This week’s show begins with a cold open wherein Dean and Phil discuss Phil’s 4th wedding anniversary, 100 years of Disney, and 16 years of Chillpak, while also celebrating the life and cultural legacy of Burt Bacharach. Dean then reveals his plans to see 80 for Brady (!) before he and Phil compare notes on Pearl, the sequel to X. Phil then sings the praises of a little-known noir-ish detective story starring Lucille Ball and directed by Douglas Sirk, and the jazzy 1966 exercise in style, Tokyo Drifter. After that, it’s time to open the Chillpak morgue for a handful of truly fascinating “Celebrity Deaths” as screen icon Raquel Welch, Award-winning director Hugh Hudson, former child star Austin Majors, and one of the greatest production designers of all time, Eugene Lee, get remembered.

This week’s show opens with a brief interview with one of the stars of a “Live Event of the Week”. Dean is in Washington, D.C. and he gives a full report on one of the most beautiful road trip sights he has seen and an exhibit at the National Gallery focusing on Joseph Singer Sargent. Phil has just returned from his (penultimate?) trip to Turlock to finalize “family business” and he is in an exhausted, tormented, philosophical mood, opining on family, marriage, and alternate universes. The comedy of the Marx Brothers, Billy Wilder, Marilyn Monroe and See How They Run gets dissected, and in “What We’re Reading” the art of Edward Hopper, the comedy of Martin Short and the poetry of Betsy Holleman Burke get discussed. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, the lives and legacies of a Canadian voice actor, a Japanese star of an American miniseries, a blues singer, a sitcom producer and a law student-turned-best selling novelist all get explored.

Since 1984’s Risky Business, Tom Cruise has been one of the most reliable and bankable stars of major motion pictures. Since 1984’s Stranger than Paradise, Jim Jarmusch has been one of the most reliable and influential auteurs in independent cinema. This week, Dean and Phil compare and contrast these two icons’ filmographies, making recommendations, drawing parallels between two very different artists, and examining forty years of American culture and hundreds of years of American mythology in the process!

Dean and Phil follow up on last week’s awesome show by discussing more about “Hollywood accounting” and how in show biz the “bottom line” is often NOT the bottom line! Last week, while discussing the box office struggles of the brand new In the Heights, Dean and Phil were inspired to look back at two dance films based on the same craze that opened on the same day many years ago, one of which boasted a music score from Phil’s frequent collaborator, Greg De Belles. Greg composed the score for Phil’s Karl Rove, I Love You and for Dean and Phil’s The Truth Is Out There and The Lady Killers. Greg died on Friday, and Dean and Phil speak of their immensely talented friend. Of course, the box office struggles continue, so Dean and Phil discuss how a Pixar movie might have been able to change everything. That leads into a deep dive into Disney +, the movie Soul, the miniseries “WandaVision” and the episodic series “The Mandalorian”. There is also a lot of talk about painting, from the advice given by the great Leigh McCloskey to the thematic approach of the Barbizon school of artists and the brilliance of Julian Schnabel’s Van Gogh film At Eternity’s Gate. Finally, Dean and Phil celebrate the careers of an Oscar-nominated character actor and a beloved sitcom actor and director.

The sad, the irritating, the hilarious, the ridiculous and the sublime – It’s all fair game on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour in the age of Covid-19! On this week’s show, Dean discusses the steam room he is building, and Phil explains why the pandemic is making him sad and how people’s under-reaction and over-reaction to the pandemic along with bad puns in jokey emails by elected officials are pissing him off! Phil went down a rabbit hole, researching what in 1952 were considered the greatest movies ever made and in so doing, he discovered an amazing, and long-since forgotten, horror: Louisiana Story. Then, Phil poses the question in honor of what would have been the late Toshiro Mifune’s 100th birthday: Was Mifune the greatest movie actor of all time? The discuss that ensues is terrific. Dean and Phil then weigh in on how movie theaters and movie release schedules will be altered once there ARE movie theaters and movie releases again. Finally, Dean and Phil preview next week’s discussion of “Star Trek: Picard” and the year in cinema 1973 before paying tribute to several notable figures in “Celebrity Deaths”, including a jazz giant, a country music great, a soul legend, a popular sitcom actor from the 90s, a soap opera star, and a much beloved children’s book author.

The biggest night of the year in Hollywood turns into one of the biggest podcast episodes of the year! Obviously, from the awards to the acceptance speeches, from the snubs to the (lack of a) host, the entire Oscars 2019 is fair game for Dean and Phil to dissect, analyze, critique and poke loving (?) fun at … They also discuss NON-Oscar movies, including a terrible animated sequel and a rather terrific Liam Neeson-starring remake of a Norwegian dark comedy. Plus, they tackle their long-teased conversation about remakes and reboots vs. long-delayed sequels. All that, plus, a boatload of celebrity deaths, including character actors, presidential candidates, and more!

When does one planned show become TWO shows? When Dean and Phil are recording in person in Los Angeles! Dean stopped by the historic building Phil calls home (where Oscar-nominated filmmaker Adam McKay once resided) and on this episode they discuss such wide-ranging topics as the death and life of U.S. President George H.W. Bush, the forthcoming film Vice (from Adam McKay!) about former vice-president Dick Cheney, some good news coming out of the recent California fires, the live variety stage show Phil produced on his 50th birthday, Dean’s efforts to pack up his L.A. abode and his recent Michigan adventures. All that plus a plug for their dark comedy The Lady Killers in the wake of the #MeToo moment for Neil Degrasse Tyson, and an Oscar-winning filmmaker and a legendary magician turned character actor are remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

Seven important notes about this week’s show:

1) It’s our 600th episode!
2) It features a brand new version of the theme song appropriate to Dean’s relocation to the Motor City.
3) A horrible recording problem leads to a few choppy transitions at the start of the show and to an extremely bad electronic hum during the first 25 minutes or so of the show.
4) We have done the best we can to get rid of the hum and to at least make these first 25 minutes listenable, and you will want to bear with us as those minutes contain very personal conversation between Dean and Phil about things they love lost in the current SoCal fires, what they love that is seriously threatened by those fires, and about a great Canadian actor of Dean’s acquaintance who died this month. There is also a great story about baby diapers!
5) Several amazing movies get discussed – including the Sandra Bullock starring post-apocalyptic, action-horror vehicle Bird Box, the Coen Brothers rather amazing Western anthology feature The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Alfonso Cuaron’s seminal black-and-white memory piece Roma and Dean and Phil’s very own The Lady Killers, which Dean has finally seen!
6) The show is 72 minutes long, with about 45 minutes of that boasting clean audio!
7) We wish you all a “Malkovich Hug”!

Dean tells stories about the Sydney Opera House. Phil tells stories about an amazing interview he did for his “other” podcast and tells an hilarious story about his upcoming bachelor party. Dean and Phil then share “What We’re Reading” and compare notes on the healing nature of live classical music in the “Live Event of the Week”. A little good news about HBO’s terrific “Barry” is shared in discussion of the Emmy Awards and Dean sings the praises of the Canadian adventure series “Frontier”. Then, your friends in podcasting tackle a wide range of cinematic efforts, from Elia Kazan’s classic film noir Panic in the Streets to the Jack Lemmon vehicle The Days of Wine and Roses, from John Carpenter’s masterful (and initially rejected) The Thing to a current release that has met with praise and promising box office, even though it’s all sorts of awful. Finally a legendary and groundbreaking dancer is remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Oh, yeah, and if that wasn’t enough, no actor, editor or filmmaker will want to miss the discussion inspired by an email from a loyal listener …

Dean and Phil are off to Olandar tonight for a special reading of Phil’s new screenplay, but before they go, they’ve checked into the offices to record a special birthday episode. Join Dean in helping Phil celebrate as Phil turns The New 30! Dean also catches us up on the latest adventures filming Rough Hustle on location in Nevada. Dean and Phil discuss the James Bond franchise, the “Star Trek” franchise and Twilight. They also briefly touch on the impending Screen Actors Guild strike. Forgive a few occasional glitches in audio quality during the show. They don’t last long and we promise to get to the bottom of things once we sober up from Phil’s birthday celebrations!