Regardless of how Drew Bledsoe and company fare this season, relief for long-suffering Buffalo Bills fans is on the way.
Culminating many a dream, the Bills rally for an elusive Super Bowl win in the uplifting "Second String," a 93-minute comedy-fantasy film by Buffalo native and University at Buffalo graduate Rob Lieberman. It had its world premiere in UB's Center for the Arts on Friday before an enthusiastic audience and is scheduled to air nationally Dec. 15 on TNT.
The movie stars Jon Voight as a crusty Bills coach who must turn to a failed pro quarterback he formerly coached, played by Gil Bellows, and his reserves after his offensive line is hospitalized with food poisoning as the team heads into the playoffs. The unorthodox Bellows, who replaces Doug Flutie (playing himself in a cameo), revives his self-confidence, gathers his patchwork offense and leads the team to victory.
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Lieberman, along with two of the film's stars, Bellows and Buffalo native Lamont Johnson, were on hand for the screening and prefilm reception, as well as Bills broadcaster Van Miller, who calls the play-by-play.
For Lieberman, a director of television movies, feature films and commercials, making the film brought him full circle: He started his filmmaking career with the Bills in 1968, making coaching films while a student at UB.
"This is my dream, to make a film and have it premiered in my hometown," Lieberman told the audience prior to the movie.
It was almost a dream deferred. The movie, which was shot in Toronto in summer 2000 and finished in November, was nearly shelved because of complications that followed the AOL-Time Warner merger.
Working with Miller was also a highlight for Lieberman. "He was the voice of the Bills when I was a little boy. He was one of my idols, and I got to work with him. What a kick," the director said.
Miller said he enjoyed working on the film -- and relished the picture's conclusion. "Any time you see the Bills win the Super Bowl, whether it's real or not quite real, it's worth the while," he said.
Bellows, a star of "Agency" and previously "Ally McBeal," flew in from his native Vancouver for the occasion. He expressed a fondness for Buffalo and its hope-springs-eternal football fans: "For me, the Bills are the Cubs of football, they really are. The history isn't as long, but it's got the same sort of dull pain attached to it."
Johnson, a lifelong Bills fan who attended UB in the mid-1980s and now lives in North Hollywood, plays an embittered star-turned-bench warmer who scores the winning touchdown. "Man, to score a winning touchdown in a Buffalo Bills film is probably the greatest feeling I ever had next to having my children," he said. "I've seen (the movie) a lot, and I still get the same goose bumps."
Did he keep the ball? "I kept the ball, I kept the uniform, I kept the helmet, I kept the jockstrap," he laughed.
The screening was sponsored by the UB Alumni Association as part of Homecoming Week. Nearly 20 alums with careers in Hollywood, most of whom taught seminars during the week, were acknowledged on stage prior to the film.
e-mail: msommer@buffnews.com
