If you’re a die-hard fan of “Home Improvement,” you know the series always had fun with its holiday episodes, particularly those centered around Halloween. Of the show’s many Halloween hits, it seems fans were most taken with the Season 3 entry “Crazy For You.” That highly-rated episode found the prank-loving Tim both the target of a masterful prank set up by his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson), and an apparent stalker whose actions threatened to undercut his typical spooky season shenanigans.
The second “Home Improvement” episode to claim the highest-rated honors came a couple of seasons later. And yes, the Season 5 episode titled “Twas the Flight Before Christmas” was another holiday-themed delight. This one was obviously set around Christmas, with Tim and his steadfast “Tool Time” co-host Al (Richard Karn) getting snowed in at an airport on their way to a Binford Tools conference. It also saw the Taylor kids hilariously taking on a neighborhood foe in the annual holiday decorating contest.
As for the third “Home Improvement” episode to net an 8.1 rating on IMDb, the Season 5 stunner “The Longest Day” was easily among the most dramatic stories the show ever tackled as the Taylor clan spent the entire half-hour coping with the news that middle-child Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) might have cancer. Frankly, if you didn’t tear up at least once during this episode, you were probably watching it wrong. Ditto if you didn’t also laugh out loud a couple of times.