As Home Improvement’s Jill Taylor, Patricia Richardson acted as America’s everymom for most of the ‘90s. She brought up three handsome blond boys and dealt with Tim Allen’s guttural grunts, all while keeping up a neighborly relationship with Wilson behind the fence. But while everything was hunky-dory onscreen, off screen things weren’t quite as rosy, with Richardson battling producers and writers she says were more interested in coasting on the show’s success than in breaking new ground.

The A.V. Club talked to Richardson—whose latest movie, Cubby, is on VOD now—about her ride on Home Improvement, with its peaks and valleys, and about why she eventually had to walk away from the whole thing.