HEART TO HEART
How one of americas favorite TV moms puts her own family first!
Former Home Improvement star Patricia Richardson puts her family first.
If you thought Patricia Richardson was a great mother on TV, that’s nothing compared to what she’s like in real life. “The reason I turned down the ninth year of Home Improvement ” — and $30 million! — “was because I was a single [divorced] parent and away from my kids too much,” Patricia, 67, tells Closer of her son Henry Baker, 33, and twins Roxanne and Joseph Baker, 27. “I left the show, and I have put my children first since then. That’s why I’ve kept quitting the business: to be with them.” And, for a time, she cared for her ailing parents. Fortunately for us, the four-time Emmy nominee has kept working in films such as Ulee’s Gold with Peter Fonda (which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination), TV series like Strong Medicine and The West Wing, and her new Lifetime TV movie A Christmas in Tennessee. Now Patricia opens up to Closer about the sacrifices she’s made, reuniting with Tim Allen and much more.
Congrats on A Christmas in Tennessee! It looks like you sing in the film…
My first job in New York was [on Broadway in 1974’s] Gypsy, and then I didn’t work for a year, If you did musicals, they sort of didn’t take you seriously as an actor. I’m not that great of singer, but I can belt! [Laughs]
Have you always enjoyed singing?
Growing up we moved a lot, and we were always in the church choir. I was also in school choruses, so I grew up singing with people and that’s still my favorite thing to do.
People remember you best from Home Improvement. What are your favorite memories of working on it?
There are so many! Tim and I were always cracking each other up. We came up with so much of what you saw on the set every day. Then there was the time that Tim was throwing potatoes around at the male crew members and hit a female camerawoman in the face, so that became kind of a joke. I got hit in the head with a football more than once, because it took so long for Disney to give the kids an outdoor space to play that was safe — and they weren’t that good at it! It was just a fun set, and we really were a family.
Do you and Tim still keep in touch?
When I go back there [to guest star on Last Man Standing], yeah, but I travel a lot and he does, too. He is very dedicated to Nancy Travis, who is the nicest person in the world, and he has his own real wife, so what’s he going to do hanging around with me? When I went to do the show, he would think it was so weird. He’d do a bedroom scene with Nancy, then I was on the set and his real wife would be out in the audience. He was so confused!
You’ve talked about leaving Home Improvement in 1999, after your 1995