Al Borland's Flannel Shirts - On the sitcom HOME IMPROVEMENT/ABC/1991-99. Al Borland (Richard Karn) the co-host of a fix-it show (Tool Time) took a lot of ribbing from the host of the show Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor (Tim Allen) for always wearing flannel shirts. Al wore flannel as a homage to his now deceased father. When Al was a little boy he often visited his dad's workshop to help him work on projects. To keep his son warm, Al's dad always draped him with one of his flannel shirts.