Tim Allen

If you want a good idea of what yesterday's $19 billion Disney acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. will mean for television viewers, tune in to WMAR (Channel 2) at 9 tonight for Tim Allen's "Home Improvement."The series, TV's highest-rated sitcom, suggests both the synergy that makes this an obvious media marriage, as well as one of the main paths the Disney-owned ABC television network is expected to travel.As ABC Entertainment president Ted Harbert puts it, "ABC's comedy shows, like 'Home Improvement,' are made for America's families."

OF LIFE'S PERSISTENT problems - death, taxes and dripping faucets - the last is one you can do something about. All three got my attention this week. I heard a lot of discussion about death, or more precisely deliverance from it, as the religious observances of Passover and Easter unfolded. I was also reminded that income taxes are due Thursday. And I read reports out of Annapolis saying that our elected representatives, who are paid with our tax dollars to do a job, seem to be doing nothing, not even munching free meatballs.

Jill has a great job offer in Indiana, and Tim is leaving his cable show, "Tool Time," over what the TV industry likes to call "philosophical differences." Will the Taylors really leave their home in Detroit and Wilson and Al and all their other friends?That's the premise of tonight's 90-minute series finale, as "Home Improvement" signs off after eight years near the top of the Nielsen ratings with one of the most successful runs in sitcom history. As flimsy as the finale seems at times -- Tim (Tim Allen)

The pretzels hung from a white gazebo on Main Street, with an Amish woman ready to hand one out with a cool glass of lemonade.But the refreshments and much of East Main Street were off-limits yesterday as a crew filmed a comedy, "For Richer or Poorer," starring Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley as a wealthy Manhattan couple who hide out among the Amish in Lancaster County when they fear the Internal Revenue Service is on their trail.A Carroll County farm and Westminster's Main Street stand in for Lancaster County, Pa. The storefronts were altered: Giulianova Italian grocery and deli became "The Tulip Basket Gift Shoppe," and the Winchester Exchange building was "Lancaster Exchange."

Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley charmed hundreds of fans in Westminster again yesterday as Main Street shut down while filming continued on their movie "For Richer or Poorer."Universal Studios Inc. and location manager George W. Spicer drew equal enthusiasm from city officials.Spicer's son, Bryan, is directing the film -- a comedy about New Yorkers who find new values among the Amish while on the run. Westminster is standing in for Lancaster County."The movie people have been absolutely wonderful to work with," said Police Chief Sam R. Leppo, whose department provided five officers at studio expense and handled the closing of East Main Street from Railroad to Longwell avenues.

Wild Hogs puts the "ick" into City Slickers. Watching it from the front row of a stadium-style multiplex theater, I felt as if I were asphyxiating in an avalanche of sagging flesh. Wild Hogs (Touchstone Pictures) Starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy. Directed by Walt Becker. Rated PG-13. Time 93 minutes.

Like, gag us with a spoon. For its 30th anniversary, Artscape is going all 1980s on us. So we figured that now’s the time to determine once and for all which was the better 10-year period: the ’80s or ’90s. Let the battle begin! FASHION ’80s: Neon; torn sweat shirts and leg warmers; the “Miami Vice” look; shoulder pads; goth ’90s: Grunge; “Blossom” hats; bell-bottom sleeves; cargo shorts/pants; babydoll dresses; that T-shirt-under-a-suit thing Winner : Tough one, but the ’ 80s ekes out a win (mostly thanks to not introducing cargo shorts/pants)

BLACK SNAKE MOAN -- (Paramount Vantage) Samuel L. Jackson Jr. stars as the unconventional savior of a troubled woman (Christina Ricci). Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) directs. With Justin Timberlake. FULL OF IT -- (New Line) Comedy about a boy who must make his tall tales come true. GRAY MATTERS -- (Yari Film Group) Romantic comedy about siblings (Heather Graham and Thomas Cavanagh) who agree to help each other find mates. LITTLE CHILDREN -- (New Line) Todd Field adapts Tom Perrotta's novel about stay-at-home parents (Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson)

LOS ANGELES -- Failure to Launch, a romantic comedy starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker, took off at theaters, debuting as the top weekend movie with $24.6 million. Remakes opened in second and third place. Disney's family flick The Shaggy Dog, starring Tim Allen, was No. 2 with $16 million, and Fox Searchlight's horror tale The Hills Have Eyes was No. 3 with $15.5 million, according to studio estimates yesterday. Reviews generally were poor for all three new films, but they overcame the weak critical reception to combine for a healthy $56.1 million.

Faye Copeland, 82, a convicted killer who was once the nation's oldest woman on death row, died Sunday at a nursing home in Chillicothe, Mo., where she had been released on medical parole. Copeland was convicted and sentenced to death along with her husband for the murders of five transients as part of a livestock swindle at their farm in the 1980s. A federal court commuted her sentence to life in prison in 1999. Phil Goldman, 39, a Silicon Valley engineer who co-founded WebTV, died Friday in Los Altos Hills, Calif.