Midnight Coliseum on Maple Street

In 1972, small-town Maple Street is terrorized when late-night broadcasts begin airing a crude arena where bronze-skinned alien gladiators fight for something unseen. Families tune in from shag-carpeted living rooms; neighbors whisper of missing teenagers and men in government suits with reel-to-reel records. As backyard fences become tribunals and the PTA morphs into a watch committee, one housewife and a veteran ham-radio operator race to expose the televised coliseum—a paranoid spectacle that may be entertainment, draft board, or something far worse. No one knows whether to change the channel or survive.