Jonathan Taylor Thomas: Will We Ever See Him Again?
After Home Improvement ended in 1999 (he left the series in 1998), Jonathan Taylor Thomas almost disappeared from Hollywood. But now he sits as a Board Member on the SAG-AFTRA Union.
There may be a few of you who don’t even know the name Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Perhaps, though, you may have heard of a TV series he starred in. It was called Home Improvement and he played one of three sons to Tim Allen.
One reason why you may not have heard of Thomas is that after Home Improvement ended in 1999 (he left the series in 1998), Jonathan Taylor Thomas bounced around for a few years, then virtually disappeared from Hollywood.
JTT Served As A Board Member For The SAG-AFTRA Actors Union
One person who remains in constant contact with Jonathan Taylor Thomas is Patricia Richardson. One thing she had been pressing him for was for him to become more involved with the SAG-AFTRA actors union. She knew early on that his smarts would lead him to bigger things.
“When Jonathan was first on the show and I knew how smart he was, I would say ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ and he would say, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know. Maybe, maybe I will be a politician.’ I said, ‘You should be president of the United States,” Richardson laughed to Entertainment Tonight.
Richardson jumps forward to years later, as she is a part of the SAG-AFTRA actors union, and her thought was how badly they needed to get younger actors involved in the union. Knowing what a great head Taylor Thomas had on his shoulders, she dialed him up. She asked him what he thought about running for a position on the SAG-AFTRA board.
He thought it was a great idea, and in 2017, he was elected to the board. “So, he’s been on the National Board with me now,” says Richardson, “and he is, everybody is, even the other side is impressed with Jonathan.”
While Taylor Thomas remains involved with SAG-AFTRA, it hasn’t really changed his attitude toward getting back in front of the camera. He still looks at projects he may be able to produce. While a few have fallen through, he does have one lined up called Master of Ceremonies that has Taylor Thomas attached as the executive producer.
The series was set in the 1980s and told the story of the crazy, wild girls-just-want-to-have-fun world of Chippendales. No further word on when, or even if, the series will premiere. Until that time, Taylor Thomas still loves to keep a low profile and walk his dogs.
The SAG-AFTRA also appears to be keeping him busy and who knows, maybe Richardson will be able to convince him to make that big leap into politics but knowing just how much he doesn’t care for media attention, we probably won’t be seeing him run for office anytime soon. Of course, there is always a chance for another Tim Allen reunion somewhere down the line.
But these days he isn’t in front of the camera. Instead, he’s helping other actors.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas First Starred On The Bradys
Before vanishing, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was a legitimate child star. He began his career at the young age of six years old on the animated show The Adventures of Spot as the voice of Spot.
While the series only lasted one season, the work he got as a voice actor would prepare him for something much bigger a little farther down his career line. Thomas snagged an episode on ABC TGIF before finding time on a very short-lived series, The Bradys. Yes, as in the Brady Bunch.
This was an attempt to resurrect the show from the late ‘60s to the early ‘70s. The series brought back all the original cast, including Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Eve Plumb, Christopher Knight, Susan Olsen, Mike Lookinland, and Ann B. Davis. The only cast member from the original show who didn’t make an appearance was Maureen McCormick.
The series focused on the kids, who were now grown adults, their lives, and the children they were raising. Jonathan Taylor Thomas played the son of Barry Williams’ Greg Brady. Unfortunately, the series lasted a whole five episodes.
From The Bradys, Jonathan Taylor Thomas found himself starring in a few episodes of the sketch comedy In Living Color before life changed drastically for the young star.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Became A Heartthrob In Home Improvement
Tim Allen created the comedy series Home Improvement, basing it on his own stand-up comedy. The series was about Allen and his wife, played by Patricia Richardson, and their three sons played by Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith.
Seems middle names for child stars was big in the early ‘90s. Allen’s character, Tim Taylor, had a show called Tool Time and many of the series stories revolved around Tool Time as well as his family.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas was pretty much an immediate heartthrob. Capitalizing on this, Thomas found the cover of many magazines. Teen Beat, Tiger Beat, 16, Bop, People, Nickelodeon, he did them all. He was on many posters; you name it, Taylor’s face was seen on it.
For seven seasons on Home Improvement, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was a big name. Then came the show’s eighth and what would be its final season. Thomas suddenly left the series.
He Became The Face Of Disney With Films Like Tom And Huck And The Lion King
Jonathan Taylor Thomas turned his popularity into more than just Home Improvement and magazine covers. He also used it to find Disney. Well, perhaps it was they who reached out to him.
Regardless of who reached out, Thomas found himself working on another voice role. This one was for Disney’s massive hit, The Lion King. In it, Thomas voiced the part of young Simba.
He then moved on to live-action features at Disney, Man of the House, and Tom and Huck. A few year later, Thomas would find himself on another Disney feature, this one titled I’ll Be Home For Christmas.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Left Home Improvement For A Break And A Normal Life
Jonathan Taylor Thomas felt his time was up at Home Improvement. His reasoning, as he told PEOPLE, “I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old. I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break.” So he did.
He went to Harvard, Columbia, and then St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. “To sit in a big library amongst books and students, that was pretty cool,” says Thomas. “It was a novel experience for me.”
An experience without a single regret. “I never took the fame too seriously,” he continued on. “It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me. When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers.”
His time after Improvement wasn’t all about school for Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He was in a few features (Speedway Junkie, and Common Ground) and he also found himself guest starring on a few TV shows such as Ally McBeal, The Wild Thornberrys, Smallville, 8 Simple Rules, and even Veronica Mars.
But Jonathan Taylor Thomas’s heart wasn’t in it. He walked away from acting for good in 2006. In 2010, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in General Studies.
JTT Has His Short-Lived Comeback With Tim Allen On Last Man Standing
After a seven-year hiatus from show business, Jonathan Taylor Thomas made a bit of a re-emergence. This was on former TV father Tim Allen’s new hit comedy Last Man Standing. It was a recurring role, and he was last seen in 2015.
Since that time, Thomas has once again kept himself out of the spotlight. Not that he isn’t still trying to make a little noise in Hollywood. His former TV mom, Patricia Richardson, told Reddit, “I do stay in touch with Zach and Jonathan who in fact have written a really wonderful pilot that is sort of R-rated and are shopping it around town. Jonathan also directs Last Man Standing [which stars her Home Improvement husband, Tim Allen] and I got to see him there.”
Her response was from a few years back, so it seems the pair may still be shopping their script. Not much else has come out from Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ camp, which might be just the way he likes it. Sometimes Hollywood can be overrated.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Cameos On Veronica Mars But Still Remains Under The Hollywood Radar
Believe it or not, Jonathan Taylor Thomas is now 40 years old. The once-promising young star, whose face was seen on just about every teen magazine you could imagine, the once-promising young star who cut his bones on the popular Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement, and the once-promising young star who decided Hollywood wasn’t for him, is now living in his fourth decade. How did this happen?
From all accounts, Jonathan Taylor Thomas is very happy with the decision he made 17 years ago when he stepped away from the spotlights of Tinsel Town. After appearing in an episode of Veronica Mars, it would be another eight years before he’d show his face on screen again. Then it was in a return to television with his former TV dad, Tim Allen, on his former TV dad’s new sitcom Last Man Standing.
It was a nice reunion that eventually saw Taylor Thomas’ former Home Improvement TV mom, Patricia Richardson, also appear. Apparently, the reunion was so good for Allen and Taylor Thomas that Taylor Thomas was given the helm and directed three episodes.
