After Mark breaks one of Tim's oldest tools, he fears the worst when Brad and Randy take control of his guilt and fabricate a story about the traded son 'Peter,' who was given away because he wrecked Tim's tools. Meanwhile, Tim modifies his riding lawnmower.

Tim hears a rustling in the basement and dismisses it as a peaceful rat, but the neighbor Wilson thinks it's a snake. This makes Tim's life a living hell, since he has a huge fear of snakes.

Workers from the K&B Construction Site come and show how to cook food using tools. Brad and Randy convince Mark that he's adopted, and then make up a story that everybody around him are aliens. To get back at the boys, Tim, Jill, and Mark dress as aliens and scare them.

First appearances of: Dwayne, Pete, and Rock, the 'boys from K&B Construction'

Jill has to present a speech to the Library Association, and is beginning to have stage-fright. Tim and Mark dress up as women to help her practice while trying to clean the house.

Karen (Betsy Randle), Jill's friend, visits, and Tim has to tolerate and stand up to her constant comments about his masculinity and his own tool show. Because of this stress, Tim accidentally glues his forehead to a table. Meanwhile, Jill teaches Brad how to dance, because he will be attending Jennifer's parents' anniversary party.

Bob Vila is going to be a guest on Tool Time, and is going to participate in a game called 'Stump the Toolman' with Tim. Randy gets in trouble for picking on a kid at school, and Jill forces him to invite the boy over, only to realize he is as annoying as Randy claims.

First appearances of: Bob Vila and John Binford (Noble Willingham)

When Jill tells Tim they're going to an opera fundraiser, he has no recollection of Jill mentioning it earlier. This prompts an all out argument between the two. All the while, Tim helps Mark build an elaborate bird house.

Guest stars: Ernest Borgnine and Jack Elam

Tim's all-men-poker-night is ruined when Jill's sister Robin (Amy Ryan) and her husband Charlie (Tom Verica) come and have a big fight, thus causing disruptions in the game.

First appearance of: Jill's sister, Robin

Tim purchases a new stereo set, which causes many complications with the volume and Jill's paranoia for new gadgets since she suffers from technophobia and hates new things.

Jill and Karen think that Tim will look at any woman in a restaurant, after they see him checking out a woman on Tool Time. Randy has trouble playing football. Tim's solution? Super glue.

Brad and Jennifer plan to dress like Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy on Halloween, but she shows up with Danny and is instead dressed like him. After Danny tries to ruin Tim's 'Catacombs of Terror', Tim (Nanastein) scares him away with the help of Al and Wilson. Note: This is the first Halloween episode.

When Mark contracts chicken pox, Jill forces Tim to move out for a few days, since he has never had it. Al then offers for Tim to stay with him, and although he doesn't want to, he decides against hurting Al's feelings, which he does anyway when he embarrasses Al severely on Tool Time in front of special guests Mario and Michael Andretti.

When John Binford marries a young, hot tool model, he assigns his daughter Maureen as the producer of Tool Time, who Al fully supports, but Tim is unhappy that she is taking over his show. Meanwhile, Tim is forced to take over the house when Jill unexpectedly gets a job as a researcher for a magazine, and Tim is weirdly left without advice when Wilson is more eager to take a herb bath than help Tim with his predicament.

Jill decides to finally complete their will, which Tim does not want to be part of because of his fear of mortality. Mark fears that his father is going to die. Meanwhile, Brad and Randy build a human catapult and need a victim for their experiment.

Brad and Randy start soliciting donations from the neighborhood for charity and are great successes; however, when presented with the amount of money that they collect the boys can't help themselves and keep some of the money for themselves to buy comic books and Game Boy games.

Jennifer is going away on holiday, so she leaves her goldfish Howard in the care of Brad, who inadvertently kills the fish, and now he has to buy a new fish before Jennifer finds out. Tim and Jill get into a fight over who owns what when Jill opens a private checking account for herself.

It's the Taylors' anniversary. Tim bribes Mark to tell him where the present Jill has bought for him is, and after discovering that it's the steering wheel from Mario Andretti's racecar, he decides to get her ballroom dancing lessons; however, in true Tim Taylor fashion, he makes a mess of it by making fun of the dance, making smart comments and spinning the teacher right into the piano, sending her to hospital.

A woodpecker arrives at the Taylor household, and Tim goes crazy trying to get rid of it. Brad and Jennifer break up, and after he flunks a math test, he blames it on his being lovesick. However, when Jennifer drops by and gives Brad his workbook, revealing that she had been doing his homework, explaining why Brad failed the test, Tim and Jill are forced to tutor Brad to get his grades up again.

Bob Vila re-appears on Tool Time and challenges Tim to a lawnmower race for charity. Determined to beat Vila once and for all, Tim inserts a jet engine from a helicopter into the lawnmower. Meanwhile, Brad and Randy create 'The Tadpole Secrecy Test' for Mark, who wants them to play with him. The test involves Mark holding a live tadpole in his mouth for three seconds, but he accidentally swallows it.

Jill learns her sister Carol is having a baby girl. When they talk about the baby's name and Jill is going through the boys' baby toys, she wishes she could have a baby girl. Tim tells Randy and Brad that Jill always wanted a girl so they tell Mark that Jill wished he had been a girl. This upsets Mark and when Jill wants to bake a cake with him, he doesn't want to. When she finds out the truth, she tells Mark that what Randy and Brad told him isn't true. Tim is also upset because he doesn't want another child. But he feels alright again when Jill tells him that they don't have the time for another child. On Tool Time, Tim and Al welcome Heidi, who becomes the new Binford Tool Girl, after Lisa goes off to college.

At Al's 35th birthday, he wants a wife and kids, so Jill fixes him up with Ilene Markham. Al finds out that Ilene wants kids too, so he proposes to her on Tool Time, later edited to become a Godzilla warning. Randy and Brad write a letter to Mark pretending to be Isiah Thomas, so Tim and Jill tell Mark to get revenge.

First appearance of: Ilene Markham (Sherry Hursey)

Tim has trouble with Joe Morton (Robert Picardo), his new neighbor, after Joe dents part of his hot rod for scrap. Jill becomes good friends with Marie Morton, Joe's wife. Brad signs up for home economics as his elective to meet girls, but his plan goes awry when every other boy in school does the same thing as Brad, filling the class with boys instead of girls.

First appearance of: Marie Morton (Mariangela Pino)

On Thanksgiving, for a perfect Christmas card, Tim builds a Christmas Village and has the family wear costumes, yet the snow machine causes problems and malfunctions, and Tim has to fix it.

Jill feels bad when her father, the army colonel, asks her opinion on his boring book. Meanwhile, Tim builds a hockey puck shooter when Randy becomes a goalie.

Jill joins Al's team for Habitat for Humanity because Tim thinks married couples shouldn't work together. Tim tries to beat Jill's team with an all star athlete construction team directed by himself. Meanwhile, Brad finds a locket and gives it to Ashley, but finds out it was Marie's.

After destroying his budget for 6 months on the Man's Kitchen, Tim struggles to find a good idea for his anniversary show. Jill tries to get guests for a no dinner dinner fundraiser, but finds it particularly difficult.

Tim and the boys plan on getting Jill a hot tub for Mother's Day and getting rid of the swing set so they can install the hot tub in their yard. But they find the swing set meant more to Jill than they thought and she wants a herb garden instead of a hot tub. Tim faces off with the new head of K&B Construction, a female named Les (Victoria Principal).

After researching cosmetic surgery on the computer, Jill finds that Tim wants her to have cosmetic surgery. Meanwhile, Mark beats Brad and Randy in a video game and chess.

Tim's car is in the shop, and he borrows Jill's vintage Chevrolet Nomad which he gave as a present to Jill, and he comes in it to work on a special Tool Time episode in a construction yard. However, he drops a three-ton steel beam on the car. He doesn't tell Jill, and instead lies that it is just a scratch, but it fails when she sees the car in the body shop when she goes to retrieve a book from it. Brad and Randy prepare to stop the bus bully, but get kicked off the bus as a side effect.

Ratings 35 million viewers; 21.6 rating^[3]

Tim begins to become concerned about his health when his 40th birthday nears, and Harry, the owner of Harry's Hardware, has a heart attack. Tim cancels his birthday plans, but after receiving advice from a heart-attack survivor and a medical report, he moves on. Tim and Al shrink down to view a car engine.

Tim installs a central vacuum system; Tim's brother Marty comes over to tell Tim that he's leaving his wife Nancy and kids, but Tim's advice turns Marty against him. Meanwhile, Tim creates a hole in the floor installing the vacuum system, and Jill has trouble working on her psychology report.

First appearance of: Marty Taylor (William O'Leary)

At Thanksgiving dinner with the Taylors, Wilson announces he is moving to Ecuador, but Tim gives him advice in the hopes Wilson will decide to stay. It turns out this is a crisis Wilson is dealing with after his wife died 15 years ago. Meanwhile there is a dead rat in the Taylors' wall.

Note: This is the first time viewers see inside Wilson's house.

Mr. Leonard, Tim's high school shop teacher, comes to visit, but gets angry and leaves after Tim telling Mr. Leonard what he can and can't do on an episode of Tool Time.

Marty and his wife and kids, and Jill's parents come to visit. Jill learns her parents are having marital problems and tries to patch things up, only making them worse.

Final appearance of: Col. Fred Patterson (M. Emmet Walsh)

First appearances of: Nancy, Claire and Gracie Taylor

Note: This is the only episode that both of Jill's parents appeared together.

Tim decides to sell his hot rod to Doug O'Brien (Bruce McGill), a pizza entrepreneur, which upsets Brad because of how much time he and Tim had worked on it. Meanwhile, Jill takes Randy shopping for clothes and he is afraid that Jill will embarrass him in front of Beth

When Al is published as one of Detroit's 'Most Eligible Bachelors' in a magazine, women begin flocking all over him and he starts to ignore Ilene. Mark has to write a report on the most interesting person he knows, and he writes it on Wilson instead of Tim.

Tim insults Jill on Tool Time, ruins dinner, and drops her ring down the furnace.

Guest stars: Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer

Tim and Al scalp tickets to a Red Wings game before heading to the opera with Jill and Ilene, but they get arrested, and Jill and Ilene come to bail them out. Meanwhile, Mark papier-mâché's Wilson's face for a school project when Wilson watches the kids while Tim and Jill are gone, and Brad and Randy try to sneak out for a party.

Guest star: Max Gail

Despite Jill's advice, Tim stays up all night watching Tool Time tapes because of his upset stomach from eating too much Polish food.

Tim continues to watch Tool Time tapes to ease his stomach.

Carrie (Tudi Roche), Jill's sister, observes the family while on break. Tim's brother Marty's moving plans are halted by a slippery floor. Cal, Al's brother, reveals a childhood secret.

Jill hooks Wilson up for his first date (with her psychology professor) in twenty years and Tim gives him advice. Brad gets a horrendous pimple, which he uses make-up to cover.

After Bud Harper, the new owner of Binford, fires Wes, Tim fears Tool Time is in jeopardy, and Bud wants to only fire Al to improve the show's ratings. Brad keeps getting detention.

While Tim has everyone at the house for Jill's surprise party 40th birthday (in which it is her 39th), she is off looking for her childhood piano which her cousin has. Bud makes Al try a makeover, which causes him to experience 'flannel withdrawal.' It turns out Jill plays piano really bad.

Jill, Wilson, and Al are jealous when Tim gets an honorary Ph.D., but Tim later finds out that he got the Ph.D. because the college was going to use him, since he had a TV show, to receive additional funding.

When Tim's mother returns, she begins dating Mr. Leonard, Tim's old shop teacher, and doesn't want to spend time with Tim.

Tim and Jill compete against each other driving tanks and Jill wins; however, Tim doesn't congratulate her because he thinks she humiliated him. The boys suffer at Al's for a weekend, until they see the Tool Time game he invented.

Mark wants to take flying lessons, but Jill doesn't let him. Jill takes piano lessons, but is not making progress at all. Meanwhile, Tim and Al ruin Bud's car.

When Wilson is burglarized and gets some obscure artifacts stolen, Tim surprisingly gets a simple security system. However, Jill, paranoid over what happened to Wilson, begs Tim to get the biggest security system he can find, but the overcomplicated system causes chaos in the house and in the neighborhood. Brad gets the opportunity to cheat on an important exam, but trips the alarm sneaking downstairs.

While Tool Time is on vacation, Al plans to market his Tool Time board game, puts his life savings on the line, and plans to propose to Ilene on the upcoming Saturday. But, Tim, Jill, and Mark discover a malfunction that causes a fire due to a wiring defect, which Al didn't know about. When it turns out the person that built the games is in jail, Tim, Jill, Cal, Wilson, Heidi, and Ilene repair all the games and Al proposes to Ilene.

Benny isn't allowed on the guest list for the Thanksgiving dinner party at the Taylor house, but Tim and Randy spot him at a food shelter, thinking he is having money problems, and invite him as a guest of honor. As it turns out, Benny only eats there because of the free meals.

Tim's brothers help move their mother out of the family home, but Tim takes an immediate dislike to the new owners' plans for the place. But Tim's mother tells them to take whatever's important to Tim and his brothers.

A tense Tim troubles the Tool Time team when the audience includes two Swedish buyers who are considering the show for the European market. Will Tool Time's 'Salute to Men' have the desired result? Tim also builds the Man's Gym.

A singer hints that her relationship with Tim's father was more than casual. Tim forgets where he hid Jill's Valentine's Day gift. Brad and Randy struggle to find gifts for their girlfriends.

Al reveals a secret to Tim and the guys before his wedding to Ilene, that he is not sure if marrying her is right. Jill tries to reassure him by talking about how she had to be dragged to her wedding, which offends Tim. Ilene soon reveals she has the same feelings as Al, putting the wedding in jeopardy.

Lisa (Pamela Anderson Lee), the original Tool Time girl who left the show to become a paramedic, returns. Tim, who is as excited as everyone else to see her again, invites Lisa to temporarily resume her part on the show without consulting the current Tool Time girl, Heidi. As a result, Heidi quits until Tim explains what happened. Randy finally gets up the nerve to ask Lauren out on their first official date, and the date fails until Wilson's advice turns it around for the better.

While Tim tries to give 'more power!' to the BBQ concept, Randy meets with Lauren and Brad breaks up with Angela. Mark's changing, but is it for the better? The Taylor's vacation at a Lake Michigan resort and Tim is seriously considering quitting Tool Time and moving permanently to this resort, but Jill thinks he's having a mid-life crisis.

After Brad gets a soccer scholarship, Tim begins to push him too hard, and the coach kicks Brad off the team. Randy and Lauren want to go out on another date, but they don't particularly want to double date with a couple of friends; Jill saves the day by 'offering' to come along on the date. The K&B Construction guys make an appearance on the show, and Mark furthers rebellion by wearing dark clothes and paint his nails black.

It's Halloween at the Taylor house. Worried that Mark will spend the night alone with Ronnie, Jill asks Brad and Randy to take them to a party they're going to, but they refuse. Mark tells his parents that he and Ronnie are in a film class, and that they're going to be making a horror film - he then asks the family to be in it, and they accept. When they start filming, Jill and Tim worry that it won't be good because it isn't scary yet. When they find his video, they decide to watch it to see how it's going. They find out that it's about a boy, Clark, who has been ignored by his family, Jim, Lil, Chad and Andy. He sees a mad scientist, Dr. Wilsonstein, to get a potion that will turn them into freaks. He then decides to kill them. This makes Jill worry because she thinks Mark really does feel ignored, and wants to kill them. When they start the next scene, he is about to chop his father's head off, and Mark holds up a real knife. Jill has had enough, and decides that they need to talk.

Note: Al's name in Mark's movie (Algore) is a reference to the character Igor, and Al Gore, the Vice President of the United States at the time.

Randy feels slighted when his driving privileges differ from those Brad had when he first got his license. On Tool Time, 'Judy's Rat' pulls cable through hard to reach spaces, and bites Tim's nose. Afterward 'Judy' confesses that she's the real Judy's sister Trudy, and is impersonating her sister in order to meet Al.

The Taylor family has to say some tough goodbyes to Randy after he is unexpectedly accepted into a yearlong environmental-study program in Costa Rica. Meanwhile, Tool Time holds auditions for a group to write lyrics to the Tool Time theme music.

Jill's sister and Tim's brother get a little too friendly, which interrupts Tim and Jill's plans to spend some intimate time together.

While Brad has worries about his SATs, Wilson's visiting friend, an English soccer-team owner, tells Tim that Brad is good enough to play professionally; Brad seriously considers it.

The Tool Time gang take their show on the road in Tim's new community fix-up van. Tim and Jill are introduced to Al's new, very rich girlfriend, and Tim doesn't understand what is so wrong with Al accepting very extravagant gifts from her, such as a car.

Tim invites his brother Marty and his 6-year-old twin daughters to stay at the Taylors' when he discovers that Marty is staying at the hardware store after separating from his wife.

When Randy returns home unexpectedly for Christmas and discovers all the changes that have happened in his absence, he feels unwelcome. Tim discovers that his biggest rival in the annual neighborhood-lighting contest is Al--who gets stuck on the roof with Trudy after winning.

Tim and Jill offer Marty parenting tips when Claire, one of the twins, keeps throwing tantrums to get her own way.

Spending a weekend alone to write a book for Binford, Tim is distracted by dreams of fame and fortune.

Tim commissions Mark to film a video to celebrate the hot rod's completion. But when Tim is dissatisfied with the results, Mark directs a dance number starring Tim, Jill, Al, Heidi, Wilson, Sparky, and Eddie the body shop guy, set to 'Greased Lightning', a musical number from Grease.

Ski-trip plans are put on hold when Jill needs an emergency hysterectomy, as for several years she had not managed to fit checkups into her busy schedule. Tim helps her face the situation, but becomes frightened when complications arise during surgery.

Tim waits for news on Jill's surgery. Jill will be fine, although she had to have her ovaries completely removed, not partially as was first thought. Jill's mother visits to help look after and nurture her, but she starts to blame Tim for everything because of her mood swings.

Final appearance of: Lillian Patterson.

Tim and Wilson's friendship is tested when Wilson wins $10,000 at a Red Wings game that Tim buys Wilson for his birthday and decides to build an elaborate Victorian greenhouse in his backyard--which blocks the Taylors' view. Mark tries to woo a girl.

Jill's thesis is before the committee. During Mark's student-film viewing, Jill's psychology professor sees her criticize him and she is worried that this will affect the thesis committee's decision.

Tool Time continues to be a 'jewel' despite the continued excess presence of the Binford name, and new producer Morgan Wandell tries to give Tim a hard time. Things rapidly turn sad when Al decides to take his mother Alma out to dinner to tell her he's marrying Trudy--and upon hearing the news, Alma has a heart attack and dies.

During the ride to school, Tim and the boys reminisce about some of the good times they've had, with clips from previous shows.

A look back at the past 8 years of Home Improvement, with cast interviews, outtakes, scenes for the final taping—and Earl Hindman's entire face.