At any given time the writing staff consists of' four or five regulars. Among them have been Sara Davidson,. Toni Graphia, Josef Anderson, Melissa Rosenberg and Andrew Lipsitz. Presently, Binder, Gerson and executive story consultant Kathryn Ford are the creative center along with Sullivan.

"It's collaborative. We do help each other in outling storie," says Gerson, who previously worked on "Murder, She Wrote" and "Christy." Gerson's episodes include "Dorothy's Book,— in which Dorothy's creativity threatens the town's privacy: "The Iceman Cometh," about con men arriving in town: and "Fear Itself," about a woman who comes to town with a dreaded disease.

'"The theme drives everything here," says Gerson. "Beth is very strong on having stories where we are clear on the premise and themes."

For example, Ford explains how she developed a thematic through-line for a two-part episode she co-wrote about the historic Indian massacre at Washita. "One of the changes I made in the story in trying to find a thread-through was the importance of realizing that you can't go back and undo the past. but what we can do, by remembering and being honest about our past, is to not repeat it. So you have Dr. Mike's arc of being so blown away by the Indian massacre that she just wants to forget it, then coming around and realizing the only way to make something good from this tragedy - along with the baby that symbolically (and literally) survives it - is to be truthful. 'To tell the story, so people [will) know who these people were, and how they suffered."

Ford has become known for scripting many of the more dramatic episodes, including "Pike's Peace:" about a woman who wants to climb a mountain before she dies, and "Eye for an Eye," in which a rapist is hung.

Former co-executive producer Sara Davidson (who took a leave in order to write a novel, but is still writing episodes for the show) is known for her storylines that handle the family intricacies.

"My two favorite themes are sex and parenting," Davidson says. "We could never get too close to sex. We actually did do one that I quite loved, this season where Mike had just come back from her honeymoon. She had been a 36-year-old virgin, so the question always was how would she adjust? If a person was raised in the Victorian era, would it be difficult for them to be sexually expressive after taking the marriage vows? My first instinct was, it would be hard for her."

When the story team got together, the collaborative consensus was different. "We sat around the story table. Some of the people said, "Wouldn't it be interesting if she became sort of besotted with passion at this new discovery of the pleasures of physical union with her husband?'' So that became the story."

Most of the episodes are staff written with inevitable problems on the ones that are free-lanced out. "For some reason many of the people who attempted to write for the show found it difficult. It was very hard to find people who could step in there and do it. We were all mystified why so many good writers were going off the mark." recalls Davidson. "It was difficult to catch the idiom of the show, the way people talked. Not have it sound compone-y and hokey.