NOVI, MI - They starred on a fictional show within a huge hit sitcom which ran for 203 episodes from 1991 to 1999. We caught up with “Home Improvement” stars, Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning at Michigan’s biggest comic convention, Motor City Comic Con.
The stars who played Al Borland and Heidi are two of the more than two dozen celebrity guests meeting with fans for photos and autographs at the event taking place at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi through Sunday, May 21. Tickets to Motor City Comic Con can be purchased here.
Both Karn and Dunning have been to Michigan in the past and in fact, Karn once lived in West Michigan.
“Holland, for a couple of summers. Holland, Michigan,” Karn told MLive in our video interview which you can see above. “And I actually came out here a couple of years ago to do a show called “The Detroiters.” It was on the Comedy channel.”
“It’s not my first time in Michigan,” added Dunning. “I was here last year once and I really enjoyed it so I couldn’t wait to come back.”
“Home Improvement,” which also starred Michigan’s Tim Allen, was one of the top-rated shows when it aired. Both say they’d love to do a reboot, but there’s some kind of conflict stopping it from happening.
“It could happen,” said Karn. “As soon as the producers come to a consensus on how things work out. There’s still some hard feelings after 30 years.”
“After this many years, you would have thought, they would have just said, you know what, we are going to be better off just dropping whatever it is and working together,” added Dunning. “We’re hoping we get to that because we’re still ready, we’re still in great shape, we’re still just as fun and funny as we were. So, it would be incredible.”
“We’d like to do it while we’re still around,” said Karn. “We lost Earl (”Wilson”) a few years ago, which is just so unfortunate.”
Along with Karn and Dunning, other guests at Motor City Comic Con include: Tony Danza (”Who’s The Boss, “Taxi”), Christopher Lloyd (“Back to the Future”), Carl Weathers (”Rocky”), Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner (“Star Trek: The Next Generation,”), Stephen Amell, David Ramsey and Emily Bett Rickards (“Arrow,”) Ashley Eckstein, Matt Lanter and James Arnold Taylor (“Star Wars: Clone Wars”), Catherine Tate (“Doctor Who,” “The Office”), Mick Foley (WWE Hall of Famer), Williams Daniels (“Boy Meets World,” “Knight Rider,” “St. Elsewhere”), Bonnie Bartlett Daniels (“Little House on the Prairie,” “St. Elsewhere”) and Laurie Holden (“The Walking Dead,” “The X-Files”).
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