The Summer 7: WGA Panel featuring Emmy-nominated Writers from Modern Family, Glee, FNL etc. by Tina Charles

7 things I learned at Thursday night's often hilarious Sublime Primetime panel that featured some of this year's Emmy-nominated writers from TV miniseries, sitcoms and dramas (courtesy of the Writers Guild Foundation):

• "Television, I don't know if anyone knows this, is super easy." - Glee's Ian Brennan said this after moderator and Lost guru Carlton Cuse pointed out how Brennan went from actor to being nominated for an Emmy for his very first writing gig.

• We now know the format for Conan O'Brien's upcoming TBS late night talk show: "Have you seen the other two? Kind of like that. Guests, a band, celebrities selling b---s--t. Pretty much like that." Love that this "insight" came from the always funny 2010 Emmy-nominee (and not to mention Conan sidekick) Andy Richter.

• Not that this is a shocker but The Office's Mindy Kaling is freakin' hilarious. As is Modern Family co-creator/Executive Producer Steve Levitan and Lost showunner/Executive Producer Cuse who had to face down a few jokes about the lack of answers from his Emmy-nominated show that's up for Best Drama series. He was a trooper.
  

• The audience loved CBS' The Good Wife. When it came time for the audience portion of the Q&A many questions were thrown at husband-wife writing team and creators of CBS' hit drama Robert and Michelle King. News (at least to me) was that the married couple originally pitched Good Wife to ABC but the alphabet network passed.
  

• None of the Glee "boys" (Brennan, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk) have seen Disney Channel's High School Musical. This band of three were referred to as "the Glee boys" or "the Glee guys" so often that Ian at one point insisted they had real names. Very funny moment.
  

• Mindy follows her Office character on Twitter.

• We learned what these writers watch on TV: Kaling adores AMC's Breaking Bad; Levitan tunes into Showtime's Weeds; Murphy is a big, big fan of A&E's Hoarders; HBO's Deadwood pretty much ruined TV for Richter because he loved it so much although he has been known to tune into Bravo's Top Chef and "whatever's on." The Pacific's Robert Schenkkan and Friday Night Lights scribe Rolin Jones were completely devoted to The Wire. Jones got real specific and said he was way into The Wire Seasons 3 and 4 the most.
  

The WGA event was definitely enjoyable and the panel was both hilarious and insightful plus Cuse was a great moderator. One of my favorite pieces of advice came from Richter on how to become the next big thing: "Don't be a sh--ty writer." And the entire panel ended on a high note with an audience member wrapping it all up by capitalizing on one of the evening's running jokes that would take too long to describe. Just trust me, it was as if the ending had been scripted.

The 62nd Emmy Awards air on Sunday, August 29th on NBC @ 8PM/Eastern.

The night's featured players included:

• From Lost: Carlton Cuse who moderated the evening.

• From The Office: Mindy Kaling
  

• From The Pacific: Bruce C. McKenna

• Also from The Pacific: Robert Schenkkan

• From Modern Family: Steve Levitan

• From Friday Night Lights: Rolin Jones

• From The Good Wife: Robert King

• Also from The Good Wife: Michelle King

• From Glee: Brad Falchuk
  

• Also from Glee: Ryan Murphy

• One more from Glee: Brad Falchuk

• Conan's Andy Richter

UPDATE: a link to a brief Steve Levitan interview courtesy of WriteOnline.com: