Debbe Dunning Didn’t Want to Share ‘Home Improvement’ Role With Pam Anderson
There was only so much Tool Time to go around, at least according to Home Improvement star Debbe Dunning.
Dunning was Pam Anderson’s replacement as the Tool Time Girl, starting in Season Three after Anderson left to bounce around the beach on Baywatch. That show had two advantages: 1) Anderson would have a more prominent role; and 2) Tim Allen wouldn’t be around to flash his power tool between takes.
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Dunning was happy to take her spot, even if the role didn’t ask for much beyond wearing skimpy costumes and introducing Tool Time. This example is in German, but tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Dunning’s role in the show.
Still, a part is a part, especially on a hit sitcom, and Dunning had no intention of giving it up without a fight. That’s why she was so upset when she overheard Allen talking on set one day about Anderson making a possible return to Home Improvement.
“I go, ‘What are you guys talking about?’” Dunning recalled in a conversation with Entertainment Weekly. “And Tim was like, ‘Yeah, she really misses the show.’ And he goes, ‘Well, I was telling her maybe we could sprinkle her in once in a while and you guys could both kind of share the role.’”
Share the role? Hell nah. Dunning remembers her neck breaking out in “blotchy red spots” as she gave Allen the ice treatment. “I just remember my head slowly turning towards him and going, ‘It’s your show. I guess that’s what you want,’” she told him in a trembling voice.
Hey, Dunning says, she’d just had a baby, so cut her some slack on the emotional response.
Home Improvement’s stage manager noticed that something was wrong. When Dunning confessed what she’d overheard, the stage manager assured her Anderson wasn’t coming back. “You’re not going to share,” she said. “But we need to get through this scene.”
Dunning agreed to give it a go, though she burst into tears and needed a fresh makeup job before doing the scene. In hindsight, she says, she got too emotional. “I should have been like, ‘Sure, I would have no problem with that,’” she explained before confessing, “But I would.”
Anderson never did come back to share the role — but Dunning’s emotional outburst inspired a Season Six episode, “The Kiss & The Kiss-Off.” In that story, Anderson returns as a guest star, and Dunning’s Heidi quits Tool Time in protest. Her lines echoed the real-life dialogue: “I’m not doing this. I’m not sharing my role.”
The best part? Tim — Taylor, not Allen — has to beg Heidi to come back. She agrees, returning in tight Tool Time outfits to dance around in triumph.
