OUR TOP 9 EPISODIC DIGS
Digging Star Wars turns 9 on Halloween 2019! In celebration
of this anniversary – and our ongoing countdown to Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise
of Skywalker – we’ve picked the best DSW entry per Star Wars episodic film (+
Clone Wars).
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| Parts of my personal dice collection do their best to spell out Episodes 1 thru 8 ... including Clone Wars. |
By best, I mean most page views + hits on various platforms
including YouTube and Instagram. Here’s the list of our followers' favorites in episodic order…
<<<<<<<<< 1 >>>>>>>>>
SW EP: STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE
ENTRY: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE PHANTOM MENACE, AND JEFF GORDON WINS AT DOVER
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 29, 2014
MY COMMENTS: Blog-wise, this is our most visited entry on Digging Star Wars. Why? I think it's due to it's unusual title, traditional blog entry (text and images) and visual walk-thru of the connections between two great films. Sure, Episode I got beat up a lot after it's initial release, but as time marched on, fans had to admit they were quoting the movie...a lot. I loved Ep1 from the beginning and it brings me great joy that this is the page our film fans visit the most.
<<<<<<<<< 2 >>>>>>>>>
ENTRY: DIGGING STAR WARS: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MARCH 22, 2011
MY COMMENTS: This is the only DSW entry that has 2 versions of the episode available on YouTube. Guest and Audio Editor Peter Fey went on to cut an EPIC edition of our LOA dig that is equally entertaining.
<<<<<<<<< 2.5 >>>>>>>>>
ENTRY: DIGGING STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: APRIL 8, 2011
MY COMMENTS: Imagine my shock when a Clone Wars writer emailed me and said that the show's writers were listening to my episodes and wanted to know if I'd do a "review" episode on the show?! And so, I quickly enlisted the help of my good friend Josh Taback (who has a very impressive resume in the Animation industry) to by my guest on the first review DSW. It also helped that another good friend (and frequent DSW guest) Peter Fey expertly edited this episode.
<<<<<<<<< 3 >>>>>>>>>
ENTRY: DIGGING STAR WARS: NOSFERATU
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 16, 2011
MY COMMENTS: Season 2 of the Digging Star Wars was fun (You can tell which season the YouTube videos are by the logo/artwork. Season 1 is the blue/red logo; logo designed by George Wolstenholme. Season 2 is the black/yellow logo; logo design by Garth Ivan. Season 3 is the green and white art/logo; logo design by Joshua Taback.). In the second season, we abandoned scripted episodes (for the most part) and did podcast interview banter - with tons of research notes, of course. The guests were fantastic and lifted the burden of me trying to be educational, entertaining, comprehensive, academic and accessible all at the same time. In NOSFERATU, Mike Gleason is warm, funny, informative and completely at home behind-the-microphone. Honestly, he could have done the whole episode all by himself.
<<<<<<<<< 4 >>>>>>>>>
ENTRY: DIGGING STAR WARS: THE HIDDEN FORTRESS
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 7, 2010
MY COMMENTS: Our very first episode is also our most popular episode on YouTube. The first time I played this vlog for an audience was in my Critical Pedagogy class in West Chester University. I think the reason this has over 3.4K plays on YouTube is simply because of the awesomeness of Akira Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS.
<<<<<<<<< 5 >>>>>>>>>
ENTRY: DIGGING STAR WARS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 28, 2011
MY COMMENTS: The "Phil" episodes - featuring guest Phil Congleton - are some of my favorite DSWs because it's just what we both do naturally - talk about movies and agree to disagree. This episode is also one of a handful of DSWs that YouTube listeners have commented on and referenced in their own college thesis papers. That makes me very, very happy.
<<<<<<<<< 6 >>>>>>>>>
SW EP: STAR WARS: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JANUARY 6, 2011
MY COMMENTS: When it comes to DSW blog entries with embedded YouTube videost, Metropolis is our most viewed Digging Star Wars page. As of this writing, it’s less than a dozen clicks behind our all-time most-viewed entry ("2001" – as listed above). I think this is due to the Metropolis entry’s thought-provoking questions about gender roles within science fiction and, more specifically, Threepio.
<<<<<<<<< 7 >>>>>>>>>
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| Image obtained from k-made-it.blogspot.com |
SW EP: STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MAY 22, 2014
MY COMMENTS: While I’ve been carefully researching, writing and posting various classic films that are tied to the Disney additions to the Star Wars saga this year, this Labyrinth post in 2014 was a quick throw together late one night. And while this year’s Rashomon entry will most likely surpass Labyrinth in page views, this Episode 7 post currently has the most clicks. And I’m down with that. I’m CHILLY DOWN with that.
<<<<<<<<< 8 >>>>>>>>>
SW EP: STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE LAST JEDI
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 20, 2017
MY COMMENTS: Late in 2014, I decided to take a break from Digging Star Wars. The freedom of not having to post every month was great. I know this sounds lazy, but posting once a month took a great deal of effort for me between time with my family, work, studies, etc. One DSW listener in Argentina said he “can’t understand why I’m not posting every DAY.” Thanks for the interest – but that’s just isn’t going to happen. Ever. Anyway, after 2014, I wrote a DSW entry when I wanted to, or when I had something to share or when I was inspired. In the case of this LAST JEDI entry, it was the latter. The idea had been cooking in my head since 1999 that Star Wars films were becoming more and more like tabletop role-playing games (RPG). I even saw Force Awakens first with my college RPG gang (sorry, kids, Dad’s gonna nerd out with nerds his age for one night). After seeing Last Jedi, I knew I had to write this article. Sure, there’s no classic film mentioned in the entry – but a solid inspiration all the same.
And that’s it! Have a Happy Halloween and come back in November when we post our ninth out of 9 films that have inspired Disney’s Star Wars. Till then – peace!
~ Chris
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