Home Improvement star Jonathan Taylor Thomas seen for first time after intoxicated star ‘KICKED’ deputy during shock arrest… as insider reveals his private heartbreak

Former Home Improvement star Jonathan Taylor Thomas was seen looking disheveled when he was spotted on Thursday for the first time since his shocking arrest on Monday.

Thomas, 45, was spotted in Los Angeles as he got some fresh air in photos obtained by the Daily Mail.

The former child star has been keeping a low profile since his arrest for obstruction and public intoxication.

In a press release obtained by the Daily Mail, police said that the allegedly intoxicated former star ‘kicked a deputy in the stomach’ during the confrontation with police.

Following the arrest, sources close to Thomas have told the Daily Mail that he has lately been dealing with the disappointment of a Hollywood career that never took off the way he had hoped it would, and just weeks after turning 45, they worry that he feels it’s too late to resuscitate it.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Thomas’s representatives for comment but has not yet received a response. 

Thomas was spotted outside on a patio while wearing a simple black T-shirt and jeans, and he sported shaggy dark hair.

While speaking to the Daily Mail, one source gave a glimpse into his mood in recent days.

‘He is kind of a grumpy guy; he can be negative, like woe is me,’ they said.

‘Jonathan is depressed. He wishes his career would be better off. He really wanted to become a director and be a bigger deal behind the camera, but it has not worked out,’ they continued.

According to the source, Thomas’s age has begun to weigh on his mind. 

‘He just turned 45 and thinks that maybe his time has passed, that he lost out in Hollywood, which is sad because he is super intelligent and a good person,’ the insider shared.

They also noted that Thomas’s biggest success as a child star continues to haunt him.

‘No one ever got past that he was the kid on Home Improvement, and he still kind of has kid looks, so I think that has hurt him,’ the source said.

‘Hollywood is tough; it’s not his fault, it’s just a tough business, and work has really slowed down a ton in LA, so there is not much work for people,’ they continued, adding, ‘Hopefully he bounces back from this.’

The source was also consternated by Thomas’s run-in with the law and struggled to understand how things could have escalated so disastrously. 

‘The story is really strange; he wasn’t even driving the car,’ they mused. ‘If he just kept his mouth shut, he would have been fine, but he had to get mad, and now he is back in the news for all the wrong reasons.

‘Jonathan clearly was just having a really bad night,’ the insider added. ‘He really messed up.’

Another source told the Daily Mail that Thomas’s arrest had further damaged the already shaky chances of Home Improvement ever being revived, following the ‘never-ending struggles’ to get it in motion and ‘the substantial loss of Earl [Hindman], who played Wilson.

‘The chances of doing any sort of reboot is pretty much impossible,’ the second source said, before clarifying, ‘Not that anything was in the works; this incident makes it that much more impossible.’

They revealed that Thomas was living in fear of more damaging information emerging about his arrest and confrontation with police.

‘Jonathan is extremely embarrassed and has no excuses for what he did and is horrified about if and when the body cam footage comes out,’ the source continued. ‘To think that something like that will be out there – and out there forever – is a terrible feeling.’

They added that for someone who is as ‘private’ as Thomas has been in recent years, the arrest ‘would be a stain on everything he believes in, because he believes in being a normal person, and an upright citizen who causes no problems. 

The second source added: ‘He’s taking this very hard, and he is very upset with himself.’

According to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the arrest occurred in Westlake Village, California, when deputies spotted a vehicle blocking traffic at an intersection. 

In a press release obtained by The Daily Mail, the department said deputies noticed the driver seemed intoxicated and was behaving oddly, prompting them to perform an investigation for driving under the influence.

As field sobriety tests were being conducted, Thomas – who was not driving – ‘continually exited the vehicle and approached the deputies, distracting them from their investigation,’ according to the press release. 

‘Deputies attempted to detain Weiss for obstruction and public intoxication, at which point, Weiss [Thomas] kicked a deputy in the stomach,’ the release said.

Thomas was arrested, transported and booked on charges of obstruction and public intoxication at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. He was released the following day. 

The driver of the vehicle was also arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. 

According to the LA County Sheriff’s inmate information center, Thomas’s obstruction charge has been placed at a felony level. 

A representative for Thomas had no comment when contacted by The Daily Mail.  

Thomas was a massive star in the 90s, with roles in The Lion King, Man of the House, and the series Home Improvement. 

The hit show ran for eight seasons from 1991 to 1999, led by Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson as a suburban couple with three young sons played by Zachery Ty Bryan, Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith.

Thomas, who played middle child Randy Taylor, quit acting in 2006, briefly returning to the screen only for a four-episode guest shot on Allen’s sitcom Last Man Standing from 2013 through 2015.

Since 2017, Thomas has served as a national board member of the media labor union SAG-AFTRA.

In 2013, Thomas told People: ‘I’d been going nonstop since I was 8 years old. I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break.

He later studied at Harvard and Columbia.

‘I never took the fame too seriously,’ he added. ‘It was a great period in my life, but it doesn’t define me. When I think back on the time, I look at it with a wink. I focus on the good moments I had, not that I was on a lot of magazine covers.’

Allen recently remarked that his co-stars’ ‘issues’ have made the prospect of a Home Improvement revival ‘difficult, to say the least,’ via Us Weekly.

‘They keep talking about how it could move forward, but they get stuck [because] there are some personality problems right now with the boys,’ he said.

‘They’ve got their own issues. I always thought it would be cool if it was a story about them. That’s a little challenging right now, to put it mildly.’

Home Improvement proved to be one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1990s, marking Allen’s emergence as a star actor after years as a stand-up comic. 

Allen led the cast as a suburban father who hosts a TV show called Tool Time with a friend played by Richard Karn and a female foil, who for part of the series’ run was a character portrayed by Pamela Anderson.

Other than Allen, the actor on the show who achieved the greatest celebrity was Thomas, who in 1994 was also the voice of young Simba in The Lion King.

However, his career fizzled after Home Improvement ended and he gave up on acting altogether in 2006, except for four episodes in which he made guest appearances on Allen’s subsequent hit sitcom a decade later.

A couple of years ago, Allen claimed he had been ‘talking about a spinoff’ of Home Improvement with his onscreen sons and Richard Karn, per Entertainment Weekly.

Patricia Richardson, however, disputed his story, saying she had spoken to Thomas and he denied Allen had contacted him about a new show.

Richardson noted further that Thomas was ‘not really interested in acting’ any longer and rather ‘wants to direct and write,’ on the podcast Back to the Best.