Tommy Hyatt

Tommy Hyatt is a fictional character in the film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and the television sitcom Alice. Tommy was played by Alfred Lutter in the movie and the television series pilot. Throughout the rest of the series, he was played by Philip McKeon.

Alice's pride and joy

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 first season two part episode "Mother in Law", Tommy's paternal grandmother, Rose Hyatt (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 third season. 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.

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-Novak 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 final, ninth season 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.