Patricia Richardson, best known for playing Jill Taylor on the 1990s sitcom Home Improvement, was spotted looking almost unrecognisable during a grocery run in December. The 74-year-old actress wore a black cap over her silvery hair, large sunglasses, a black sweater, blue jeans, and a patterned blazer as she carried a pack of Diet Coke.
The sighting comes just after news broke that Richardson will reunite with her on-screen husband Tim Allen on his current show Shifting Gears. The reunion will also feature former co-stars Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning in the second season of the series, which follows Allen as a widowed car restoration shop owner.
According to Deadline, the quartet will not reprise their original Home Improvement roles, but will support Allen's character 'in an unexpected way'. Richardson previously appeared with Allen on his sitcom Last Man Standing in 2015, playing his neighbour Helen Potts.
Richardson played Jill Taylor from 1991 to 1999 across eight seasons, earning four Emmy nominations. She left the show to spend more time with her three children after her divorce from actor Ray Baker. She turned down a $30 million offer to continue, telling Closer Weekly she had no regrets about prioritising family.
Since Home Improvement, Richardson has appeared in Strong Medicine, The West Wing, NCIS, and Grey's Anatomy. Co-creator Carmen Finestra praised her as making the show work, while writer Rosalind Moore recalled how Richardson would hold her ground in the male-dominated set, often improving scenes with her maternal perspective.
