Early on, Tim Allen would deliberately misquote lines in some scenes to help child actors Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith, so that they would feel less pressure about getting their own lines wrong.
Actress Frances Fisher was cast as Jill Taylor. However, during the filming of the pilot, audiences reacted poorly, saying that she made the character of Jill whiney and desperate. Patricia Richardson replaced her four days before the pilot episode.
Patricia Richardson gave birth to twins three months before she began filming. She brought her twins to her initial interview, and the producers built a nursery in the studio for them.
After universities and colleges in Michigan sent Tim Allen sweaters and t-shirts to wear on the air, he did so and followed in the footsteps of Ted Knight in Too Close for Comfort (1980).
Having to analyze Wilson's character, he was based on Tim Allen's childhood memories when he was too short to see over a fence and unable to see his neighbor.