Earl Hindman Movies

When a white teenager is murdered in Harlem, the police at first assume the victim was killed in a botched robbery. Later on, a couple of black kids are heard bragging about the killing and seen brandishing the victim's jacket, thereby fomenting a dangerous racial situation. But as the evidence mounts up, the DA's office shifts its attention to a pair of police officers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The series finale of Home Improvement brought along with it several defining moments in the life of handyman Tim "The Toolman" Taylor (Michigan native Tim Allen), as well as to those of his family and mysterious neighbor, Wilson Wilson (Earl Hindman). Perhaps most notably, Tim (Allen) bids goodbye to his long-running show, Tool Time, despite a tempting financial offer from Morgan (Danny Zorn), who wants the show to continue. Meanwhile, Jill (Patricia Richardson) must decide whether or not to accept a job in Indiana, and Tim's long-time Tool Time partner, Al (Richard Karn), prepares for his wedding. In a momentous event, Tim and Wilson, whose face has always been hidden by the fence separating their neighboring homes, agree to take down the fence in order to provide more room for Al's wedding. Harry (Blake Clark) and Dolores (Shirley Prestia) make an appearance at the wedding, while Marty (William O'Leary), Benny Jim Labriola, and Jeff (Thom Sharp) take bets on the outcome. Eventually, Jill decides to accept the job offer, and Tim takes on what will be the biggest feat in home improvement of his lifetime when he decides to physically transport the house from Michigan to Indiana. Guest appearances include John "Juke" Logan and Mario Andretti as themselves. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

"More power! More power!" And more laughs as Home Improvement launches its seventh season. As ever, Tim Allen stars as Tim Taylor, host of the popular cable-TV fix-it series "Tool Time," with Patricia Richardson as Tim's wife, Jill, and Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith as the Taylors' ever-growing sons Brad, Randy, and Mark. With this season, Debbe Dunning moves out of the "recurring" category to become a full-fledged regular in the role of Tim's TV "Tool Girl" Heidi. Episodes worth noting during season seven include "Losing My Religion," with Dan Aykroyd appearing as Father Mike Weber, the actor's character on the like-vintage sitcom Soul Man; "The Dating Game," in which Tim's assistant, Al (Richard Karn), must face the fact that his former fiancée, Ilene, has found someone else; "Bright Christmas," featuring Polly Holliday as Jill's flibbertigibbet mother; "An Older Woman," wherein son Brad may or may not be getting married to a college girl; and the season's next-to-last installment, "Tool-Thousand-One: A Space Odyssey," featuring guest appearances by real-life astronauts Ken Bowersox and Steve Hawley. Home Improvement tied with Frasier as America's tenth most popular series during the 1997-1998 season. Also, after missing out the previous year, lighting director Donald A. Morgan won his sixth Emmy award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since do-it-yourselfer Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) hosted his first episode of cable TV's "Tool Time" in the opening season of Home Improvement. As the series enters its fifth season, Tim's son Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), ten years old when the series started, is just about to begin his first year in high school, where he is destined to excel as a hockey player (and also to lose his trademarked ponytail). Season five also introduces a new recurring character: Tim's new boss, Bud Harper (Charles Robinson), who takes an instant dislike to Tim's on-air assistant, Al (Richard Karn). Additionally, more screen time is allotted to Irene Markham (Sherry Hursey), Al's off-and-on fiancée. Down from third place in the 1994-1995 ratings, Home Improvement still closed at a strong seventh place at the climax of its fifth season. And, for the fifth year in a row, and Emmy award was bestowed upon the series' lighting director, Donald A. Morgan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tim Taylor (Tim Allen), self-assured authority on all things mechanical while starring in his own cable-TV series "Tool Time," continues to be an all-thumbs prophet without honor in his own home as Home Improvement enters its third season. With Tim's on-air "Tool Girl" Lisa having left for greener pastures (much like the actress who played her, Pamela Anderson), Debbe Dunning joins the regular cast as new Tool Girl Heidi, every bit as voluptuous as her predecessor. In another season-three development, Tim's "Tool Time" helper, Al (Richard Karn), a lifelong bachelor, begins yearning for a wife and kids on the occasion of his 35th birthday, thus Tim's helpful missus, Jill (Patricia Richardson), fixes Al up with her friend Ilene Markham (Sherry Hursey) -- whereupon the overwhelmed Al proposes to Ilene during a "Tool Time" broadcast! Finally, Robert Picardo joins the cast as Tim's explosive new neighbor Joe Morton, as does Mariangela Pino as Joe's wife, Marie Morton. Even as Heidi, Ilene, and the Mortons come on board, another recurring character passes from the scene: Mr. Binford, Tim's boss, sponsor, and friend. The death of Binford culminates in a touching (but still very funny) episode in which Tim is afraid to cry upon hearing the news. For the third year in a row, the series' season finale finds Tim locked in deadly competition with rival do-it-yourself TV host Bob Vila, playing "himself" for the last time (on this show, at any rate!) in "The Great Race II." Also for the third year in a row, the series' lighting director, Donald A. Morgan, picked up an Emmy award. Home Improvement closed out season three as America's second most popular series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inasmuch as Home Improvement had closed out its first season as the nation's fifth highest-rated TV program, neither its producers nor the ABC network saw the need to make anything but superficial changes for the series' second season on the air. ABC moved the program from its Tuesday night slot to an even better Wednesday-night berth, while one of the recurring characters, long-suffering "Tool Time" assistant Al Borland (Richard Karn), was promoted to "series regular" status. Otherwise, things remained pretty much the same as they'd been during season one. Protagonist Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) was still a fount of wisdom and expertise on his Detroit-based "do it yourself" cable TV series, "Tool Time" but a momument to ineptitude and insensitivity in his own home. Tim's wife, Jill (Patricia Richardson), now employed at a Detroit magazine, continued in her efforts to force culture and class upon her husband, all the while struggling to prevent him from "repairing" the household appliances. The Taylors' three sons -- eleven-year-old Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), ten-year-old Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and seven-year-old Mark (Taran Noah Smith) -- persisted in causing trouble for themselves and their parents, though it was clear that there was a lot of love and mutual respect in the family's household. Of the remaining characters, ubiquitous neighbor Wilson (Earl Hindman) continued to dispense advice and philosophy to Tim and his brood -- and also continued to remain a somewhat shadowy figure, never showing his face to anyone. Buxom "tool girl" Lisa (Pamela Anderson) was still a fixture of Tim's TV series, seldom saying much but certainly making a big impression whenever she wriggled into camera range. And in a new development, Maureen Binford (Vicki Lewis), ditzy daughter of "Tool Time"'s primary sponsor, became the series' producer, saddling Tim with all manners of idiotic format changes to boost his ratings. Moving from fifth to third place in the real-life ratings, Home Improvement was the second most popular sitcom of 1992-1993, beaten out only by another ABC offering, Roseanne. And for the second year in a row, an Emmy award was bestowed upon the series' director of photography, Donald A. Morgan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first season of Home Improvement drew heavily upon the standup comedy routines of series co-creator Tim Allen, herein cast as Tim Taylor, star of the Detroit cable-TV series "Tool Time" -- sort of a low-rent version of Bob Vila's do-it-yourself opus This Old House (Vila in fact guest-starred on the episode titled "What About Bob"). Allen's humor relied upon barbed but affectionate digs at his wife and kids, and his ever-increasing ineptitude in dealing with the follies and foibles of everyday life. In Home Improvement, Tim Taylor was affirmatively master of his domain on "Tool Time" -- even though he relied a bit too extensively on his all-purpose solution to any mechanical problem, "More Power! More Power!" -- but at home he was all thumbs with the household appliances, and a stumbler-bumbler supreme when dealing with his wife, Jill (Patricia Richardson), and three sons, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). As for Jill, she spent much of season one fighting a losing battle to imbue her oafish husband with sensitivity and culture (specifically, trying to get him to accompany her to the opera), but loved him all the same. Jill also yearned to find a job of her own, finally landing a position on a high-profile magazine.

The Taylor youngsters were typically mischievous and sometimes irksome but basically good kids, though youngest son Mark (age 6) tended to be victimized by the prankery of ten-year-old Brad and nine-year-old Randy. During the first season, Brad began squiring a classmate named Jennifer Sudarsky (Jessica Wesson), resulting in a variety of amusing and all-too-human "puppy love" situations. Also in the cast was Earl Hindman as the Taylors' philosophical, advice-dispensing neighbor Wilson, whose face was never clearly seen behind the backyard fence that separated the two neighbors' houses. Showing up on a recurring basis was Tim's long-suffering "Tool Time" assistant, Al Borland (Richard Karn), and the show's pulchritudinous "tool girl" Lisa (Pamela Anderson). Likewise making sporadic "Tool Time" appearances were Rock (Casey Sander), Peter (Mickey Jones), and Dwayne (Gary McGurk), the guys from K&B Construction. Initially telecast on ABC's Tuesday evening schedule, Home Improvement ended its first season as the nation's fifth highest-rated program. The series also earned an Emmy award for Achievement in Lighting Direction (the statuette went to director of photography Donald A. Morgan). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brian Dennehy stars in this made-for-cable drama about a blue-collar family man laid off from his auto-industry job who learns that his resentful son plans to drop out of medical school. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a Manhattan police detective looks into the strange death of a peer who was ritually killed in Chinatown. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Robert Conrad stars in One Police Plaza as a New York homicide detective. A case on which he's working, involving the murder of a beautiful woman, is ordered closed by Conrad's superiors. Refusing to give up, the detective probes deeper, and unearths a hotbed of crooked cops, dirty "brass" and illegal weapons. Made for television, One Police Plaza was initially telecast on November 29, 1986, easily outrating a Jack Paar "comeback" special. The film was based on the bestselling novel by William J. Caunitz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on actual events from 1948 and made into a TV movie in 1983, this story concerns a corrupt Georgia businessman (Andy Griffith) who murders an employee and thinks he has gotten away with it. The local lawman (Johnny Cash) has other plans, but needs to gather enough evidence to prove his case. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In 1950, a Brink's armored truck in Boston was robbed by a highly organized gang decked out in Halloween masks. The Brink's Job is an occasionally humorous account of that "perfect crime." Peter Falk stars as the mastermind behind the robbery, who assembles a bunch of two-bit hoods who in any other circumstance would be written off as born losers. The success of the caper hinges upon Brink's rather arrogant assumption that its trucks are unassailable and their guards are always on their toes. Wrong on both counts! This comic suspenser was based on The Big Stick Up at Brink's, a book by Noel Behn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a quiet midday in New York, along the Lexington Avenue subway line, the train designated "Pelham One Two Three" -- so named for its station of origin and time of departure -- makes its way down the East Side of Manhattan. One by one, three men board the train, and at 28th Street, a fourth man approaches the motorman (James Broderick) and points a pistol at him, ordering him to unlock the door to his cab and admit the man waiting there; meanwhile, another man points a gun at the conductor and threatens to kill him unless he holds the doors open and then closes them when the man talking to the motorman is aboard. Once on board, "Mr. Blue" (Robert Shaw) and "Mr. Green" (Martin Balsam) halt the train between stations, while "Mr. Brown" (Earl Hindeman) and "Mr. Gray" (Hector Elizondo) seal off the lead car. With Mr. Green at the controls, the front car is separated and isolated in the tunnel with 17 passengers aboard, and then Mr. Blue presents their demands over the radio: one million dollars in cash, within one hour, or they will start shooting one passenger each minute. On the other end, Transit Police Lieutenant Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) must overcome his initial disbelief to deal with this threat, amid the confusion of a subway system that's chaotic even when it's running normally. With the mayor reluctantly aboard to pay the ransom, Garber must keep the hijackers from carrying out their threat while the money is transported, and keep the hotheads around him and on the police force under control -- and figure out how they intend to get away with a million dollars from inside a subway tunnel with police on all sides. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide