Summary
- The reason Wilson hid his face on Home Improvement was because Tim Allen wanted to pay homage to a neighbor from his childhood whom he couldn't fully see over a fence.
- Wilson's mysterious appeal on Home Improvement came from the fact that his face was always obscured, adding to his popularity as a character.
- Last Man Standing, Tim Allen's more recent sitcom, paid tribute to Home Improvement and Wilson by featuring an episode where Tim Taylor and Mike Baxter discussed their neighbors with hidden faces.
A recurring gag on Home Improvement is that Taylor's friendly neighbor Wilson's face is never shown fully, but here's the real reason why Wilson hid his face. Tim Allen had few acting credits to his name before Home Improvement. It was thanks to the success of Allen's stand-up special Men Are Pigs that ABC became interested in developing a sitcom tailored to him. After turning down TV adaptations of Dead Poets Society and Turner & Hooch, the concept of Home Improvement was born. This cast Allen as Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor, the host of a DIY series called Tool Time.
A key running gag is that while Taylor is obsessed with power tools and other "manly" pursuits, he's actually not that great with tools or handiwork. The formula for Home Improvement typically saw Taylor do something to upset his wife or children and rely on his neighbor Wilson (Earl Hindman) to dispense sage advice to help him defuse the issue. In addition to Hindman's warm performance and soothing voice, part of Wilson's appeal was his mystique. From his very first appearance on Home Improvement, the bottom of his face was obscured by the privacy fence in Taylor's backyard. The idea to obscure Wilson's face originated from Allen himself, as it harkened back to his childhood.
Wilson Is Based On Tim Allen's Childhood Memories
Growing up, Allen had a neighbor whose face he could never fully see, as he was too short to look over his family's fence. This ended up as a general concept of what a neighbor was in Allen's eyes. Allen talked about this on Marc Maron's WTF podcast (via Cinema Blend). He said Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted him on an ABC series, but he rejected all their offers and didn't need them because of how much money he was making working his standup on the road. In response, Katzenberg let Allen pitch him ideas, and he pitched Home Improvement, including the idea for the neighbor Wilson.
"I said, ‘What I would want to do is make a parody of This Old House with Norm and Bob Vila and have a neighbor that I can’t see. And I pitched it. I want three boys; I never really see my neighbor, I just wave at this figure and I want to do that. And then have a show within a show where I break stuff all the time."
Throughout Home Improvement's run, Wilson's past was gradually fleshed out, revealing he had a Ph.D. in Forgotten Languages and Cultures and was a widower. The fact his face was always covered led to a popular fan theory he was actually in Witness Protection from his wife's "killers," though naturally, the sitcom never hints at this. It was a canny choice on Allen's part to keep Wilson's face hidden, which only appeared to add to the character's popularity. Home Improvement stayed true to this bit right until the very end, where the show's final episode "Backstage Pass" saw Hindman reveal his face to the audience at the recording in a behind-the-scenes moment.
Tim Allen's Last Man Standing Paid Tribute To Wilson
Home Improvement created the beloved idea of Wilson hiding his face, but that show wasn't the end of the homage to Tim Allen's childhood memories. Allen's most recent sitcom was Last Man Standing, which saw Allen star as Mike Baxter, basically another version of Tim Taylor. There was also an episode of Last Man Standing that tied into Home Improvement. This was a strange episode where Mike Baxter and Tim Taylor met up and talked. Tim talked to Mike about his neighbor whose face he could never fully see, which paid homage to Earl Hindman's Wilson. Hindman died in 2003.
"It was challenging for me to do both parts and kind of emotional. I adored [Earl Hindman] and we kind of brought that up in the story. I started thinking about all the history I had with that TV show, how I compare it to my life on this show. It's all about loss, is all I kept saying in that episode."
Home Improvement had a long run of eight seasons and 204 episodes, and Wilson was in 202 of those episodes. While some fans might wonder why Wilson hid his face in Home Improvement, it was all about precious memories from Allen's childhood. The Last Man Standing moment was all about bringing back the memories of Home Improvement and what actor Earl Hindman meant to Tim Allen.