Do you know what a 'clam' is? How about 'a barrel' or the dreaded 'Nakamura'?

You will now, thanks to THE OTHER NETWORK'S FREE GLOSSARY OF TERMS FROM THE WRITERS ROOM, gathered from writers of SNL, 30 Rock, Family Guy, The Simpsons.

This collection of comedy writer's jargon and insider lingo will help you sound like you know what you're talking about when you get inside the room, but each phrase also encapsulates an important principal of comedy writing.

"This place looks like Johnny Sack's office," Seth MacFarlane noted at the outset of our comedy showrunner panel. It was the first of many obscure TV references during the hourlong discussion, during which Ryan Murphy revealed the only two artists to deny their songs to "Glee" and Doug Ellin admitted he takes notes on "Entourage" from bloggers. Below is our conversation with Chuck Lorre, "The Big Bang Theory," "Two and a Half Men" (CBS); Doug Ellin, "Entourage" (HBO); Steven Levitan, "Modern Family" (ABC), run with Christopher Lloyd; Ryan Murphy, "Glee" (Fox); and Linda Wallem, "Nurse Jackie" (Showtime).

Read the article in the Hollywood Reporter.

Get more in-depth info from the Other Network Writers Room.

Even established stars like Matthew Perry and Paul Reiser have to do more than take a meeting and toss out some ideas for a TV series these days.

Many TV projects currently getting greenlit involve fully-scripted pilots (plus even additional episodes), full-season story arcs, attached talent and/or showrunners.

Read the whole article at Daily Variety.

"Rockford Files" and "Hawaii Five-O" are flying high, procedurals are hotter than ever before, multicamera comedies are staging a comeback and veteran sitcom directors James Burrows and Pamela Fryman are the most sought-after helmers with three projects each.

While the '80s were hot last year with remakes of "Parenthood," "The Witches of Eastwick" and "V" and the '80s-set "Gossip Girl" spinoff, networks have shifted back a decade this year with "Rockford," "Hawaii" and the '70s-set ABC comedy "Funny in Farsi."

Read the whole article at The Hollywood Reporter.

Hollywood discovers India and more of the latest old news from the television networks courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter.

What's getting greenlit this year?

Lots of people who have been on TV before in shows about cops, doctors, remakes of TV shows that have been on before and... the return of comedies?

Also next year watch for... more stuff from England.

The Other Network Comedy Contest deadline is Dec. 15, 2009 and we're happy to announce that at least one winner will get their work seen by Comedy Central VP of Development, and executive producer of the Comedy Central Stage, Gary S. Mann, who also previously worked at HBO.

Also in the pool of potential reader/advisors is two-time Emmy-winner and multiple nominee Brent Forrester, currently working as Consulting Producer on "The Office", previously Co-EP on "King of the Hill", Co-Producer on "The Simpsons" and writer on "The Ben Stiller Show" - among others. He's also prepping his own pilot to shoot this spring.

This year the contest is accepting any comedy format: TV spec scripts, original TV pilots, feature screenplays, plays, personal essays, sketch packets, shorts, produced pilots, standup performances, et. al. - with potential winners in every category.

Previous winners have had their work reviewed by Bob Odenkirk ("Mr. Show", "Saturday Night Live"), Alan Zweibel ("Curb Your Enthusiasm", "It's Garry Shandling's Show)", Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein ("The Simpsons", "The Mullets"), Cindy Chupack ("Sex and the City", "Everybody Loves Raymond") and other top comedy showrunners, plus managers at Brillstein-Grey, agents at Metropolitan, execs at Starz and Comedy Central. Get details and enter now.

Larry Charles says he wants to be remembered as much for his failures as for his successes -- which is probably a lot easier to say when your successes include Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Mad About You, Dilbert, The Tick and Religulous.

We're granting Larry's wish, and reassuring you that no one wins all the time, by posting a piece Larry performed at Un-Cabaret's Say the Word. He calls it "Fragments of Failure". We call it "The Road to Success".

When I was first submitting scripts to agents I actually had a file folder titled 'Rejects' and used to dutifully file all my rejection letters. Stephen King used a rusty nail in the wall to tack up his rejections like trophies. So remember this quote from IBM founder Tom Watson: "If you want to succeed, increase your rate of failure". And start failing!

But before you do, you might want to take some more specific advice from Larry in this inspiring and informative hour-long download. Or get Larry's interview along with inside info from other top showrunners including Michael Patrick King, Seth McFarlane and John Riggi in the indispensible Other Network Writers Room series.

According to eHow, "the single most important task of running a TV show is delivering scripts". But we think it might be getting hired.

Here's the latest hopeful/depressing assessment from the Hollywood Reporter:

Read it here and/or read in situ at HR and/or get their free pdf on this season's TV showrunners.

Showrunners: The green room

By Nellie Andreeva

Showrunners don't get much greener than Matt Nix. Before being handed the reins of USA Network's "Burn Notice" in 2007, he had never even set foot in a writers' room. When he convened his scribes for the first time, Nix walked up to the whiteboard and started writing down ideas.

At least, until one of his hires told him that was an assistant's job.