On this week’s brand new installment, friend of the show and great music journalist Yoshi Kato joins Phil to celebrate the life and legacy of the brilliant composer, musician and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died at the age of 71. Then, Phil and Dean welcome back Eric Mark, who gives a full report on this year’s Sundance Film Festival, regales with stories of performing on “the game show circuit”, and tells all about the popular sci-fi podcast he co-produces and acts in, “Broken Road”.

 

Dean is back in the environs of the Motor City, Phil is back in Los Angeles, and they have a lot to discuss on this week’s show … Phil asks Dean about his SoCal travel adventures and about Dean’s grandfather, a truly remarkable man. Dean and Phil preview new seasons from two utterly terrific television series and also discuss a current show you might just want to check out. The box office is, at long last, seemingly revived and there are a lot of movies out! Dean and Phil discuss some of them, but pay particular attention to the return of Ke Huy Quan, a new Chris Pine spy vehicle, a classic 1960s musical from France, an unusually personal 1981 detective film from Peter Bogdanovich, and the movie that features James Stewart’s all-time favorite performance he ever gave. In the return of “Celebrity Deaths”, several sitcom character actors, a beloved stand-up comic and voice actor, and a groundbreaking dancer, all get remembered.

Dean and Phil discuss the death of a genuine L.A. icon, the changes sweeping thru Phil’s beloved neighborhood, the “right” time to move, a TCM podcast about Peter Bogdanovich, his film Saint Jack, workplace safety on the films of Roger Corman and more thoughts on the recent releases The Last Duel and Nightmare Alley. All that, plus they celebrate the lives and legacies of a Nashville broadcasting giant, the “singer of the millennium”, a rock music superstar, three actors, a beloved comedian, a groundbreaking fashion maverick, and two historic figures from the world of sports.

Because people have asked, on this week’s show, Dean and Phil will explain (yet again) why this is “Season 2” of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! They will also follow up on last week’s “Twelfth Night” episode all about Shakespearean film adaptations with stories about Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books, the Shakespearean qualities of Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune and HBO’s “Succession”, Ralph Fiennes being inspired by The Hurt Locker when he made Coriolanus, and James Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli making an unfortunate comment about Shakespeare while appearing at the UCLA film school in the 1980s. The bulk of this week’s show will be about celebrating the lives and legacies of genuine cultural giants: Joan Didion, Desmond Tutu, Marilyn Bergman, Betty White and Peter Bogdanovich. Several movies, several television shows, much music, great writing, inspiring humanitarian efforts, and one amazing school all get discussed.

 On this week’s show, a Back to the Future actress, a legendary comic who helped launch the careers of numerous other comics, a game show legend, and a comedic actress who was one of Mel Brooks’ favorites all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Your friends in podcasting will pick up last week’s conversation comparing Superhero movies to westerns, extending the comparison to television. They will further dig down into the danger of taking anything too seriously, as well as the danger of “fast food”, as they examine the ways we consume information, entertainment, and express our political preferences. Then, after the break, Dean and Phil will discuss two new Sacha Baron Cohen films and two Bill Murray films. Finally, in “What We’re Reading”, Dean will discuss ice cream and Phil will discuss published works by two ladies in his life!

Your friends in podcasting reconvene to celebrate the lives of three performers (one a beloved star of Broadway, another a musical star of television, and the third a movie star who was part of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated marriages), a roboticist, a news magazine host, an iconic designer, and several truly heroic Civil Rights activists. Dean and Phil then roll up their sleeves to analyze why it is that Netflix episodic series are so often delightful and charming, while so many Netflix original movies are listless and perfunctory. And, oh, yeah, they also discuss why good manners might just be the cure for a lot of the troubles that seem to plague the modern world.

Hear all about Los Angeles’ design for a new green space that will rival Manhattan’s High Line (and will give bicyclists and pedestrians an uninterrupted path from Burbank all the way to downtown), learn why Canada doesn’t have game shows, remember L.A.’s first official film czar as well as a folk music icon and some of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great on-screen roles, and appreciate the difference between “English” and “Irish” …

All that, PLUS, your friends in podcasting examine the storytelling in Harmony Korine’s The Spring Breakers, make sense of the success of The Lego Movie, the failure of The Monuments Men and the claim that Chris Pine’s days as a leading man are numbered following the failure of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

With a full week’s supply of insight, irreverence and inspiration, it’s YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Enjoy!