Brad Taylor

Infobox character
name = Brad Taylor
series = Home Improvement


caption =
first = "Pilot"
last = "The Long and Winding Road"
age = (10-18) 27 as of 2008
college = UCLA as of 1999

Bradley Michael "Brad" Taylor is a fictional character in TV sitcom "Home Improvement" played by Zachery Ty Bryan. Born in January, 1981, Brad is the eldest son of main character Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) and Jill Taylor (Patricia Richardson). He is the oldest and the most athletic of the three boys.

Behavior

While all three boys are portrayed as troublemakers at one point or another, he is the only one to have a run-in with the police (after throwing bricks at windows in an abandoned greenhouse), and also, in one episode, the only one to be discovered smoking marijuana.

His character was known for experimenting with different hair styles; Brad's hair was sandy blond, with lighter blond highlights. At various times during the show, Brad had floppy bangs and a close-cropped hair on the sides. He appeared to use gel to style his hair. For some of his biggest fans Brad's hair was the main attraction.fact|date=January 2008 Many fans agree that Brad became better looking as he grew up, with his athletic body, high cheekbones, and styled hair prominent reasons for the attraction.

Achievements

Brad was the only Taylor son to co-host an episode of "Tool Time", and the only one to be seen physically working on Tim's hot rod. In earlier seasons, he often was seen sporting the fashion trend of wearing jeans with holes in the knees. He has extraordinary athletic ability, especially in the game of soccer. Throughout the series, he has been offered numerous opportunities to make a career out of soccer, including the offer to play for a professional team in England (the fictitious Birmingham Chubbs). This was rejected when his parents refused to allow him to give up college to play professional soccer. Later in the series, despite a knee injury that would plague his potential for a long time, he earned a college scholarship to UCLA. Brad's love of soccer may have stemmed from Bryan's own love of the sport.

Brad has a prominent attraction to women, including his mild infatuation with "Tool Time"'s Heidi Keppert. He was often the catalyst for prompting parents' perspectives upon adolescent sexuality and conduct, from hosting parties while his parents were away to sex issues raised from his relationships with girls (namely with his girlfriend Angela). A notable trait of the show, Tim would often give advice to his son through mechanical or sport metaphors, like alluding to using condoms by expressing the need for cars to use covers. Like his mother, he had an interest in musical instruments; consistent with Jill, his practicing was lambasted and criticized for lack of talent. In the show, he played the alto saxophone and was encouraged by Tim's own childhood mentor (shop teacher Mr. Leonard).