Everyone loves a good cameo from a returning character, but sometimes those cameos can cause a bit of friction on set, especially when it involves an actor who was replaced by someone else. Maybe that’s why Debbe Dunning, who played Tool Girl Heidi on “Home Improvement,” was a little emotional when people started discussing bringing back the original Tool Girl, Pamela Anderson.
Anderson portrayed Lisa for the first two seasons of “Home Improvement” before leaving the show to star in “Baywatch.” Her replacement was Dunning, who stayed with the show for the rest of its eight-season run. But one day, Tim Allen (who now stars in another ABC sitcom, “Shifting Gears”) was telling Dunning about a chance meeting he’d had with Anderson. Dunning recounted the conversation to Entertainment Weekly: “Tim was like, ‘Yeah, she really misses the show. … I was telling her maybe we could sprinkle her in once in a while and you guys could both kind of share the role.'” That news didn’t sit well with Dunning, who confided in her stage manager just how upset she was. The stage manager offered reassurances that Dunning wasn’t going to be forced to share, but nevertheless, Dunning told Entertainment Weekly, “I started crying like a baby, and then we had to go through makeup again.”
However, Dunning said she had a pretty good reason for reacting the way she did: “I had just had a baby, so let’s just give me a little bit of grace. I was a little bit emotional.” While producers never seriously considered bringing Anderson back as a recurring character, they did ask Dunning if she’d be okay with them turning her real frustration into a plot centered around Anderson coming back for just one episode. Dunning agreed.
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The two Tool Girls shared the screen for one episode
The cast of Home Improvement at a red carpet event – F. Micelotta/Getty Images
At the end of Season 6, “Home Improvement” aired the episode “The Kiss & The Kiss Off,” in which Pamela Anderson reprised her role as Lisa, the original Tool Girl. In the episode, Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) gets the idea to have both her and current Tool Girl Heidi (Debbe Dunning) share time on the segment “Tool Time,” much like Allen suggested in real life. Heidi gets upset and quits the show, leading Tim to make amends to ultimately get Heidi to come back to the show.
Dunning, who recently reunited with Tim Allen on “Shifting Gears,” told Entertainment Weekly she didn’t get to spend too much time with Anderson, who had her own issues with Allen. “She came on, she had her husband, she had the kids. She was fine,” Dunning said. “… Her kids were little, so she went to her dressing room and she was being a mom. So at the end of the show, it was great.” Dunning says ultimately, the entire situation was not a big deal: “It’s ridiculous. I was just being emotional.”
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