Gay Best Friend: Bernstein (Antonio Fargas) in "Next Stop Greenwich Village" (1976)
Tuesday, August 24, 2021 at 6:30PM A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope
Look past the early "Chris" Walken appearance, Bernstein (Antonio Fargas - center) is the subject of this week's Gay Best Friend column.
Flying the nest can be simultaneously liberating and horrifying. On one hand, you have all this freedom to do what you want, when you want. Unfortunately, you have to learn how to take care of yourself and be self-sufficient. For those with tight knit families or over-involved parents, the horrifying can outweigh the liberating.
Next Stop, Greenwich Village laser focuses on the growing pains in this transition. The year is 1953. Larry Lapinski (Lenny Baker) leaves his parents’ home in Brooklyn to chase his dreams of stardom. His Mother, Fay (Shelley Winters), is utterly distraught and inconsolable. The umbilical cord is only hurt, not severed though. Larry's mother bursts in to his new life at the most inopportune times. This column isn’t about Shelley Winters though, as much as it should be. Larry makes a variety of friends in Greenwich Village, one of which is Bernstein, played by Antonio Fargas, our gay best friend of the week...