LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 - Two years ago, Marc Cherry was a 40-year-old television writer who felt his career was rapidly sliding downhill. His script, "Desperate Housewives," had been sent to every broadcast and cable network as a black comedy and was rejected by all of them. His agent was arrested for embezzlement and went to jail.

"I was devastated," Mr. Cherry said. "I needed new representation and I went to this agency, Paradigm. They read the script and loved it and said: 'No, no -- no one knows what to do with a black comedy. Let's make a few changes and call it a soap."'

Within days, Susan Lyne and Lloyd Braun, both top ABC executives at the time, bought the unusual comedic script about the secret lives of women in a suburb that seems ideal but is simmering, of course, with sex and mystery. "Desperate Housewives," with its frisky plot and gorgeous actors and actresses, has now turned into not only the No. 1 new series on television but also a breakthrough hit for ABC, which has been in last place among the big four networks for a long time. The opening of the show, on Oct. 3, pulled in more than 21 million viewers, and the series has come close to maintaining that audience since.

Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, said of the series: "It's a point of view that's not on the air. It's incredibly fresh writing." Mr. McPherson and other television executives said that the abundance of crime dramas saturating television -- the "Law and Order" and "CSI" shows -- made the offbeat "Desperate Housewives" especially appealing. "There's nothing like it on television or cable," said Mr. McPherson, who was previously president of Touchstone Television, which produces the series.

Mr. Cherry put it another way. "In the old days if someone had a hit western, other people came up with their own western -- now they don't even change the show," he said, adding, "The audience is really thirsting for something new."