Making every Monday night merry and bright since before many of you were even born, your friends in podcasting and broadcasting hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas. Unless you don’t celebrate Christmas, in which case, Dean and Phil hope you are having an awesome Monday! Among the many topics to be enjoyed in this week’s audio stocking stuffer are an honor being bestowed upon one of the most important directors of “The X-Files”, the brilliance of actors Jamie Foxx and Mahershala Ali, two of the best Christmas films of all time (and both are brand new theatrical releases!), animated superhero movies, Netflix movies, a UK Northern Soul legend, a star of TV’s “Route 66”, and the Detroit art scene.

This week’s show begins with a mea culpa to those of you who actually listen to the show in podcast form. After that, your friends in podcasting and broadcasting follow up on last week’s “What We’re Reading” with amazing tales of the Knights of Malta and of the great artist Caravaggio’s time in Malta. Then the Hall & Oates “Lawsuit of the Week” gets revisited and clarified, before loyal listener Maurice Terenzio sets Dean straight on a lawsuit that involved puppetry giants Sid & Marty Krofft. In “Celebrity Deaths”, a groundbreaking pianist, a groundbreaking soap opera actress, a trailblazing television producer, an Oscar nominated French Actress, and a beloved American movie star all get remembered. And because awards season in Hollywood is now in full swing, two new television series get described and appraised.

This week, Dean and Phil discuss a limited television series about the making of “The Godfather”, Season 3 of Amazon’s “The Boys”, the new AMC series “Dark Winds”, and whether Dean was ever in an episode of “Lonesome Dove”. Phil’s travels to Turlock get talked about, as do lava rocks, the recent planetary alignment, Lily’s final week as president of The Los Angeles Breakfast Club, safety (or “warning”) art, and Braille Institute’s Braille Challenge. Your friends also respond to emails, tweets and texts from loyal listeners like you (yes, you!), pertaining to such topics as Kim Novak, the oft-discussed Skidoo, Jean Harlow, whether last week’s episode was a paid advertisement, and “Celebrity Deaths”.

Phil is in Turlock. Dean is “Motor City adjacent”. Special guest Page Branson is in Baltimore. Between the three of them, they have a wide array of topics covered: Memorial Day, the Tulsa Race Massacre, Amazon’s purchase of MGM, the deaths of beloved actor Gavin MacLeod and singing star B.J. Thomas, the forthcoming declassification of government UFO files, another of Dean’s favorite episodes of “The X-Files”, awesome new video games and anime, race relations, Brood X Cicadas, vintage movie ads, and more! It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it’s disturbing. It’s YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Phil is back from another emergency trip to Turlock, and Dean is safely ensconced back in Detroit after a trip to Virginia, and after adopting another kitten! Cats get discussed, of course, and in an almost weekly occurrence, “Lord Turlock” issues proclamations. Then your friends in podcasting continue to tackle the appalling, ongoing wave of violence being directed against member of the AAPI community, which somehow leads to a discussion of just one of the problems Phil had with Godzilla vs. Kong. Dean and Phil share a text message from a loyal listener, and celebrate the show business lives of the actor who played “Cousin It”, a country-rock hitmaker, and a prolific country songwriter, and wax rhapsodic about the pedal steel guitar! Friend of show Jon Lawlor has another single out and it inspires a conversation about mental health and the messy business of having feelings. Dean and Phil both have feelings about the death (?) of the Arclight and Pacific movie theater chains, and about the controversy surrounding this year’s Oscar front-runner for Best Picture, Nomadland. Finally, speaking of the Oscars, Dean and Phil close the proceedings with an Oscar-themed edition of their recent (and apparently popular?) vintage movie ad game!

With special “theme” shows planned to ring out 2020 and ring in 2021, this week’s show will be the last of Dean and Phil’s usual irreverent and insightful show biz grab bags for a few weeks! In it, they celebrate the lives of two Broadway legends, an accomplished New Orleans-based actress, and a “Star Wars” icon. They discuss some of their favorite Christmas movies and share what movies they have gravitated towards this holiday season. They offer up a few holiday-themed movie print ads in what has become a weekly tradition. They discuss why Hitchcockian cinema (i.e. Hitchock-like movies directed by people other than Hitchcock) might have had its peak in the 1970s. They weigh in on Tom Cruise’s Covid-19 safety protocol rant. All that, plus, “The Mandalorian”, “Star Trek: Discovery”, “The Boys” and John Cassavetes!

Frequent contributor and good friend to the show Marc Hershon takes time out of his birthday celebrations to join Phil Leirness for a conversation about several current and recent television series, including “Fargo” Season 4 and “Lovecraft Country”. They also discuss HBO’s “The Watchmen” and Amazon’s “The Boys” in light of recent comments by creator of the original “The Watchmen” graphic novel, Alan Moore, who called superheroes and superhero movies “blights” on our culture. Finally, Marc hits us with a sitcom suggestion from Apple TV+ starring Jason Sudeikis.

Phil shares some of his Los Angeles adventures from the past week. Dean shares his latest adventures in painting. Phil celebrates the daily joy of David Lynch reading the weather report. Dean and Phil update on the latest in the battle between two different actors’ union, and on the battle between the Writers Guild and the most powerful agencies in Hollywood. They discuss season 4 of “Fargo” and the work of “X-Files” veteran Daniel Sackheim on “Lovecraft Country”. Phil questions Dean about the comments from comic book legend Alan Moore on the cultural blight that superheroes, superhero comics and superhero movies have become. Several performers and writers get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Dean and Phil bring back “What We’re Reading” and celebrate their all-time favorite bookstores!

Dean may be in the Motor City, and Phil may be conveniently located “between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge”, but they definitely still put the “Hollywood” into YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Of course, first they will share their latest thoughts on the social unrest and social evolution taking place, including what Phil terms his “7 percent solution” and Dean describes as “Quantum Life”. From there, and in the wake of some truly disturbing deaths and disappearances in California’s San Bernardino county, Dean and Phil will offer a “Black Lives Matter” edition of “Celebrity Deaths”, remembering the lives of a trailblazing screenwriter, a chart-topping singer, an award-winning dancer and choreographer, and an Olympic bobsledder who once helped inspire a Hollywood box office hit. Then the show becomes all about movies … And car culture! Drive-in theaters are having a moment. Will that moment continue? What will happen to theater chains, especially AMC which is close to going out of business? This year’s The Invisible Man, about which Dean has a compelling theory, will get discussed, as will the 1920 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Thoughtful, elevated discourse on the evolution of society, insightful analysis on two movies 100 years apart and irreverent banter from your friends in podcasting – Who could ask for more?

It’s Veterans Day in the USA and Remembrance Day in other nations (like Dean’s homeland of Canada), so this week’s show starts with what the day means to your friends in podcasting and how they will commemorate it. Sort of. Then, in “Celebrity Deaths”, a great screen villain, a comedic character actor, and an acclaimed novelist are remembered. From there, it’s a lot of great television (we’re looking at you “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Watchmen”), and dreadful television (yikes, HBO, what happened with “His Dark Materials”?!). Finally, Dean and Phil weigh in on movie theaters’ anger towards Netflix, Netflix’s dominance of this movie season, and two forthcoming films (Bombshell and The Two Popes) get reviewed.