The top 20 people responsible for the success of the ‘Star Wars’ saga (Commentary)

A great debate recently popped up at my office: Who deserves credit for the success of “Star Wars?” Well, George Lucas, of course, because he created it. Plain and simple, right? Not necessarily, because he was far from alone in making “Star Wars” great. Strictly speaking, he couldn’t have made that first movie on his own, because

John’s 10 favorite TV couples of all time (Commentary)

In a double dose of weak sauce, Entertainment Weekly’s writers recently chose “Friends’ “ Ross and Rachel as the greatest TV couple of all time, and readers responded by choosing some random couple from “Glee” (which, research reveals, is actually still on the air). Over at his blog, my buddy Seth Stringer upped the standards

With ‘Veronica Mars’ and ‘Clone Wars,’ companies show different ways to treat fans (TV commentary)

Two of my favorite franchises, “Star Wars” (which regular readers may have noticed I’m obsessed with) and “Veronica Mars” (my No. 6-ranked show of the Aughts, and on my to-do list for “rewatching and reviewing the classics”) showed different approaches on how to treat their fanbases this month. Disney broke fans’ hearts by canceling “The Clone Wars” after five

John’s top 10 ‘Star Wars’ novelists (Book commentary)

I’ve been doing occasional “Star Wars Flashback” entries, but I thought I’d take a break here and give a rundown of my top 10 “Star Wars” novelists. For geeks like me, it might provide a good debate; for newcomers, I outline the strengths of each author and select their best book.