The Bill Clinton library released a bunch of previously-confidential documents from his time in the White House, and Politico detailing a time that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton came close to guest starring on the Tim Allen sitcom Home Improvement in the early/mid-’90s. Here’s the internal White House memo about Home Improvement’s offer to have Clinton do the show:
I know this may sound like a wild idea, but I think it is an interesting one to discuss. Rick Kaplan [a TV executive friend of the Clintons] brought to my attention that Home Improvement would very much like to have Hillary make a guest appearance on its show. Home Improvement is the most popular television show on the air. They are willing to do a show on women, children and family issues or a show on whatever issues Hillary would like. The outreach would be enormous and it would represent Hillary in a very likable light I believe. Although I have some concerns that it diminishes the role of First Lady by going on a tv sitcom, it is probably worth weighing it against what we believe we might be able to gain from such an appearance. politically and image-wise. You probably know that Rick is 100 percent in favor of Hillary pursuing this project.
Two decades later and Hillary Clinton still has yet to make her sitcom debut, but at least current First Lady Michelle Obama is actually following through on plans to make a sitcom cameo with her recently-announced upcoming Parks and Recreation appearance.
