"Televisionary" J.J. Abrams

LOST and Fringe made EW.com's list of 17 classic TV shows from four "televisionaries" - Aaron Spelling, Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon, and J.J. Abrams.

LOST (2004 - 2010)

The most successful of Abrams’ TV creations, Lost follows the adventures of a group of plane-crash survivors on a bizarre tropical island. The characters’ stories also are told through flashbacks and flashforwards. Beware of polar bears, a nutty French woman, and time-travel flashes. Will we get all the answers to our burning questions when the show concludes in May? Fingers crossed.

Wow. Classic TV show. I'm a proud geek!

Fringe (2008 - present)

Starring Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble, this Fox drama chronicles the stories of an FBI division that investigates a burst of creepy events that are referred to as “The Pattern.” Hope you can stomach skin-dissolving contagions and strange parasites wrapped around hearts.

Classic after only a season? Awesome.

By the way, what is a "televisionary" anyway? According to Urban Dictionary, a televisionary is "a 'born to be on TV' visionary who appears on television regularly, delivering messages that fall into her (his) mind from the dead." Hmm... Not quite. The Wikipedia entry defines the word as the concept "used to describe television and communications network operators who are developing services that provide consumers with more control over when, where and how they consume video and other multimedia content." Still not it.

Based on the examples - Aaron Spelling, Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon, and J.J. Abrams - I can say the word pertains to a smart person who creates something (in this case, a TV show) that has unique elements, setting it apart from others in its genre.

Obviously LOST and Fringe are great examples. The other shows on the list - great examples as well - are Aaron Spelling's 7th Heaven and Beverly Hills, 90210, Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing and Sports Night, and Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.