“The Writers’ Room” 10 p.m. Monday, Sundance Channel

PHILADELPHIA — The image of the writer funneling the muse’s whisperings onto paper has tickled the imagination for decades. Books about the creation of books and biopics about great poets are a cultural mainstay.

So it’s no surprise a TV show would be devised about the creative goings-on at some of today’s most lauded series.

Hosted by Jim Rash — the Academy Award-winning co-writer of “The Descendants” — Sundance Channel’s “The Writers’ Room,” which premieres Monday, takes us to the heart of the creative process behind six current shows, including HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Showtime’s “Dexter” and FX’s “American Horror Story.”

The season premiere features a roundtable discussion with “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan, series star Bryan Cranston, and more than a half a dozen of the show’s writers.

Yep, TV shows are written by teams, not churned out by a single starving, absinthe-drinking, Gauloises-puffing (and beret-sporting), consumptive genius toiling in some godforsaken garret.

“We chose to focus the show on TV as opposed to films, because of the fascination of the idea of the (writers’) room,” said Rash during a recent sit-down. “The idea of a collective taking a show creator’s vision and becoming in the process really a writing family.”

Sarah Colleton, co-executive producer and writer for “Dexter, appears on “The Writers’ Room” with three fellow writer-producers and star Michael C. Hall, added, “I have enormous respect for the room.”

Rash said most of the shows he discusses this season are quite dark. The episode on “Game of Thrones” explored “the effect of the story’s darkness on people who hadn’t read the books.”

“In the first season, they didn’t know that the main character (Eddard Stark, played by Sean Bean) would be killed off. I mean, (Bean) was on the posters!”

Considering that each writers’ room is filled with opinionated, creative thinkers, one imagines it would be ruled by chaos.

“The thing I noticed the most is that everyone has their roles,” said Rash. “There are the quiet ones who chime in with one comment which really brings it all home … and there are those who are more hyper. And they all rib each other.”