Rabbit, Rabbit! Welcome to May and welcome to the final show of year 15 of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour where Dean and Phil get the ball rolling by discussing the obituary fictional character Dame Edna wrote for her creator prior to his death. Phil remembers the legendary playwright Robert Patrick and he and Dean ponder the life – not the legacy – of the woman who falsely accused Emmett Till. Then, in “Celebrity Deaths”, the towering artistry and humanity of Harry Belafonte gets discussed, as does Belafonte’s friendship with Sidney Poitier. The latest in the pending Writer’s Strike gets analyzed. Facts surrounding three movies discussed last week get revealed, the 1996 classic Irma Vep starring the incomparable Maggie Cheung gets revisited, and the countdown to the end of Netflix results in analysis of both Sean Baker’s Red Rocket and Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon. Finally, the concluding seasons of “Succession” and “Barry” get hailed.

Dean and Phil knew they were going to be celebrating the career of the great actor and star James Caan on this week’s show and then the floodgates opened, with many beloved character actors exiting the stage, so after a brief and hilarious cold open, Season 3 Episode 23 begins with “Celebrity Deaths”. Then, the whole concept of “celebration” as a lost “art” gets explored, before your friends in podcasting use it as a springboard to discuss several current television series and a handful of truly brilliant performances. The big screen will not be ignored either, as the cinematic output of Edgar Wright gets examined through the prism of his recent ghost story (Last Night in Soho) and a baseball comedy classic from the 1970s gets revisited.

In their last episode before they celebrate their 15th Anniversary of “changing the way people listen to the internet”, Dean and Phil have a lot to discuss in a show biz world that seems to be getting ever more back to “normal”. There are TV shows like “Better Call Saul”, “Barry”, “Julia” and “Our Flag Means Death” to weigh in on, and movies like “The Batman”, “Kimi” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” to analyze. A wide array of classic and contemporary performers will get celebrated, including George Chakiris, John Cassavetes, Michelle Yeoh and Zoe Kravitz. In “Celebrity Deaths”, a great French star, hockey’s “The Flower”, and a Broadway icons who became a fixture on both the big and small screens, will all get remembered. Plus, Dean is auditioning again and Phil is hosting more live events.

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.

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.

After a funny cold open where Dean tells about another of his haunted house adventures, Dean and Phil kick off this week’s show by sharing what they are thankful for during this Thanksgiving week, Dean battling Covid-19, Phil reflecting on his mother’s death two years ago. The career of Dean Martin, his work with Jerry Lewis, and a terrific TCM documentary “Dean Martin: King of Cool” all get discussed. A great jazz film from the 1980s, Round Midnight, and the “sacred” aspect of cinema get celebrated. The box office success of Ghostbusters: Afterlife and No Time to Die get analyzed through a very optimistic lens. In “Celebrity Deaths”, Dean’s love of funk gets exposed, as two great funk stars get remembered, along with a star of HBO’s “Oz”. And speaking of HBO, Dean and Phil tease an upcoming discussion about HBO’s “Succession” and about Will Ferrell’s considerable behind-the-scenes clout in Hollywood.

Happy August, everybody! This month might well tell the tale of whether the USA puts the pandemic behind it or whether Covid-19 stays with us in some form or another for quite a while longer … Before we let go of July, however, Dean and Phil want to celebrate the recent Cannes Film Festival, putting several very promising and fascinating films on your radar. They also want to celebrate the recent, groundbreaking Emmy Award nominations, celebrating the best TV has to offer, while also offering up three picks of current series you might well enjoy! All that plus The Clown Prince of Hip Hop and a beloved sitcom star of the 80’s get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

Phil is back in Los Angeles. Dean is at home in Birmingham, Michigan, and they are unpacking the mysteries of Dean’s sleep schedule, a California town called “Chowchilla” and the US Government report on UFOs. The subject of paranoia gets get a deep dive analysis. Another of Dean’s favorite episodes of “The X-Files” gets revealed. HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” gets reviewed through comparisons with such other recent HBO procedurals as “True Detective” and “The Undoing”. Movies are back, box office is promising, and Dean and Phil celebrate the success of two new horror movies, before offering up a classic 2016 horror film from South Korea. This leads into remembrances of a major (and controversial) figure in the emergence of Korean cinema of the 21st Century, who died of Covid-19 in December. The rise and fall of a legendary attorney gets discussed in “Celebrity Deaths”, as does the legacy of one the great songwriters of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Finally, your friends in podcasting will play another couple rounds of their new Vintage Movie Ad game, this week featuring action stars of the 80’s and 90’s!

Under the heading “Best Laid Plans”, Dean was supposed to be on the road and he and Phil had two very special “theme” shows planned as a result. What went wrong? Find out in this week’s very pleasing installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! You will hear Dean and Phil discuss a wide array of topics, such as their all-time favorite television episodes, an amazing story about a theater company in 1991, the importance of (and lack of) local news, the ways life will have changed even after the pandemic is in our collective rearview mirror, some hilarious observations about pandemic life, and a little-known, truly bad-ass recording by the most famous singer to come out of Tupelo, Mississippi. Oh, yeah, and how Dolly Parton might just save us all!

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.