Get this: A lone vampire wanders into a frontier town and, after killing the most dangerous gunslinger in the territory, offers to take over the overworked sheriff’s law-keeping duties … from sundown to sunup.

What is it? A weekly television drama set in the fictional western town of Naba, a silver-mine boom town where Sheriff Louis Journeyman wears the badge from sunup to sundown and Sheriff Sol Velasco wears it from sundown to sunup. When Velasco first arrives in Nabo, surviving three shots to the gut and taking down a notorious outlaw with his bare hands, the townsfolk are suspicious of this stranger’s unbelievable strength, speed, and stamina. But, the wealth coming out of Naba attracts a steady stream of crooks and gunfighters, and Sheriff Journeyman is more than willing to let someone else handle the town’s rowdy nights.

That steady stream of outlaws, of course, means a steady stream of food for Nabo’s new, undead lawman.

Pitch (Corny Version): It’s undead Dexter meets the Old West.

Working Title: Night Sheriff

FOLLOW-UP STUFF

Some writing possibilities include:

• A weekly cameo opportunity for guest stars to play the latest outlaw in town.
• Only the town doctor knows Velasco’s secret, but guards it because Velasco keeps the outlaws in check.
• The town undertaker/coffin-maker probably also suspects something is odd about Sol. But, he sure is good for business.
• Comic element: The mirror behind the bar in the saloon keeps mysteriously breaking.
• Velasco’s horse, Sangría, acts as his day-walking protector. Velasco himself chooses to live in a root cellar under the stable where the horse stays.
• The eventual revelation that Velasco came to Nabo in hopes that the silver would keep away his werebeast enemies.
• Velasco’s running rivalry—or ironic friendship—with the local preacher or priest or Apache medicine man. (Or all three.)
• A gang Velasco ran out of town during the night returns during the day; it looks like they may succeed in killing Journeyman until a sandstorm obscures the sun, allowing Velasco to come out of hiding.
• The perennial vampire plot-lines of being discovered, turning mortals, and avoiding vampire hunters.

Neat facts/Easter eggs:

• The word “journey,” as in Sheriff Louis Journeyman’s name, comes from a Latin word meaning “a day’s work.” The Sheriff was named after Louis XIV, also known as The Sun King.
• Sol’s real first name, Itzal, is a Basque name meaning “shadow” as he is Sheriff Journeyman’s shadow. The Anglicized version is ironic, in that “Sol” can never see the sun. The surname Velasco is derived from the Basque for “crow.”
• The town’s name, Naba, is Spanish for the rutabaga. Turns out, you can get blood from a turnip.
• The horse Sangría, and the drink he’s named for, come from the Spanish for “bleeding.”
• Silver was found in Arizona by the Spanish in the 1500s, and mining of it started as early as the 1700s. Silver mining there was always marked by conflict with the Apache, culminating in the Apache Wars from the 1840s to 1880s.