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Date: 4/27/04

Title: "Midnight Football"

Author: Raphael Abrams

Submitted by: Raphael Abrams

Submitted to: HSCL

Format: SP

Time: Present

Locale: Austin, Texas

Genre: Comedy


PREMISE: Female football (yes there is such a thing) is hard enough considering the sub par facilities, oppressive summer heat, and tape delays that show the games at midnight. But the saving grace may be the chance for women who love the sport, despite the drawbacks, to do their thing.

But when good players are suddenly cut to make room for hot looking babes, a firestorm is set off between the two leaders of the team: Tobacco spittin' old school, easily slighted team member Lisa Ray who comes out fighting versus post modern beauty April who remains nonplussed, seeing the world as something to make peace with rather than confront.

A less doctrinaire feminism is just the start of things as the story of the first year of the woman's Professional Football league fledgingly unveils.

QUICK COMMENT: A fun, sophisticated script with snappy dialogue and lovable characters. Original storytelling with thought provoking themes, “Midnight Football” is a sure fire touchdown!


Concept: Excellent

Characterization: Excellent

Dialogue: Excellent

Story Line: Excellent

Setting/Prod. Values: Very Good

Freshness of Story: Excellent


SYNOPSIS: A League Of Their Own In Tight-fitting Spandex? Janet Jackson’s breast might have made “sex and football” an attention-getting topic but it doesn't hold a candle to “Midnight Football,” the hilarious story of a fledgling women’s professional football team and one woman’s struggle to just play!

It all starts after the final pre-season game, when the majority of Texas Twilights discover that they are to be replaced by hot looking babes hired solely for the fact that their tight, sexy bodies make the ideal match for the new, revealing uniforms. No one is more outraged than Lisa Ray Longley, the hardheaded running back who suffers no fools gladly. She gets a shrug but little real compassion from co captain and life partner, April Rios, a tall, statuesque quarterback much wiser than her twenty-five years of age. Because April is younger than Lisa Ray, her feminism is way less doctrinaire and more flexible. From the first erotic (and tongue-in-cheek) shower scene, the two go at it like cats and dogs.

"What’s the point of having a league if we're just going to serve as middle-aged men’s fantasies!" roars Lisa Ray."If you keep whining like that non-stop to management, there won’t be a league to complain about!" April retorts.

Therein lies both the humor and the conflict: The tobacco-spittin' old school, easily-slighted, Lisa Ray, would like to refuse to yield when it comes to fighting for what she believes in, while the post-modern beauty April, remains nonplussed, seeing the world as something to make peace with rather than confront.

“Everyone is entitled to do the same thing…go after people on the basis of their looks...if that’s what everybody wants…get over yourself,” reasons April.

“Get over myself?” The vernacular alone offends Lisa Ray’s very core. And yet she’s tired of giving up her passions to prove a point.

So she struggles. Along with her “fellow” Austin based teammates, she and the Twilights endure it all - being forced to play in sub-par facilities, the oppressive summer heat, the fans who refuse to take them seriously, the demeaning, yet sexy-as-all-hell uniforms and no network to televise their games prime time, as the league is strictly a cable operation and those tape-delayed games are shown at midnight!

With the best player cut due to her lack of glamorous appeal, the Twilights are all the more hard pressed to survive. With minimal time and the omnipresent threat of bankruptcy hovering over the players, it starts to look like all bets are off. As if this weren't enough to chew on, Lisa Ray is burdened by the fact that Rosie, her equally stubborn and gorgeous sixteen-year old daughter, is now getting sexually involved with her first serious boyfriend.

“I would prefer she be allowed to have a normal sixteen year old life. Unmolested,” Lisa Ray states to April, thinking herself enlightened. She’s swiftly put in check by the unimpressed April: “You’re acting like she has no say in the matter. Is that what they teach you in your femdyke bitch session classes?”

Rosie soon runs away and Lisa Ray must put all discourse on hold to find her baby girl, while meantime, the team gains a new player. Leona Madsen is a mocha-skinned beauty that immediately arouses April and Lisa Ray's suspicions with her prolific tendency at fumbling the ball and causing –“oops!”- an all girl pile up reminiscent of a female mud-wrestling match!

As Lisa Ray struggles to woo back Rosie, she and April kiss and make up, sleuthing to get to the bottom of Leona’s pile up. The drama culminates in a surprise filled showdown against their dreaded archrival, the Los Angeles Lassos!

Midnight Football. It’s a League Of Their Own In (the skimpiest) Spandex.

COMMENTS: Abrams has written a hilarious, smart, fresh screenplay with colorful, well-developed characters and dialogue that snaps. It’s playful and sophisticated, light on delivery and substantive in theme. “Midnight Football” has spark and heart, a perfect Saturday night gem that will titillate, stimulate and keep viewers cheering in their seats!

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