Tommy Westphall

Tommy Westphall
St. Elsewhere character
Chad Allen as Tommy in "The Last One" (1988)
First appearance	1983
Last appearance	"The Last One" May 25, 1988
Portrayed by	Chad Allen
Information
Gender	Male
Relatives	Dr. Donald Westphall (father)

Tommy Westphall, portrayed by Chad Allen, is a minor character from the drama television series St. Elsewhere, which ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988.

Westphall, who is autistic, took on major significance in St. Elsewhere's final episode, "The Last One", where the common interpretation of that finale is that the entire St. Elsewhere storyline exists only within Westphall's imagination. As characters from St. Elsewhere have appeared on other television shows and those shows' characters appeared on more shows, and so on, a "Tommy Westphall Universe" hypothesis was postulated by Dwayne McDuffie where a significant amount of fictional episodic television exists within Tommy Westphall's imagined fictional universe.

In the last episode's penultimate and final scenes, Donald Westphall — having just returned to St. Eligius — is shown in Dr. Auschlander's office pondering the recent death from stroke of his colleague and mentor. With the aria "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" (Doretta's Beautiful Dream) from Puccini's opera La rondine playing, Tommy Westphall enters the office and runs to the window, where he looks at the snow falling outside St. Eligius. An exterior camera shot of the hospital cuts to Tommy Westphall sitting in the living room of an apartment building alongside his grandfather, now being portrayed by Norman Lloyd (aka "Daniel Auschlander"). Tommy's father, still being portrayed by Ed Flanders (aka "Donald Westphall") arrives at the apartment wearing a hard hat. The following exchange occurs:

Father: "Hi Papa how you doing?"

Grandfather: "Good. How was your day up on the building?"

Father: "Well, we finally topped off the 22nd story. And I'm beat. How's he been (referring to Tommy) he give you any trouble?"