“We got back for our second season, and we hadn’t been back for several months,” explains Ford. “And we’re sitting around doing a table read [of the script] and the idea comes up: Maybe Martin meets Tommy after work.”
“And then Martin stops reading and goes, ‘Wait a minute. Tommy, what the hell do you do?’
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“He wasn’t in character; he was being Martin. He says, ‘You have a job?’
“I said, ‘Of course I have a job!’ And I’m startin’ to explain but everybody’s like ‘No no no no no! Don’t explain. We love it!’
“But I’m like, ‘No, we don’t love that. I got to have a job,’” Tommy continues.
“My dad was an MP, Military Police, in the Navy. His motto was ‘Nothin’ comes to a sleeper but a dream. Get off your butt and do somethin’!’
“For me, the biggest insult I could imagine was a man who had no job.”
On the show, Tommy did everything from dating Pam and moving in with her, to getting jumped by…
…Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys over a girl. Loved him! Since then, he’s also done a wealth of TV work. Right after the show, he had a regular role as Lt. Malcolm Barker on New York Undercover, and appeared in a recurring role as Kim Parker’s father on “The Parkers.” He also worked on a show called “Who’s Got Jokes” from 2006-08 and just finished working on two films the year of his death: The Ivy League and Unspoken Words.
Tommy also had one of the greatest and most rewarding jobs of all time: That of being a father.
He is missed and will be missed. Rest in Peace Tommy.