Tommy Hyatt | |
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Philip McKeon as Tommy Hyatt on the CBS-TV series Alice' | |
Personal Information | |
Gender: | Male |
Occupation/ Career: |
High school/College student |
Character description: |
winds up moving to Phoenix with his mother Alice when she lands her waitress job aat Mel's Diner after the death of her trucker husband Donald, his father |
Domestic partner(s): | several girlfriends in high school and college |
Related to: | Alice Hyatt (mother) Mona Spivak (grandmother) Donald Hyatt (father, deceased) Rose Hyatt (grandmother) Charlie Hyatt (grandfather) |
Hometown | New Jersey, U.S. (in TV series, Monterrey, CA in movie) |
Character information | |
Appeared on: | |
Episodes appeared in: | 168 in TV series |
Character played by: | Alfred Lutter III in 1974 film & in Alice TV series pilot Philip McKeon on TV series |
Thomas "Tommy" Hyatt is a fictional character from the long running CBS-TV sitcom, Alice. He was played originally by Alfred Lutter III, who reprised his role from the 1974 Martin Scorcese directed movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, but when the series began, he was replaced by Philip McKeon, who played him from the show's second episode through the series end.
About Tommy[]
Tommy was the son of Donald and Alice Hyatt. His father died in a truck driving accident when he was twelve, and then he moved, with his mother, to California, so she could break into singing. However, car troubles forced Alice to stop in Phoenix, Arizona, where they eventually got an apartment, and his mother got a job as a waitress at Mel's Diner. During the first two seasons, Tommy was a very precocious kid, with lots of funny comeback lines and some surprising knowledge about sexual matters making him wise beyond his years.
In the Season 1 two part episodes "Mother in-Law: Part 1" and "Mother in-Law: Part 2" (episodes #12, & #13), Tommy's paternal grandmother, Rose Hyatt (played by guest star Eileen Heckart) was trying to manipulate Tommy to move away from his mother, and back to New Jersey, which infuriated Alice, and caused her to confront her interfering in-law about it. Eventually, she discovered that her husband had left her, and she had planned to move to Phoenix; however, Alice brought her in-laws back together, and they headed back to New Jersey.
As the series progressed, Tommy's character went from a 12 year old pre-teen to an early teen by the Season 3. By this time, McKeon had become a teen sensation, featured often in magazines like Tiger Beat and Teen Beat. By the seventh season, Tommy was graduating from high school and attending Arizona State University.
Throughout the series, Tommy had many friends, and was quite popular with the ladies, sometimes to Alice's dismay. His mother's boss, Mel Sharples, was at times shown as a needed father figure to him, even though some of his shenanigans met with Alice's disapproval. It made Mel proud that Tommy was as popular with the ladies, as Mel seemed to think himself to be. Alice also fretted that Mel would make Tommy as chauvinistic as he was, but Tommy never became chauvinistic. He was generally self-effacingly pleasant.
Like his mother, Tommy loved music, and was a talented guitarist. He and his mother performed a couple of duets during the show's run. Also, Mel trained him to be a fry cook, like he was, even going so far as to wear a beanie and T-shirt, like Mel did; at first this was met with stringent resistance by Alice, but she eventually relented when Tommy showed genuine talent at it. He was also friends with diner regular Henry Beesmeyer.
Tommy's strongest interest, however, was basketball. Luckily, one of Flo's boyfriends, Earl Hicks (played by Dave Madden), was a basketball coach at his high school. With practice, he won a basketball scholarship at Arizona State University, where he joined a fraternity to meet more girls and make friends. At one time, Tommy felt burned out, and almost lost his scholarship. Fortunately, with some encouraging words by Meadowlark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters, he regained his love for the game, and stuck it out. At one point, Tommy also joined the Navy, encouraged by Mel and his navy buddy, who had become a military recruiter. He also tried his hand at acting and singing on several episodes.
His mother's co-workers, Florence Jean Castleberry, known as Flo, called him "Tiger"; and Vera Louise Gorman called him "Toms". He also was close to Flo's two replacements, Belle Dupree and Jolene Hunnicutt. Jolene was only a few years older than Tommy, and in a couple episodes, they were seen dancing together or otherwise sharing a good laugh, although neither displayed any romantic interests in each other. Tommy did have several girlfriends throughout the series, the first on portrayed by Olivia Barash in the third season.
An episode in the Season 9 episode "Tommy's Lost Weekend" (#5 in season, #191 overall) dealt with alcoholism. Tommy was portrayed going to many college parties, drinking before breakfast and before tests, and losing motivation and interest in his collegiate studies. The drinking leads to Tommy losing Alice's boyfriend Nick's borrowed car, which is returned with a giant cactus planted in it. By the end of the episode, Alice convinces Tommy to get counseling, and the alcohol problem is never mentioned again.
At the end of the series, Tommy made mention that the diner was special to him; in that he practically grew up there and called Mel his second father. Mel, touched by this, reciprocated by saying that he would have never had a kid to raise.
External links[]
- Tommy Hyatt article at Wikipedia