Emmys 2012: Behind the Scenes Photos From THR's Comedy Showrunners Roundtable

Liz Meriwether, Carter Bays, Steve Levitan

Liz Meriwether (New Girl) and Carter Bays (How I Met Your Mother) watch on as Steve Levitan (Modern Family) speaks at THR's comedy showrunner roundtable.

Emmys 2012: TV's Funniest Showrunners Talk Difficult Actors, Dreaming Up Plots and Rollerskating on the Lot

Emily Spivey

Emily Spivey talk THR about her experiences as a new mom inspiring her story for Up All Night: "The pilot was straight out of my journal … having a baby thinking that it would be awesome and easy to go back to Saturday Night Live with a newborn."

Emmys 2012: TV's Funniest Showrunners Talk Difficult Actors, Dreaming Up Plots and Rollerskating on the Lot

Bill Prady, Paul Lieberstein

From left: Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory) and Paul Lieberstein (The Office). "The show has to have a magic marriage of cast and show," Lieberstein told THR. "If the characters relate to people, then yeah, it could survive another decade." 

Emmys 2012: TV's Funniest Showrunners Talk Difficult Actors, Dreaming Up Plots and Rollerskating on the Lot

Carter Bays, Steve Levitan

From left: Carter Bays (How I Met Your Mother) and Steve Levitan (Modern Family).  "When you are new, it’s exciting, and people are rooting for you. Then, after you hit a point, especially in this town, people are ready for you to stumble and someone else to come along," Levitan said when THR asked him about his concerns about show fatigue.

Famous Faces

"I once sat with Steve Carell in the car right outside Universal, and one of the giant posters of his movie was there, but he forgot his driver’s license. They wouldn’t let him on the lot. We were there for like 20 minutes before someone could come down," Lieberstein told THR.

Comedy Showrunners

The showrunners of this season’s top Emmy comedy series contenders —  (from left) Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory), 52, Paul Lieberstein (The Office), 45, Liz Meriwether (New Girl), 30,Carter Bays (How I Met Your Mother), 36, Steve Levitan (Modern Family), 50, and Emily Spivey (Up All Night), 40, gathered this spring at Laugh Factory in Los Angeles to share stories from the trenches.

Pretending to be an Expert

"I was unprepared for the leadership; people are looking to you for everything, and you’re pretending to be an expert on, say, props. It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I haven’t had a baby," Liz Meriwether (center) told THR.

Bill Prady

Bill Prady told THR, "Our show is about geeky, nerdy guys who love Star Trek, and for me that’s a stretch. I think all of us have shows that are our own lives. That’s where you know you will continue to have stories. If you pick something you can’t connect to, where will you get stories?"

'A Freight Train You Can't Get Off Of'

"My show is about a couple having a baby. Before you have one, nobody can prepare you for what it is really like. Having your own show is the same thing. It is a freight train you can’t get off of, and you just try to put your head down and put out fires and try to have fun," Emily Spivey told THR.

'Sticking the Landing'

"It’s funny, our ratings have been better this year than ever, which is not what you expect this late into the show. It’s nice, but our primary focus now is sticking the landing on the show. So much of it is built around this one question, the journey this one character is taking and this ending that we promised in the show’s title. Seven years in, we haven’t paid off on that," Carter Bays (How I Met Your Mother) told THR.