Cuse served as show runner and head writer. Boam, who served as executive producer, also contributed scripts for the show. The writing staff included John Wirth, Brad Kern, Tom Chehak, David Simkins, and John McNamara. They followed Cuse's informal instruction that the tone of the show remain "just under over-the-top": the series would be humorous but not too campy. Every member of the staff participated in breaking down and analyzing the stories they conceived. Worth commented, "there was a very high percentage of ideas that worked in the room and got translated to paper that worked when you put them on film. That doesn't always happen." Cuse described long hours writing the show, including several overnight sessions. Each episode of "Brisco" was filmed in seven days, so the turn-around time for scripts was one week. McNamara said that he became a "student of TV history" while writing for "Brisco", reviewing old episodes of "Maverick" for inspiration on using humor in the Western genre. He said the writing team felt the television audience was ready for a "trans-genre form", because much of the audience grew up with "Lethal Weapon", "", and "The Wild Wild West". Researchers Lynnette Porter and Barry Porter acknowledge the writer's familiarity with Mark Twain's novel "Pudd'nhead Wilson". Porter and Porter describe the novel as an "ancestor text", because the characters of Brisco and Bly both refer to it, and say that this type of literary device is used again by Cuse in "Lost".