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| Venice Beach Photo Shoot, Early 1990's |
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| Home Improvement Cast, ABC, Early 1990's |
Jonathan is best known for playing Randy Taylor on the TV series Home Improvement starring Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson. In the first few seasons, Randy was a cute kid with a raspy voice who was sarcastic and witty. I was attracted to not only his adorable face but also the character he played; regardless if it wasn’t really who he was, it didn’t matter to me -I was ten. Jonathan was a natural actor, which really showed in the first few seasons of the show. As he entered his awkward teenage years, his acting also got a little awkward, but I was a devoted fan and loved him anyway.
He made a few movies during his massive popularity, which were mostly mediocre family films. They may not have been the most amazing movies in the world, but they weren't horrible. Even though Jonathan was almost as popular as Justin Bieber is now, I don't think any of his movies were as successful as Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, except for maybe The Lion King, where he was the voice of young Simba.
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| Milk Ad, 1997 |
During the last season of Home Improvement, Jonathan decided to leave the show early to focus on school. He also decided to make a couple of more mediocre movies. In 1998, I remember reading that he was going to play a bisexual street hustler in the film, Speedway Junky. I was so excited because I thought that by doing something edgy, he would show that he can be a diverse, serious actor. No, not so much. I’m sorry, but his part in that movie was embarrassing, I couldn’t take him seriously at all. At least practice how to smoke a cigarette for Christ’s sake. Even after watching this awful movie, I remained a fan. It's called dedication folks.
In 2000, he was in a Showtime movie called Common Ground, which dealt with several stories about people and their experiences being Gay. This is what then sparked rumors that Jonathan might be Gay. Around this time, he was on the cover of The Advocate and denied the rumors, but the rumor is still out there. Do I care if he’s Gay? Absolutely not. Do I want to know if he’s Gay? Absolutely. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a bit of a fag hag, so I would probably like him even more if he were Gay. Since then he has done some voice over work, made some short films, and guest starred on a few TV shows. He has pretty much been M.I.A. since 2005.
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| 1. Glaad Media Awards, 2000; 2. The Eatery, http://www.theeatery.ca/; 3. 2004, www.stubrumbaugh.com |
Like many other pathetic people out there, every so often I Google Jonathan’s name to see if there’s any news; there’s usually nothing. But his name has been floating around the Internet lately. Mostly due to other celebrities, who have recently mentioned that Jonathan was one of their celebrity crushes growing up: Lea Michelle, Katy Perry, and Hilary Duff, to name a few. Perez Hilton also recently mentioned Jonathan on his blog and on his Twitter asking, “where is JTT?” which created a lot of buzz, since Perez has so many lemmings followers.
I was really excited when a couple of weeks ago I found Patricia Richardson on Twitter. After browsing through her page, I was excited to see some recent pictures of Jonathan and the rest of the Home Improvement cast, which were taken at an Entertainment Weekly photo shoot. The pictures aren't the best quality and Jonathan doesn’t look his best but it was cool to finally see a recent picture. It has been years people! It can also lay to rest the rumor that Jonathan and Tim don’t speak to each other anymore, due to Jonathan exiting Home Improvement during the last season. One of the pictures' includes the whole cast, which blurrily shows everyone to look quite happy together. I was going to post the pictures here, but I read on Patricia's Twitter that Entertainment Weekly asked her to take the pictures down. So I'm not going to post them but they are all over the Internet. And any day now, I'm assuming that Entertainment Weekly will be releasing the pictures that were taken during that photo shoot, either online or in an upcoming issue of their magazine.
So what else am I nosey curious about? So, did he go to both Harvard and Columbia? Did he graduate from anywhere? Does he have a girlfriend? A boyfriend? Did he ever learn how to properly smoke a cigarette? What the hell is he doing now? Is he ever going to make another movie? Does he want to go grab a drink with me?
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Is that a cigarette? I guess he learned how. 2005, http://splashnews.com/ |
The Internet existed in the ‘90’s but it was nowhere near what it is today. Back then, if Jonathan had had a Twitter account, I think I would have died. In a way, I kind of like how mysterious he is; it makes him more interesting. I think in the long run it’s better not to know everything about an actor. Will I ever be able to watch a movie with Lindsay Lohan and not think, “I’m watching Lindsay Lohan?” Probably not. It’s not good to know everything about these peoples’ personal lives. And this also goes to show, that if you don’t want to be in the public eye, you really don’t have to be.
I would be happy to see Jonathan Taylor Thomas make a positive comeback in the entertainment industry, even if that means he makes some more mediocre movies. Bring 'em on! Oh, and I would also like to wish him a very happy birthday.
***UPDATE***
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| EW Photo Shoot 2011, http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/09/14/jonathan-taylor-thomas-home-improvement/ |
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| EW Photo Shoot, Home Improvement Cast, 2011, http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/09/08/home-improvement-cast-reunion-official-photo/ |
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| EW Photo Shoot, Home Improvement Cast, 2011, http://twitter.com/#!/prichardsonla |
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| EW Photo Shoot, Home Improvement Cast, 2011, http://twitter.com/#!/prichardsonla |
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