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His friends are Joey (Joseph Cali) Double J (Paul Pape) Gus (Bruce Ornstein) and the diminutive Bobby C. After dinner, Tony meets outside his house with four close friends that he goes out every Friday night. Tony primps to go out that Friday evening and then rushes through dinner with his family, all of whom compare him unfavorably to his older brother, Frank, Jr., a Catholic priest. (Val Bisoglio), his uneducated and overbearing mother Flo (Julie Bovasso), his non-English speaking Grandmother (Nina Hansen) and his younger sister Linda (Lisa Peluso). At home, Tony lives with his parents his alcoholic, abusive and unemployed father Frank Sr.
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His boss, Dan Fusco (Sam Coppola), likes that Tony charms customers, but he refuses the young man's request for an advance. He swaggers through Bay Ridge on his way to work at a local hardware store.
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Although she has no interest in him romantically, she does agree to be his dance partner at the contest. That changes when he spots a new girl at 2001, twenty year old Stephanie Mangano, who he sees not only as being the best dancer he's seen at the club in a long time, but also someone exotic as she has aspirations of life away from the neighborhood despite being in many ways typical of a Bay Ridge girl. Part of the stringing along is agreeing to be Annette's dance partner at 2001's upcoming dance contest, where they would have a good chance of winning. Although he is up front with her about not being attracted to her, he strings along insecure Annette who does whatever she needs to be with Tony and his friends. This is the one place where he feels he is in control and where he has respect. Part of that living for today is spending all his money on Saturday nights out at the local disco, the 2001 Odyssey, he needing to look and act the part of the king of the dance floor in every aspect. Within this setting, Tony lives solely for today, not having any idea of life outside of Bay Ridge, with the bridges - the Brooklyn Bridge and especially the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge - acting as barriers and symbols to unknown worlds across the water. He hangs out with his Italian childhood friends where acts of machismo dominate. Nineteen year old middle offspring Tony seems destined to be stuck in this dead end life, he recently having started working at a paint store in the neighborhood. happily collects unemployment and rules what happens in the house when he is not working in construction. Everything that housewife Flo does is in the name of God, while Frank Sr. being a priest as salvation for the family. They outwardly abide by their Catholic roots, and as such see oldest son Frank Jr. Three generations of their family currently live under the same roof. The Maneros are typical of many of the working class Italian-American families of their Bay Ridge, Brooklyn neighborhood.