A question about UFO Disclosure from a listener leads to a fascinating, hilarious and inspiring opening to this week’s show. Afterwards, Dean and Phil follow up on their (ongoing) discussion surrounding the Kirk Douglas-starring musical version of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by appreciating the all-too overlooked actress Susan Hampshire and by revealing something Douglas’ co-star Donald Pleasance once revealed about the making of that film. After that, Dean and Phil follow up on last week’s discussion about the silent classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans by exploring the fascinating life story of that film’s star, Janet Gaynor. One new film and two Disney classics get appraised, and two Oscar-winning stars get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”!

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!

No broken finger can keep Dean Haglund from joining Phil Leirness for another brand new installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! This week, your friends in podcasting talk about what they miss because of Covid-19 (and are certain to be missing for the rest of this year at least). Dean and Phil then explain why there might not be many new movies or television shows for a long while. They will, however, discuss several recent titles like Cats, Alita: Battle Angel and It Chapter Two as well as several under-appreciated, vintage gems like John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, Samuel Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono and the jazz adaptation of “Othello” All Night Long. Plus, Phil has harsh criticism for a couple beloved musicals from the 1950s! In “Lawsuit of the Week”, Dean and Phil discuss a courtroom victory for Jerry Seinfeld. Then, following a mea culpa from Dean about an error made on last week’s show, the Chillpak Morgue opens for “Celebrity Deaths” where a glass ceiling-shattering broadcaster and a world-class independent filmmaker and director of top television are remembered. Finally, Phil shares a story about perhaps the greatest phrase ever uttered before death. 

A true prodigy, singer-songwriter EmiSunshine earned national attention before she was ten years old. Now, still shy of her sixteenth birthday, EmiSunshine is a skillful and soulful purveyor of the music genre known as Americana. After playing one of her brand new tunes, Dean Haglund interviews her in the first half of this week’s show and she even shares a ghost story! In the second half of the show, Dean reviews Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Phil shares with Dean a hilarious story about a mutual friend’s adventures in screenwriting. Finally, Dean and Phil celebrate the peerless cinematic legacy of the great Max Von Sydow. Something for everyone? We like to think so!

As loyal listeners know, Phil darn near went blind. As a result, he and Dean have not discussed books in a long time! Well, Phil’s eyesight is back, thank you very much, and so is “What We’re Reading” on this week’s show! In fact, Phil’s selection ties in very much to TWO conversations Dean and Phil will have this week. One about Buster Keaton’s “The General” (which will re-visit last week’s theme of “failure”). The other about what television your friends in podcasting are watching right now. Comedy, drama, mystery and the paranormal are all on the small screen menu! And before your friends in podcasting depart from the small screen, they discuss the current SNL controversy surrounding the firing of a recently-hired performer. 

Your friends in podcasting connected via Skype on Christmas Morning to slide down your virtual chimney and stuff your audio stocking full of podcasty goodness! Topics include comic book cataloging, engagement party advice, the role of the arts in the heart of a nation, travel guardian angels, an all-time great voice, a punk rock pioneer, and two actresses-turned-directors who are big reasons why we don’t need to say “female directors” any more. We can just start calling them “directors”. Happy Holidays! We think you will really enjoy this festive, 68 minute installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Your friends in podcasting have been teasing episode #568 for weeks! They had really been looking forward to counting down their all-time favorite Mystery films and the final results prove to be a lot of fun. So, get those Netflix queues handy, because Dean and Phil will hit you with more than two dozen movies they discuss at length with four films actually finding a place on both their Top Tens. There are comedy “whodunits” from the 1930’s, foreign language allegories from the 2000’s, independent films that launched careers, classics from international masters that launched entire sub-genres, mysteries based on books, mysteries based on plays, mysteries set in the farthest reaches of space, mysteries full of post-war romance and cold war anxiety. The biggest mystery of all is after almost eleven years, how do Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness keep managing to provide an hour (plus) of free audio entertainment each week?!

It’s Martin Luther King Day – a holiday for most, but not for Dean and Phil, who pack even more into an hour (plus) than usual! From discussing the legacies of the dearly departed Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalban, to answering the screenwriting questions of their loyal listener the Venerable Pooh, to filling out their Screen Actors Guild Awards ballots on the air, there’s something for everyone in this week’s show.

Is Phil the love child of Patrick McGoohan and Remington Steele? Is Dean the love child of Kirk Douglas and Glenn Close? Probably, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg this week. Dean talks about the Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario (California, not Canada). Some new releases are debated. Then Phil makes a shocking revelation about this crazy town. It’s a stinking pool of what? What’s that Phil? No, it can’t be true!