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Episode Summary

Best known for her role as Jill Taylor on the hit television series Home Improvement, Patricia Richardson is a golden globe and emmy-nominated actress whose career has led her to portraying a plethora of iconic roles. In today’s episode, we sat down with Patricia to discuss her new film, Chantilly Bridge, the improvisation that happened on set, her experience working on Home Improvement, and working on West Wing after John Spencer’s passing.

First, we asked Patricia about her latest movie, Chantilly Bridge, which is a sequel to the film Chantilly Lace. She told us that the film has been receiving rave audience reviews, despite not being screened by any of the big movie reviewers or having huge screenings. Most of the main cast returned for the film, and Patricia credited her role to her costar Jill Eikenberry, whose agent suggested Patricia’s name when they were casting for her character. Patricia plays the younger sister of Jo Beth Williams’ character, whose character passed away in the films, and said watching her compelling performance made it so fun to work with her. Patricia loved Chantilly Bridge and even spoke about how she envies the characters in it, for they each have deep connections with friends from their childhood. As the child of a military parent, Patricia moved a lot in her adolescence, so she was unable to keep close touch with many of her childhood friends.

When filming Chantilly Bridge, the actors had a unique experience. Rather than receive scripts, Patricia and her costars were given outlines of how the scene was going to play out. They would be told what would happen and what their character reactions would be, but there was no dialogue to read. Each scene in the movie would be entirely improvised. The director would even sometimes tell one actor to say something without letting the other actors know, so the lines would be a complete surprise to everyone on the day of shooting. For Patricia, the improv allowed for both an unusual and hilarious filming experience, for she never knew what would come out of her costars’ mouths next. Another memorable project Patricia worked on was the iconic television series Home Improvement. When asked about her time on the show, Patricia shared that before she accepted the job, her life had been hectic. She had a high-risk pregnancy with twins, and both were born with colic, so the first three months of their lives were pure chaos and insomnia. However, once the colic passed and Patricia felt more prepared to work, she was given the opportunity to join a new series. Patricia already had a contract with Disney, and when the movie she was signed onto fell through, they gave her another offer: Jill Taylor on Home Improvement. Initially, Patricia was hesitant, for she didn’t want to do another sitcom or play another wife role. However, once discovering the producers were the same producers on the series Rosanne, she decided to hear them out. Despite being told otherwise, the first year of filming, Patricia’s character was given no individual storyline. She couldn’t even film a scene without Tim Allen there, and by the time the second year of the show came around, she was growing frustrated with the entire project. Luckily, new producers came in during the second season, and an agreement was struck that for every 25-episode season, Patricia’s character would get multiple episodes where she held the central storyline.

Patricia also worked on the beloved show West Wing, and spoke about how during filming, she was going through a rough period in her life. Her father was dying and passed away during the shooting of one episode, and she also lost her fellow West Wing actor John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry on the show, the day after meeting him. Everyone on West Wing loved John, and Patricia said the set was in a period of mourning for the rest of the season. Finally, we spoke to Patricia about her involvement in CurePSP, a PSP organization that researches and looks for a cure for Progressive Supranuclear Disease. Patricia is the organization’s spokesperson and is a strong advocate of their work. She praised CurePSP for dedicating all their time to research, and even mentioned that recently, studies are being done on antibodies and big pharmaceutical companies are becoming more interested in doing trials. Scientists are also working on isolating a protein in PSP and preventing it from multiplying to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Patricia Richardson

Whiskey-voiced Patricia Richardson is best known as Jill Taylor on Home Improvement (1991). For her work, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and four Emmy Awards. She also starred in two other comedies: Eisenhower & Lutz (1988) with Scott Bakula, and FM (1989) with Robert Hays. After pregnancy with twins and Home Improvement, she took off a few years to be with her children. Offered a shorter contract that worked around her parenting, she joined Lifetime’s Strong Medicine as Dr. Andy Campbell, introduced after Janine Turner’s departure from the show (2002-2004). She was nominated for her work twice by the Prism Awards. She was a recurring guest star on The West Wing during the show’s last two years as Alan Alda’s Chief of Staff. Patricia co-hosted the 46th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1994) with Ellen DeGeneres and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her first starring role in a movie opposite Peter Fonda in Ulee’s Gold (1997). More recently, Richardson guest starred as Special Agent McGee’s mother on NCIS, appeared on The Blacklist with James Spader, and shot two sequels to County Line; she appeared in the original County Line with Tom Wopat. Patricia has served 8 years on the National and Los Angeles Local Boards of SAGAFTRA. On Broadway, Ms. Richardson appeared with Angela Lansbury in Gypsy, and received her equity card upon her very first audition from Arthur Laurents in New York. She also appeared in Loose Ends by Michael Weller, The Wake of Jamie Foster by Beth Henley and later in Henley’s Miss Firecracker Contest at the Manhattan Theatre Club. She acted in numerous off-Broadway plays, at Playwrights Horizon and the WPA, and in repertory theater around the United States. More recently, Ms. Richardson appeared in the musical of Cruel Intentions off-Broadway and is on the album for that show, singing “No Chubs.”

In this episode, we discuss…

• [0:01] Introduction
• [0:31] Guest Introduction
• [3:45] Start of Interview
• [4:20] Chantilly Bridge
• [10:31] Improvisation in Chantilly Bridge
• [19:56] Home Improvement
• [29:35] Patricia’s Experience on West Wing
• [34:45] Closing Thoughts
• [35:02] Outro

Useful Resources:

Patricia’s IMDb I [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005359/]

Patricia’s Instagram I [https://www.instagram.com/prichardsonla/?hl=en]

Patricia’s Twitter I [https://twitter.com/prichardsonla]

CurePSP I [https://www.psp.org/]

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