When Jonathan Taylor Thomas retired from acting, his fans eventually arrived at acceptance after going through the familiar stages of grief.
But that doesn't mean the world doesn't have time to obsess over the now-42-year-old when the paparazzi do manage to snap a pic of him going about his life, most recently taking a stroll in L.A., travel mug in hand.
Besides, what is retirement from acting anyway? The '90s-era heartthrob known familiarly as J.T.T. did appear in a few episodes of Home Improvement dad Tim Allen's more recent sitcom, Last Man Standing. And the live studio audience responded appropriately when eldest daughter Kristin (Amanda Fuller) referenced the middle child who's "the breakout star everybody swoons over" and there was Thomas playing her boss.
"A lot of times," his character quipped, '"that middle child ends up being the funny one because he wants the attention." (And the heartwarming call-backs did not end there.)
And with Allen recently revealing that another chapter of Home Improvement in some form remains on the table, and that he still talks to all three of his TV sons about it...
Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, isn't it?
But just seeing Thomas out and about was a reminder of how deep our feels were back in the day—and how he wasn't the only star who played an outsized role in our pop culture education.
Whether like Thomas they put show business mostly behind them or they're still a fixture on our screens to this day, read on to see what these former child stars are up to now: