Tall Tales and Legends: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Shelly Duval, host of the venerable Faerie Tale Theatre from the 80s ("The Boy Who Left Home To Find Out About the Shivers" episode is still hugely popular among Halloween Special enthusiasts), applied the same general model from that show to her Tall Tales and Legends series in the late 90's. Unfortunately, on the basis of this episode, it doesn't really capture the same charm, wit, and fun of the original series.


This version features Ed Begley, Jr. as Ichabod, and solves the problem of needing to stretch the source material by meandering around a lot. The dialogue is occasionally very good, but entirely too many scenes go on far too long. Maybe it's just the sets and style of the show, but I was reminded of the stage versions I've seen from time to time, all of which made me think that the story just doesn't lend itself to low budget theatrical presentations. I mean, it's hard to pull off a horse chase on stage.

This does deserve some note for being the only version I know of in which, when Brom insults Ichabod, he seems to be implying that he's gay.