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Their ABC series "In Justice," a legal procedural discount Links of London wrongly convicted felons, was canceled after 13 episodes. The premise was too earnest. "The world doesn't want to be told that everyone in jail is innocent," says Mr. King. Most recently, ABC passed on the Don Quixote idea. "We just weren't the flavor," Mr. King says. It turns out the time was right for one of the Kings' hybrids to break through. Long-running procedurals were aging. Last spring NBC canceled "Law & Order" after two decades. CBS moved its "CSI: NY" spinoff to Friday night, considered the final step before cancelation. At the same time serialized dramas like ABC's short-lived "FlashForward" have had trouble building an audience. The rerun market isn't what it used to be, either. But the DVD success of serialized shows like "The Sopranos" has created new ways to cash in down the line. CBS executives wanted to move into this area, but they were cautious about it, reluctant to alienate the network's core audience. Even though years ago CBS had been the network of "Dallas" and "Links of London Disc charm Landing," more recent attempts at serialized dramas have foundered. Critics loved "Swingtown," a short-lived series about sexual liberation in a 1970s suburb, but the open marriages and run-on stories didn't play well with CBS Links of London Four Leaf Clover Charm. It ended after 13 episodes. Hybrids had existed in the past, but had largely been the province of star producers. Steven Spielberg's name was on "ER." Steven Bochco went from "Hill Street Blues" to "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue." David E. Kelley went from "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" to "Boston Legal" and the coming "Harry's Law" on NBC. Network executives insisted that each "Good Wife" episode provide a self-contained story. "That's where we were probably a little of a pain in the ass," says David Stapf, president of CBS Television Studios. "We were like, 'Every episode has to have a case and the case can't be tangential -- it has to matter.' " The Kings knew this was the beauty of shows about cops, doctors and lawyers. "Home refinancing might be interesting but people walk into the door with almost the same exact problems. Law is just an engine that allows people to deal with new things in their life every day," says Mr. King. "The procedural aspect gives you the Links of London Gingerbread Man to have new things thrown at our characters; that keeps them from drifting into melodrama." At the same time, they felt strongly their characters needed to have a past. The Kings crafted detailed road maps for how even minor characters would evolve.