‘Home Improvement’ star Patricia Richardson claims Tim Allen pay gap ended show: ‘He was upset with me’

nypost.com:

Tim Allen to get out of shooting another season of the hit ABC show.The 73-year-old made it clear at the time that Season 8, which they filmed in 1998, would be her last.“I told everybody, there’s not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year.

This show is over. It needs to end,” she told the LA Times.According to the outlet, both Richardson and Allen, 70, agreed that it was time to end the beloved show — but ABC made an offer to get them both to come back for a a 25-episode ninth season.The network offered $1 million per episode for Richardson and $2 million per episode for Allen, and, according to Richardson, Allen was all for the offer.Richardson claimed she countered, telling the network that she’d stay if they agreed to pay her the same $2 million per episode that Allen was offered.“I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much.

That was my way to say ‘no’ and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney,” she said. “I’d been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my ass off.

I was a big reason why women were watching.”As she expected, the offer was turned down, resulting in the show ending in 1999 with Season 8.But this series of events led to tension between her and her co-star.“I was mad at Tim because he was leaving me alone being the only person saying no, which made me feel terrible and like the bad guy,” she said, “and he was upset with me for leaving.”The Post has reached out to Allen’s rep for comment.“Home Improvement” co-creator and executive producer Carmen Finestra, meanwhile, told the LA Times that he couldn’t “remember one discussion” about continuing the show without Richardson.