It was always clear to viewers what the majority of the characters on Martin did for a living. But one particular person, Tommy, always left fans and even his on-screen friends confused as to where he worked or what his job entailed.
Over 20 years later and fans of the groundbreaking show finally received an answer. During a BOSSIP podcast interview with famed actress Tisha Campbell-Martin, who played Gina on the half-hour comedy show, revealed that it wasn’t only Martin who “love the kids.”
“Tommy really did have a job, I’ll give you a hint,” she said before diving into the revelation. “The woman I was gonna fight, she was Martin’s teacher; Beverly Johnson, in that episode that’s the first time you hear about Tommy’s job. So Tommy talks about him being in the Boys & Girls Club. He was a counselor at the Boys & Girls Club. That’s what he did for a living.”
As reported by The Root, Campbell-Martin also stated that actor Thomas Mikal Ford, who portrayed Tommy on screen, disliked the fact that his character wasn’t developing. “‘No one knows what I do for a job, they keep asking me what I do!'” Campbell-Martin describes. “So then they started putting in the script that Tommy has no job.”
Watch this fan-made compilation of all the times Tommy’s lack of an occupation came into question.