Jana Kramer had such a crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas that she personally asked ABC to be cast as his girlfriend on Home Improvement.
During the Wednesday, April 16, episode of her “Whine Down” podcast, Kramer recalled taking matters into her own hands as a teenager.
“I wrote [to] ABC — because I was so dead set on being Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ girlfriend on Home Improvement — that I wrote a full letter,” the 41-year-old recalled. “I was 13. I tracked down ABC’s address and I actually never shared this story.”
The actress explained that she was a big fan of Thomas’ character, Randy, who was Tim Allen‘s son in the series.
Does everybody know what time it is? That was the famous phrase that came out of Home Improvement, the ABC sitcom that aired from September 1991 to May 1999. The 30-minute comedy followed Tim “The Toolman” Taylor (Tim Allen) as he hosted a home-improvement show titled “Tool Time,” even though he’s not at all a […]
“He was the older son. I was obsessed and I had [merch] all over my walls. I tracked down ABC’s address [in] a book. That’s how I got the address,” Kramer noted. “So I wrote a handwritten letter and this was my pitch to them.”
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Mario Casilli/TV Guide/Touchstone Television/Courtesy Everett Collection
She continued: “So I pitched that I should be the niece of Tim Allen’s neighbor. You know the guy that’s always over the fence? I should be his niece and Jonathan Taylor Thomas falls in love with me because I’m the niece of his neighbor.”
Despite not scoring a role on the sitcom, Kramer did receive a response. “I got a signed poster of JTT which read, ‘I hope you love The Lion King,’ because [he voiced] Simba.”
Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999, made Allen, 71, a household name alongside Thomas, Patricia Richardson, Taran Noah Smith, Zachery Ty Bryan, Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning.
Thomas, 43, joined Home Improvement when it premiered but exited the series early to focus on school and ultimately made the decision to step back from acting entirely. He reunited with his onscreen dad for four episodes of Allen’s next sitcom, Last Man Standing, and later directed three episodes of the show.
While Thomas has largely remained out of the public eye since his childhood success, Allen teased that they are still in contact.
“Everything is a possibility,” Allen exclusively told Us Weekly in January about Thomas making an appearance on his new ABC sitcom, Shifting Gears. “He just came back [to the last episode we filmed]. He showed up on the set.”
Allen said he would love nothing more than to share the screen with Thomas again, adding, “He’s literally my kid. I raised that kid for eight years on Home Improvement. All of these are my kids and I’m kind of sick about this.”
