Book excerpt: There's never been a more exciting time to write for television. With the feature spec market a thing of the past, more new screenwriters are aiming for the small screen. If you're trying to break into TV writing, you'll need two types of writing samples: A spec episode of an existing series and an original pilot. Whether you're looking for a recent smash hit to spec or trying your hand at an original one-hour, SLEEPY HOLLOW is the perfect show to study. Conceived by Phillip Iscove, a writer with no prior produced credits, the series is a mash-up of two Washington Irving stories: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." What if Ichabod Crane slept for two centuries and woke up in 2013? Further developed by STAR TREK scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the show is a genre hybrid: a heavily serialized fantasy/horror mythology grafted onto a dual-protagonist, case-of-the-week police procedural. ScripTipps deconstructs the pilot episode of this smash hit series, analyzing its structural irregularities, how it introduces its important characters and themes, how it establishes a unique tone for the entire series, and more. ABOUT SCRIPTIPPS: ScripTipps help aspiring screenwriters learn the craft of screenwriting through in-depth analyses of select screenplays that exhibit excellence in story structure, character development, and scene construction. Each ScripTipps ebook analyzes one movie (or television episode) and its story and screenplay in full, scene by scene, from beginning to middle to end, gleaning useful and practical screenwriting tips along the way. NOTE: This ebook does NOT include the actual screenplay being discussed. ALSO AVAILABLE: ScripTipps: Arrested Development ScripTipps: Bridesmaids ScripTipps: Carrie (1976) ScripTipps: The Descendants ScripTipps: The Fault in Our Stars ScripTipps: The Hangover ScripTipps: Star Trek (2009) ScripTipps: Superman & Superman II ScripTipps: Waitress COMING SOON: ScripTipps: Breaking Bad ScripTipps: Community