Quirky Monday: What Makes a Good Story?

One of my quirks is I eavesdrop, and then I get thoughts like this:

I was sitting at work today, and I overheard one of my supervisors talking about George Lucas. He mad an interesting comment "when he didn't have a budget he was able to concentrate on what mattered most--the story and the characters. That's what makes it good."
While I have no idea what movie he happened to be talking about, that phrase really stuck. And since I'm still on my Red Dwarf bender--third time through all eight seasons and going for a fourth!--I started thinking about that show. Red Dwarf was filmed in the 80s, on next to no budget(thank you cast commentary and behind the scenes featurettes), and so the writers had to come up with a really tightly written story and awesome characters. Yes, it was a sci-fi sitcom, so if it was written in this day and age, you'd need lots of special effects and stuff. Rob Grant and Doug Naylor didn't have special effects that I could see. They used model shots and make-up and stuff like that. For the most part, they concentrated on making a good entertaining story. They came up with four characters--Lister, Cat, Rimmer, and Kryten--that you never get sick of. Each episode has you entertained and wanting more.
Take the episode Marooned form Season Two. All it is on the out set, is two men snowed inside a crashed spaceship and talking for twenty-ish minutes. But they way they talk also establishes their characters, their relationships and their wants(and conflict, like how they're going to get out of this snowed in mess.) And they never leave the spaceship. So what makes it entertaining? Good flesh and blood characters, and good story.
YA Writer S.E. Hinton does the same thing, but in a different vein. She writes books, but she has the same intent that I think Grant and Naylor had. She wrote The Outsiders because she couldn't find a good book for Young Adults. And then she wrote That Was Then, This is Now, Tex, and Rumble Fish for the same reason. She wanted to entertain her audience by telling a good story, one that people could identify with and want to read over and over again. Each of her characters are flesh and blood, and each of them have real problems that need real solutions. 
So, with my own writing, I've tried to follow their example. Real characters, strong story, tight plot. That's what makes any writing good.