Dean and Phil start the show by answering a question they posed last week about The NeverEnding Story. A question about Dean’s painting leads into a deep-dive discussion about scheduling, energy management, and the time of transition in which we all find ourselves. In “Celebrity Deaths”, a character actor-turned-acting instructor gets remembered, as does a true renaissance man known primarily for playing gangsters! Olivia Newton-John’s career also gets examined at great length, including her starring role in a 1970 science-fiction film and how history could have been different had that film been a hit. Phil is more than a little bit grumpy about a “Live Event of the Week” and he and Dean wonder if Amadeus might be the most mediocre movie ever to win Best Picture. Mediocrity itself is discussed as a business model, and Netflix is in the crosshairs!

On this week’s installment, you will hear a touching email written by a Dean Haglund fan, one whose entire career path was influenced by Dean! You will also learn what Dean’s 3 favorite places are! One MIGHT be The Magic Castle in Hollywood. At least ten movies will get discussed, including classics starring a few of Dean and Phil’s all time favorite actors as well as two of the best films from 2020 – one an all-time great documentary and the other perhaps the most relevant film to be released all of last year. Finally, Phil wants to discuss three 2021 cinematic releases all starring legendary comedians. One is a horror film, one is an action film and one is a comedy about dementia! And speaking of comedians, Norm MacDonald will get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths” as will one of the greatest contemporary actors, an icon of movie musicals and a pioneering female writer and producer.

Much of what we think we see in a movie is based on what we hear. To this day, much of what we expect of how a movie will sound is because of the indelible impacts made by such legendary composers as Max Steiner and Bernard Hermann. Steven Smith is a prolific documentary filmmaker, an historian, a lecturer and the author of books detailing the lives and careers of these two giants of motion picture music. Steven is also a good friend Phil Leirness AND he is the guest on this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

From the inner space of quiet, self-quarantine lockdowns, to the outer space of “Star Trek: Picard”, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness take you on quite the journey this week! It starts with their latest observations about themselves and others in the wake of another week of isolation. Sadness, quiet and dehumanization are on the thematic menu! They then compare notes on their respective Easter celebrations, which leads to a discussion of a couple of classic musicals: 1934’s Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicle The Gay Divorcee and 1948’s seasonal staple Easter Parade, starring Astaire and Judy Garland. The recent, modern classic, Uncut Gems gets championed by Phil, who tries to get Dean to overcome his trepidation surrounding Adam Sandler performances (and yet, Dean once championed You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, so go figure!). The second half of the show consists of Dean and Phil comparing the years in cinema 1973 and 1974, discussing all the notable films from those two halcyon years, in hopes of determining which year might challenge 1962 as the greatest year in cinema. Finally, your friends in podcasting beam up to the La Sirena to discuss and debate what went right and what went wrong in season one of “Star Trek: Picard”, a show so successful that a big-screen movie version is already in the planning stages.

Dean is travelling, so he and Phil won’t be able to celebrate the lives of a couple amazing women who died this past week until they get together in L.A. to record several shows this week. In the meantime, they pre-recorded this, their third “Top Ten” show of the ten they have planned to commemorate year ten of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. This week, in anticipation of La La Land opening, your friends in podcasting count down their Top Ten All-Time Favorite Movie Musicals! This episode has it all: Singing, dancing, comedy, romance AND the firestorm of a great debate as Dean and Phil get into a heated, and hilarious, argument over the merits of Baz Luhrman and his post-“Moulin Rouge” career. It’s 80 minutes of podcasty goodness featuring some of the greatest talents to grace the silver screen!