Home Improvement Fans Lose It Over New Jonathan Taylor Thomas Photo: 'I Thought I'd Marry Him'
A mini-"Home Improvement" reunion photo posted to Instagram had fans buzzing over a rare glimpse at Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Patricia Richardson, who played Jill Taylor on the beloved sitcom, uploaded an Instagram snap posing beside Taran Noah Smith, who played Mark Taylor, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played Randy Taylor. "My other boys," she captioned the photo as a reference to her on-screen sons. Those wondering what happened to the cast of "Home Improvement" were given a little sneak peek. Richardson now sported bright gray hair, but was still recognizable as an older Jill. Smith had changed the most out of the former castmates with his long curly hair and beard.
Meanwhile, it was Thomas who garnered most of the attention in the comment section. He wore a black sweater with black thick-rimmed glasses and kept his hair styled up and slightly messy. Fans felt strong nostalgia for the former teen idol with many gushing over how Thomas looked now. "[W]ell my JTT crush is back in full force," one Instagram user commented. "I'll never outgrow my JTT phase, I fear," another admitted. Seeing the "Tom and Huck" actor brought back fond memories for many. "I love seeing Jonathan when we can, i thought I'd marry him when I was 10," one user wrote.
Thomas starred on "Home Improvement" from 1991 until he left the show in 1998. Even though he made sparse TV appearances in the 2000s, JTT pulled away from the spotlight, but his appeal has clearly not worn off for a throng of nostalgic fans. Richardson's post was not the first "Home Improvement" reunion that caused a stir.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas' brief reunion with Tim Allen
Over a decade after the show's last episode aired, the full cast of "Home Improvement" reunited for a photoshoot in September 2011. At the time, Jonathan Taylor Thomas spoke about how easy it was reconnecting with his former on-screen family. "It was though as nothing had changed, and we had literally stepped back onto the set. It really felt comfortable, the way we were joking with each other," he told Entertainment Weekly. That may have seemed to hint at a possible full-blown reunion, but the man who played Randy Taylor had other plans. Since his time away from acting, Thomas has underwent a transformation that led to an interest in directing. "I think at this point, I'd eventually like to work behind the camera," he said. He did, however, stop short of ruling out a return to the small screen. "That's not to say I would never act again, I'm not quite sure to be honest," Thomas told the outlet.
A couple of years later, Thomas was back on TV acting alongside Tim Allen for a few episodes of "Last Man Standing." Allen explained how much JTT had changed since his teen throb days. "But he's so shy. It's funny to see him so shy, so nervous," the sitcom star told Yahoo! Entertainment at the time. "He worried whether he still had it, and he didn't want to do this because he's had other stuff in mind," Allen added. Thomas first appeared on the show in 2013, returning for single-episode guest spots in 2014 and 2015.
Thomas explained that even though he had reunited with Allen, he was content to walk away from the spotlight. "I never took the fame too seriously," Thomas told People in March 2013. "It was a great period in my life, but it doesn't define me," he added.