Actor Patricia Richardson
Credits: instagram/@prichardsonla
Los Angeles: Actor Patricia Richardson, known for her leading role of Jill Taylor in the hit 1990s sitcom Home Improvement, says the show was cancelled after she asked the makers to pay her the same remuneration as co-star Tim Allen.
Richardson, 73, said she used the pay disparity between her and Allen to not have to shoot another installment of the ABC series which ran for eight seasons between 1991 and 1999.
"I told everybody, there's not enough money in the world to get me to do a ninth year. This show is over. It needs to end," she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.
According to Richardson, she was offered the amount of $1 million per episode for the ninth season, whereas Allen was supposed to earn $2 million for the same. The actor claimed Allen was onboard with the deal, but she was not interested as she wanted to spend more time with her family following her divorce from actor Ray Baker.
Richardson added she went to the network later asking to pay the same amount as Allen and also give her a credit as an executive producer like it was offered to her co-star.
"I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much. That was my way to say '"no" and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney."
"I'd been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my a** off. I was a big reason why women were watching," she said.
Eventually, the channel rejected Richardson's proposal and the show came to an end in 1999.