Edward Burns talks about ‘Bridge and Tunnel,’ his new series about coming-of-age on LI

Bridge and Tunnel Updates: Edward Burns’ latest series for Epix, Bridge, and Tunnel, tracks many recent college grads as they experience the grit and glitter of New York City in 1980 while still sticking to the comfort of their Long Island hometown.

This past fall, Burns shot the show’s six episodes all over the Island, from a residential street in Lynbrook that serves as the working-class neighborhood of the group (never explicitly named) to Bay Park in East Rockaway, providing the backdrop for several hangout sessions.

For the first season of the show, though, Manhattan appears to hardly exist and there is an explanation for that. In order to make the broadcast, as COVID struck, 20 percent of our budget had to go to COVID protocols, which, according to Burns, meant checking everyone three days a week. You’re not allowed to shoot in Manhattan anymore.

As a means of keeping cast and crew secure, he potentially took 50 percent of the interior scenes and pulled them into the outside.

Bridge and Tunnel: Vartholomeos

There’s something about Long Island that Vartholomeos, who plays Jimmy, knows that he was born and raised in Queens, spent weekends fishing in Greenport with his dad, and has a family on the island (including a sister in the Glen Cove area and a brother in Commack).

People think New York is New York, you have a single accent, but no, they said, Vartholomeos, 25. A little different from Port Jeff or Commack or Kings Point is Rockville Centre, where we were [staying while] filming.

He added that to take on Jimmy’s job, it certainly helped to be around all those different kinds of people and to channel different accents that he has heard over the years.

COVID ended up dramatically altering the first Bridge and Tunnel season. Burns had to restrict his actions to Long Island, with Manhattan off-limits. He had to wait until Season Two for all of the stuff he wanted to do and re-create New York City in 1980, he said.

Burns trimmed this season to six episodes, down from a projected eight. Scenes that initially took place indoors claim that a restaurant or a pub, sometimes in Bay Park, was filmed outside instead.

One problem with that the show takes place during the summer, but the shooting took place in late November from September to freezing. Stacey said, God bless Ed, he’s the everlasting optimist.

He’d be like, Do you believe November is here? It’s sunny like that! And we’re like, Yeah, we should because we’re wearing booty shorts and tank tops. We may say it’s November.