Fans wonder if Jonathan Taylor Thomas will act in the future. The actor was a huge deal in the 1990s, playing Randy Taylor on Home Improvement and Jake in the holiday movie I'll Be Home For Christmas. He was the kind of young actor who got tons of attention for his good looks and who was plastered on the covers of teen magazines. It was a shock when, in 1998, he decided that he didn't want to star on Home Improvement anymore. He didn't appear in quite a few episodes of the sitcom.
The Home Improvement cast has high net worths and Jonathan Taylor Thomas has $12 million. But is it possible that the actor could have made even more money if he kept playing Randy Taylor on Home Improvement?
How Much Money Did Jonathan Taylor Thomas Lose When He Left Home Improvement?
Sometimes when an actor is ready to leave a popular series, producers will come back to them with a deal: if they stay, they will be paid an even higher salary. Is this what happened with Jonathan Taylor Thomas? Did he decide that even if he could make millions, he would still walk away from Home Improvement?
Unfortunately, there is no information out there on whether Thomas was offered more money to stay on Home Improvement. Some sources put his Home Improvement salary at $8,000, at least at one time. That was definitely lower than what Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson were making.
However, if season 9 of Home Improvement had happened, Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson would have been paid differently. And perhaps Jonathan Taylor Thomas would have been offered even less money than them.
Richardson was offered $30 million for season 9 and Allen was told that he could make $50 million. Because Thomas played one of the sitcom's three kids, Randy, he might have been in a different pay bracket.
According to Us Weekly, Tim Allen didn't understand Jonathan Taylor Thomas's decision to quit such a popular series.
Back in 1999, Allen explained, “I was a little confused at why he didn’t want to do this whole year. He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films. Did he want to do films? Did he want to go to school? It got mixed up in the translation. I mentioned [publicly] that I was confused. I don’t think he liked that.”
Thomas started his career voicing Young Simba in the beloved 1994 movie The Lion King. In 1995, he starred in a few movies, including Tom and Huck and Man of the House. Tim Allen mentioned that Thomas starred in a few movies after quitting Home Improvement. He must have been referring to Common Ground, Walking Across Egypt, and Speedway Junky, which were all released in 1999.
Thomas also voiced a character in The Tangerine Bear: Home in Time for Christmas! which came out in 2000.
It's possible that even if Jonathan Taylor Thomas was offered a ton of money to remain on Home Improvement, he knew that it was time to go. He was 17 at the time that he made this decision, and he must not have taken it lightly.
In a 2013 interview with People, Thomas said he liked going to school and also seeing the world. He went to St. Andrew's University, Columbia and Harvard. He said, “To sit in a big library amongst books and students, that was pretty cool. It was a novel experience for me.” He also explained that since he started acting at eight, it felt like time to slow down.
It definitely seems like the actor's decision to quit Home Improvement had nothing to do with money. After all, he did make some decent cash from eight seasons of starring on the sitcom. And since he was in his late teenage years when he decided to leave, it seems like he wanted to feel like a regular young adult and have some normal experiences.
Did Jonathan Taylor Thomas Like Starring On Home Improvement?
Some young actors truly love the business. They are excited to be doing what they love at their age and don't feel stressed out at all. Other child stars think that starring in a TV show will be fun... And as time goes on, they realize that they want to do something else.
Even though Jonathan Taylor Thomas didn't want to stay on Home Improvement, it seems that he still had a good time playing Randy Taylor on the popular sitcom.
Thomas talked about Home Improvement in an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 1994. And he sounded really mature for his age. He even mentioned how he didn't want to follow the sad path that other child actors have gone down.
He said, “You have these kid actors who grew up and a bunch of years later they’re on ‘Geraldo’ crying that they never had any time, that they were totally corrupted by this business. Probably most of them didn’t have much to fall back on. It’s easy to get twisted around in this crazy business.”
Thomas also told The Los Angeles Times, “I keep my grades up because you never know how your acting career is going to go."
The actor also explained in the same interview that his mom made sure that he still acted his age and had some fun off-camera. He said, “I had a chance to go fishing. When I got into this business, my mom was worried that I wouldn’t have enough free time to be a kid, so there’s always a balance of work and play.”
If Jonathan Taylor Thomas had stayed on Home Improvement, it seems likely that he would have continued to earn good money. He didn't leave because he fought with his co-stars or had a terrible time. But he knew that it was time to go. He wanted to enjoy himself without spending all of his time on a TV set. And it's awesome that Thomas trusted his gut instincts and made this choice.
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