After a week away, Phil is back in Turlock, and reports on the air quality. Meanwhile, Dean Haglund is in Detroit where his power went out. Fires? Power outages? These things can’t stop your friends in podcasting from bringing you their latest installment of free weekly entertainment! On this week’s show, Chadwick Boseman, a groundbreaking jazz trombonist, a screen star of the 1950s and 1960s, a World War II hero and computer pioneer who fathered a legendary filmmaker, and a beloved figure from TV animation all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Then, Phil runs Dean through the eight shows nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series, and Dean shares his thoughts.

After a week of travel and creative work, Phil is back in Turlock and ready to discuss both with Dean! Phil then asks Dean about one of Dean’s all-time favorite movie directors. This leads into a discussion of two great movies, and the desperate plight of movie theaters in the wake of both the pandemic and the overturning of the Paramount Consent Decrees. From there, Dean and Phil shift gears to discuss the recent Emmy nominations for Best Drama Series, and at least one really fun new television series on HBO. Of course, there are also “Celebrity Deaths” wherein two great character actors, one chart-topping pianist, a legendary ballerina, and a jazz great all get remembered. 

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.

Phil’s unexpected need to spend summer away from Los Angeles took another turn on Friday when his father died. On this week’s show, he shares memories of his dad. He and Dean also celebrate the lives of the director of numerous box office blockbusters, a giant in animated filmmaking, a legendary comic book artist, and an influential novelist. They will discuss a couple great television series that may be worth your time. Finally, they champion the absurdist cinema of Roy Andersson. From the heartfelt to the absurd, we trust there will be something for everyone on this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

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?

Best laid plans … Phil had to hit the road for an emergency trip this week, which inspires him to ask Dean whether “plans” are a thing of the past, a luxury one is foolish to consider in our contemporary world. Of course plans are being made to re-start motion picture and television production, and your friends in podcasting will analyze these plans and how movies and TV shows will be different both on-screen and behind-the-scenes as the industry moves forward. A headline-making shakeup in show business occurred at the vaunted comedy institution Second City in the wake of recent social justice protests. This will get discussed in depth, as will America’s empathy deficit, with some insightful analysis and heartfelt and hilarious stories about empathy, or the lack thereof, from Dean and Phil. So, buckle up, and if this week’s show seems a bit all-over-the-map topically (technically?), well rest assured, that’s because it IS coming at you from … all over the map!

Longtime listeners know that Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness are often at their best when things in the world seem their worst. If an hour of insightful, inspiring, heartfelt and humorous conversation is something your soul could use at present, give a listen as your friends in podcasting try to make sense of a world torn apart by pandemic, shaken to the core by violence, and held spellbound by explorers slipping the surly bonds of earth, as for the first time in a decade, America sent astronauts into space. Dean and Phil discuss all of it and share an essay by a good friend of the show about a passage in history more than 50 years old that seems more relevant than ever. They also tackle the important question, “Can a puppet show provide healing?” And that leads to Dean’s detailed analysis of a particular song. In “Celebrity Deaths”, Dean and Phil remember one of Phil’s very favorite character actors, a man who began and concluded his acting career with Best Picture Oscar winners. They also remember a groundbreaking playwright, screenwriter and activist, as well as an Asian-American pioneer for civil rights and social justice. Finally, they commend Netflix for their social stance and for a brand new comedy series.

Those of you who have been longtime listeners know that Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness have a lot of practice in trying to make sense of a world seemingly gone wild, and having witnessed them do that for almost 13 years on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, you know that they can bring insight, irreverence and the inspirational no matter the circumstances. On this week’s show, they will discuss how they had apparently been preparing to be on lockdown for a year or more, what they have witnessed in the wake of Covid-19’s rapid spread and what’s right about it all. They will discuss the potential future impacts on movies and television. They will discuss what they have been watching of late. They will remember a great comedic TV actor, an Oscar-nominated actor, a ground-breaking radio host, and a trailblazing playwright. Oh, yeah, and they have a fascinating discussion analyzing the marketing of a Matthew McConaughey movie that bombed in 2019!

With the Oscars coming up this weekend, the book will finally close on the year in cinema 2019 … The Best Picture nominees are 1917, Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Parasite. The top performing films at the US Box office released in 2019 (ranked from 1 thru 10) were Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: Episode 9 – The Rise of Skywalker, The Lion King, Frozen II, Toy Story 4, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Aladdin, Joker and Jumanji: The Next Level … Would any of these films make Dean and Phil’s lists of the best films of 2019? Find out this week as your friends in podcasting count down their Top Ten Films of 2019!

For many years, your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, would reveal their resolutions for the coming year and hold each other’s feet to the fire as they looked back to see how they had fared on the previous year’s resolutions. They are a bit too old, and wise, and honestly, have had too much milk punch to engage in an exercise in depressing humiliation. Instead, on this week’s show, they set their intentions for 2020 by comparing notes on what they are looking forward to in this brand new year. Adventures in travel, comedy, movies, art, health and self-exploration beckon …