'Home Improvement' opens with a new wrinkle, sort of

The seventh season of "Home Improvement" (9 p.m.-9: 30 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) opens with what the writers hope will be a new source of merriment for ensuing episodes: Tim's mid-life crisis.

Having run smack-dab into middle age, Tim (Tim Allen) is acting a little odd of late: using foreign phrases, talking about existentialism and promising to spring a "surprise" on his family when they take their annual vacation in the woods. The "surprise" doesn't sit all that well with Jill (Patricia Richardson), who's not sure the family's lives should be turned upside-down because Tim's started finding a few gray hairs on his head.

It's all fairly harmless, if uninspired, fun (the best joke comes at the end, and has nothing to do with mid-life crises). Hard to believe this new plot line is going to do much to revitalize the series; Tim, after all, has spent most of the past seven seasons acting like he's going through a mid-life crisis.

Pub Date: 9/23/97