Tommy Westphall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Tommy Westphall, portrayed by Chad Allen, is a minor character from the television series, St. Elsewhere. Chad Allen's character took on major significance in St. Elsewhere's final episode, "The Last One", and interpretation of the final scene of that episode has led to much discussion of the "Tommy Westphall Universe". The "Universe" is described as a series of television shows which are connected through the inclusion of fictional characters or fictional places, with St. Elsewhere as the "center".

Contents

[edit] "The Last One"

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The final episode of St. Elsewhere, known as "The Last One", ended in a context very different from every other episode of the series. As the camera pans away from the snow beginning to fall at St. Eligius hospital, the scene changes to Donald Westphall's autistic son Tommy, along with Daniel Auschlander in an apartment building. Westphall arrives home from a day's work, and it is clear that he works in construction from the clothes he wears. "Auschlander" is revealed to be Donald's father, and thus Tommy's grandfather. Donald laments to his father, "I don't understand this autism. I talk to my boy, but...I'm not even sure if he ever hears me...Tommy's locked inside his own world. Staring at that toy all day long. What does he think about?" The toy is revealed to be a snow globe with a replica of St. Eligius hospital inside. Tommy shakes the snow globe, and is told by his father to come and wash his hands, after having left the snow globe on the family's television set[1].

One of the more common interpretations of this scene is that as Tommy shakes the snow globe in the apartment, he also makes it snow at the "fictional" "St. Eligius". His father and grandfather also seem to work at this hospital even though neither man has ever experienced such a role. By implication this interpretation suggests the total series of events in the series St. Elsewhere had been a product of Tommy Westphall's imagination.

[edit] The Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis

The Tommy Westphall universe hypothesis, an idea discussed among some television fans, makes the claim that not only does St. Elsewhere take place within Tommy's mind, but so do numerous other television series which are directly and indirectly connected to St. Elsewhere through fictional crossovers and spin-offs, resulting in a large fictional universe taking place entirely within Tommy's mind.[1][2][3][4][5]

Tommy Westphall lends his name to this hypothesis because if St. Elsewhere is a figment of his imagination, and all other series that can somehow be connected to it exist in the same fictional universe, those shows could be said to exist only in Tommy Westphall's mind. In a 2003 article published on BBC News Online, St. Elsewhere creator Tom Fontana was quoted as saying, "Someone did the math once ... and something like 90 per cent of all television took place in Tommy Westphall's mind. God love him."[6]

[edit] An example of crossover

The St. Elsewhere characters of Dr. Roxanne Turner (Alfre Woodard) and Dr. Victor Ehrlich (Ed Begley Jr.) appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street [[2]][[3]]. Fontana was the executive producer and showrunner for Homicide for its entire seven years.

The argument of the Tommy Westphall Universe is that because of this fictional crossover, the two series arguably exist within the same fictional universe, and within Tommy Westphall's mind because of the final episode of St. Elsewhere; by extension this hypothesis can therefore be extended to series ranging from the science fiction program The X-Files to the entire Law & Order franchise (due to various crossovers with characters from the Homicide series). The theory and its continued discussion - including adding more series to that universe - is arguably an Internet meme.

[edit] Objections to the Tommy Westphall Hypothesis

There are other possible interpretations of Tommy's "vision" which may suggest something other than the entire series being his dream. For instance, it may be the other way around, and the snow globe scene may itself be the dream. Brian Weatherson's "Six Objections to the Westphall Hypothesis"[7] provides challenges to the existence of the "universe".

Weatherson's fifth objection holds that the appearance of a person or event in a dream does not mean the person or event cannot exist in real life. If a person dreams about visiting London and meeting Tony Blair, it does not follow that because the city of London and Tony Blair appeared in a dream, they do not exist in real life. Specific to the Westphall Hypothesis, even if we accept that "St. Elsewhere" is Westphall's dream, it does not imply that all of the characters on the show exist only in his mind. Therefore, appearances from "St. Elsewhere" characters on other shows are not sufficient to indicate that those shows exist only in Westphall's dream.

The notion that appearances by the same character in two or more series tie those series together in the same fictional universe is also problematic. Weatherson, in his sixth objection, offers the example of Michael Bloomberg's playing the role of New York City Mayor both on "Law & Order" and in real life.

Another good example of a crossover being insufficient to prove a concrete link between series is the case of the programs Family Matters, Step By Step, and Full House. Steve Urkel, character from the former, guest stars on the latter two programs. This of itself does not create a contradiction, but a later crossover does: John Stamos (not his Full House character of Uncle Jesse) also guest stars on Step By Step. During his cameo, Stamos mentions his role on Full House. A strange paradox is evident; Urkel's presence seems to indicate that all three shows are in the same continuity, but Stamos's appearance establishes that in the Step By Step continuity, Full House is fictional.

Thus, it does not follow that because one person, place, or thing is present in two or more works of fiction that those works are necessarily related. If two shows are set in New York City and both display certain key landmarks, that alone does not imply that they share a storyline. Setting and characters are just one element of fiction; crossovers and coincidences, critics of the hypothesis say, are not sufficient to link separate stories in such a fundamental way. The Westphall Hypothesis does not itself explain why this technique is indeed sufficient, nor does it provide positive evidence suggesting that the writers and producers of each show purported to be in the Westphall Universe actually intended for their shows to exist only in the dream of an autistic child.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dr. Turner. alt.tv.homicide. Google Groups. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  2. ^ "Friends" producers plan low-key finale. rec.arts.tv. Google Groups. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  3. ^ Crossover Guide Update. alt.tv.homicide. Google Groups. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  4. ^ McDuffie, Dwayne (2006-07-20). Six Degrees of St. Elsewhere. The Fifth Column. Slush Factory. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  5. ^ LOST: The Libby Theory and more. Uncle Bear: Jumping the Dire Shark (2006-04-05). Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  6. ^ Gallagher, William. "TV's strangest endings", BBC News, 2003-05-30. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  7. ^ Weatherson, Brian (2004-10-04). Six Objections to the Westphall Hypothesis. Thoughts Arguments and Rants. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  • Hofstede, David (2004). What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History. New York: Back Stage Books. ISBN 0-8230-8441-8. 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/o/m/Tommy_Westphall_8bd1.html"