duo — but Are They Friends in Real Life?

TV personalities Tim Allen and Richard Karn worked together for years. Some may know them from the days they co-starred as Tim and Al on Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999. Many of us may even wish for a reboot, but it doesn't look as though that's happening anytime soon. Luckily, though, Tim and Richard are back together, and this time, they're hosting a whole new show.

Alongside April Wilkerson, Tim and Richard are hosting the competition show Assembly Required. In this series, builders from across the country show off their skills to build and revive household items, and Tim and Richard educate everyone about the history of the items.  

Even though Tim and Richard have been working together for years, people wonder: Are they friends in real life? 

Home Improvement may have ended more than 20 years ago, but that was not the end of Tim and Richard's friendship. All this time, the two have kept in touch and kept their friendship alive. In a tweet about Assembly Required from August 2020, Tim calls Richard an "old buddy" of his. 

"I've always admired people who repair something instead of replace it," Tim said. "So, I created a competition show with @HISTORY, and my old buddy @TheRichardKarn, to challenge the people who love to get stuff done!"

In fact, Tim has even said that he and the rest of the cast of Home Improvement are still close friends. "All of us are real close," Allen said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "I still see Richard way too much, boy, way too much."

Tim continued saying that he wanted Richard to join him on Assembly Required because Richard was the "reality side" of Tool Time (the fictional tool show-within-a-show that starred Tim and Richard's Home Improvement characters, Tim Taylor and Al Borland). 

"I wanted to have Richard a part of this because it seemed like a reality extension of what Tool Time really was, where I add more power to it, I break something, he'd be the reality side of it, and it was a good fit," Tim said. "This [show] is improv for 12 hours a day and I'm out of my mind. It's just like Al Borland and Tim Taylor."

Even though fans of Home Improvement have been waiting for the show to come back ever since it ended in the late '90s, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Tim got people excited by bringing his Home Improvement character (Tim Taylor) into his show Last Man Standing. Some were hoping that this was a sign of a reboot while others wanted the show Tool Time.

It looks like Assembly Required will be the closest thing to Home Improvement fans will get to a reboot. While the two of them won't be reprising their Home Improvement roles, their friendship will be a great reminder that the spirit of the show has never really gone away and the bond between the actors is probably just as strong now as it was in the '90s.