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Home › Dad of the Month

Richard Karn

By Jenn Director Knudsen

Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a father who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a man and a father. Above all, the Dad of the Month is dedicated to his children. Rich or poor, famous or not, he shines as an example of what fathering is all about.

On TV situation comedies, family conflicts and conundrums arise and are worked through and solved in half-hour snippets (less if taking commercials into consideration). Wouldn't it be nice if real life worked this way? Well, it doesn't. Neither for the viewing public nor for the actors who play the joke-cracking parents, teens and neighbors.

Richard Karn, who played childless "Al" opposite Tim Allen in the popular ABC sitcom Home Improvement, says the show's writers got the characters into and out of "messes." By contrast, he says, "In real life, you sometimes barge into those messes and have to figure a way out."

Especially – or so it seems to Karn these days – when your charge is a teenager.

Celebrity Dad, Real-life Challenges

Father of 12-year-old Cooper Wilson, Karn says teens pose specific challenges; namely, they're trying to assert their independence and often do so in a way adults find exasperating, if not downright unacceptable.

Karn says though his son has moments of "refreshing innocence," Cooper also demonstrates a teen's healthy aptitude for attitude. The actor says Coop – as he affectionately calls his son – often says, "Oh Dad, you don't know anything," and will let loose with sarcasm bordering on rudeness and talking back.

Though Cooper's behavior can frustrate Karn, he says he cuts his son slack because teenagers don't yet have all their "faculties." They're not yet capable of dealing with the world as an adult, somewhat akin to toddlers. "[Teens] forget that the world isn't all about them," Karn says.

From Theater to TV to Fatherhood

Karn, 48, chuckled often and spoke affably during our telephone interview from his home in Studio City, outside Los Angeles, whether talking about the challenges of being a celebrity father, raising a teenager or balancing family with a high-profile career as a game show host and spokesperson since 1996 for the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation.

Originally from Seattle, Wash., Karn earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington and then lived from 1979 to 1990 in New York, where he did years of theater work, including acting in the Broadway production of Me and My Girl.

In the early '80s, he met his wife-to-be, Tudi Wilson, originally from Texas, while the two performed in the same play. But theater life can be very hard on a family – one must be willing and able to work all over the country and at all times of day, he says.

Karn and Wilson married in 1985 and then five years later moved to L.A. to get out of theater and into TV. The couple wanted a more stable lifestyle for the family they hoped to have, and Hollywood allows for more family-friendly work schedules than Broadway.

Cooper was born in 1992, and though his folks wanted to have more children, they weren't able to. "It just didn't work, not for lack of trying," Karn says. "We were just older."

From 1991 to 1998, Karn played "Al," the overall-wearing quintessential handyman on Home Improvement. Since 2002, he's hosted Family Feud, a game show that allows him not only to improvise – a style of delivery more akin to theater, which he misses – but also to be very involved with his son.

Or is it the other way around?

Cooper, a seventh grader, is a regular on the set of Family Feud and seems to enjoy his access as much as those involved with the show enjoy Cooper's presence.

Whereas there were 200 episodes of Home Improvement, Karn does 175 Family Feud shows in a season. That may be a ton of work, but at least it all gets accomplished in a weekend. That allows Cooper to attend as many of the 12 weekend tapings as he'd like.

Cooper, a Part of the Set

"It's great the way in which Richard has brought Cooper into the fold at Family Feud," says Christopher Wright, Karn's manager and owner of his eponymous company, Christopher Wright Management. "The crew has embraced Cooper so he has free run of the place." Cooper is a completely integral part of the process, whether hamming it up with audience members, learning the ropes from the sound crew or spending time with Dad in the dressing room between tapings, says Wright, 48, whose son, Ryan, attends school with Cooper.

"It has always struck me how Richard makes time to be there for Cooper with a very busy career life," says David McKinzie, 41, of Studio City, a long-time friend of Karn's. "Last year, Rick even arranged for Cooper to be on the Halloween episode for Family Feud, which made Cooper beam with pride for weeks."

Wright says Karn comes across as unflappable and a very dedicated family man and father. "One of Richard's great qualities is he never loses his temper – ever – it seems," Wright says. "I'd love to say I have the same personality. I don't. I'm a little more high-energy, reactive." He adds that Karn "dotes" on Cooper, whom he describes as a "very obedient" child who listens to his dad.

Karn loves spending one-on-one time with his son and hopes to get more of it, now that some of their other interests, such as golf and cinema, are converging. On July 26, 2004, Karn is hosting the first Richard Karn Invitational Golf Tournament. The tourney's proceeds will benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Fire Fighters Fund.

Cooper has taken up golf lessons, so Karn hopes the two of them will play together more often, and the pair goes to movies, such as Van Helsing, that Mom has no interest in seeing.

Karn also says he's often approached to be the spokesperson for various organizations and companies. Eight years ago, he chose to become, and continues to be, the "face" of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, a nonprofit, public-service organization based in Atlanta, Ga. Karn enjoys being the organization's spokesperson and says he agrees with its environmentally-friendly mission. "It's hard to get everybody to recycle paper and plastic, let alone batteries," he says.

Family First

Karn says he's not necessarily more overprotective of Cooper solely because he's in the public eye. But, "we try to keep him away from the red carpet stuff," he says.

The way Karn tells it, it seems they're succeeding: Cooper attends a K–12 private school, where many well-known kids, like the Olsen twins and children of celebrities, attend, and he's definitely aware his dad is famous. But it's basketball great Shaq, of the Los Angeles Lakers (now with the Miami Heat), that puts stars in Cooper's eyes.

Cooper also likes to tag along at charity events where he can score other celebrities' autographs. But Cooper still is a teen. At one moment, he'll excitedly show off his famous father to a friend, and then at another moment he'll say exasperatedly, "Oh, Dad!"

"I think he's got as healthy an attitude as he can," Karn says. "And he's got me as a role model, and he's seen me working in show business all his life."

Karn intimates that though he's got a well-known mug, he's more or less a regular guy and a family man. Around the house, other than "always replacing something with the toilets, I'm pretty useless," he says. "But I can barbecue, and I make a pretty good shrimp salad."

All gigs aside – whether domestic or professional in nature – Karn puts family first, according to his friends and colleagues. "He is always at important school functions and is extremely supportive," says McKinzie, a father himself with two sons, ages 12 and 9. "And while he's there, he is Cooper's biggest fan."

And Wright, his manager, says lots of folks claim they put family first, but for Karn that commitment is real. "It doesn't ever occur to him that he's supposed to challenge the primacy of family obligations," such as a school play Cooper's performing in or Tudi's birthday, Wright says. "He just has a more natural commitment to core family than many of the people who do this for a living. If he has something going on where Cooper is concerned, that's where he is."