and this would serve him in his next role as another rebellious brooklyn-ite, tony manero directed by john badham. "badham was very attuned to 'welcome back kotter' and just the swagger and the attitude that he represented in that t-v show, i think he felt could be translated into tony manero." "because of barbarino, he still had a new york slug to him. so, being in brooklyn was terrific." in addition to john travolta, badham wanted his entire cast to have a "brooklyn edge." "and he had us all hang out together and kind of be those people and uh, really get a sense of what we were doing prior to going to camera which gave it the authenticity and the drive." "basically the minute we, tony and stephanie got on set together it was very real. and it was as if he and i - karen and john - were just sort of sitting back and watching these two people interact." adding to the film's commtment to portray genuine brooklyn was the fact it was shot in the borough itself. "using brooklyn, filming in brooklyn, being right there in the streets where this story took place, really brought an amazing au