Birthday boy Dean Haglund has the week off, so Phil Leirness welcomes Marc Hershon to discuss the recent Emmy Awards nominations and all that is excellent right now in what we used to call “television”. Marc is a screenwriter, author, improv professor, comedy impresario, columnist, editorial cartoonist, and corporate branding expert. He is also responsible for Dean and Phil seeing many of the shows they have discussed over the past several years. Phil also welcomes Jeff Briggs to discuss China’s first female action star, “The Queen of Swords”, Cheng Pei-Pei, who died recently at the age of 78. Jeff is a lifelong archivist, a former magazine writer, and an expert on Asian Cinema. He is also Phil’s former college roommate! All in all, this week’s show is a globetrotting 73-minute epic!

After traveling across the country (on Spirit Airlines), Phil has been laid up all week, sick as a dog. Dean has been avoiding the dazzling nighttime Aurora displays put on by the current solar storm. They both have a great deal of show biz news, views and reviews on their minds, however. First off, Dean previews the forthcoming Ryan Coogler-led “X-Files” reboot, hipping us to its premise. Then, he and Phil make sense of the Ryan Gosling-starring The Fall Guy, both appraising its merits and explaining its box office failure. The future of action as a genre on both the big and small screens gets analyzed. Jerry Seinfeld’s utterly silly, possibly sly Unfrosted and the seething reaction to it get dissected. Everybody’ seems to love Netflix’s new series “Baby Reindeer”, except for the possibly defamed subject of it! Dean and Phil come at this one from all angles. Finally, Phil explains what went wrong with Taika Waititi’s recent true-life sports comedy Next Goal Wins and expresses confusion over why Hulu’s “The Bear” is considered a comedy.

Making every Monday night merry and bright since before many of you were even born, your friends in podcasting and broadcasting hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas. Unless you don’t celebrate Christmas, in which case, Dean and Phil hope you are having an awesome Monday! Among the many topics to be enjoyed in this week’s audio stocking stuffer are an honor being bestowed upon one of the most important directors of “The X-Files”, the brilliance of actors Jamie Foxx and Mahershala Ali, two of the best Christmas films of all time (and both are brand new theatrical releases!), animated superhero movies, Netflix movies, a UK Northern Soul legend, a star of TV’s “Route 66”, and the Detroit art scene.

Dean (in Detroit) and Phil (in Los Angeles) celebrate the lives of three amazing women: Performer-turned-novelist Echo Brown, Pilot-turned-architect Beverly Willis, and Detroit’s very own screen legend Piper Laurie. The latest implosion in the negotiations between the actors and the studios gets discussed, analyzed, and what it means for TV and Film production gets predicted. Where television is concerned, your friends in podcasting and broadcasting offer up thoughts on the recent social media furor surrounding Martin Short, and the merits of “Only Murders in the Building” season 3, “Reservation Dogs” season 3, and “Our Flag Means Death” season 2. Where movies are concerned, Dean checks in with a review of The Creator, while Phil weighs in on William Friedkin’s final film and Wes Anderson’s brand new Roald Dahl adaptations for Netflix.

This week’s show begins with Dean and Phil discussing one of Dean’s all-time favorite films and filmmakers: My Winnipeg by Guy Maddin. Phil hails it as perhaps the greatest film NOT to be on the Sight and Sound poll of the 250 greatest films ever made. From great movies to great television, your friends in podcasting and broadcasting shift gears to discuss the end of “Succession”, the end of “Barry”, the end of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, the end of “Ted Lasso”, Season 1 of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”, and Season 2 of “Star Trek: Picard”. And speaking of “Picard” the actress who played the Borg Queen will get remembered in Celebrity Deaths, as will a beloved French-Canadian actor, an incredible Mexican character actor, the stunt man who inspired Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” … And the lead character in that film has also died?!

This week, Dean and Phil pick up right where they left off … With Dean enjoying the weather in Michigan, Phil in COVID isolation in Los Angeles, and Robert Blake’s Cinefantastique interview about David Lynch’s Lost Highway providing the basis for a “cold open”. The themes of transition, embracing what wants to come forward, emotional intelligence and more get explored deeply in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal-themed discussion doesn’t end there, as Pablo Lorrain’s Princess Diana biopic Spencer goes under the microscope. That just starts the movie talk, though, as after raving about Joanna Hogg and her films The Souvenir and The Souvenir: Part II, Phil previews her new film, a mysterious ghost story, The Eternal Daughter, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Praise gets heaped upon filmmaker Steve McQueen and two of the films he made for his “Small Axe” series available on Prime: Mangrove and Lovers Rock. Finally, Dean and Phil wrap things up by analyzing three comic book movies (and the industry built on comic book movies): Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, Daniel Espinosa’s Morbius, and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (NOT a comic book movie, you say? Just listen – you might change your mind!).

Because Phil had to travel to Turlock, that means two things for this week’s show: 1) It features a cameo by Dean’s “Lord Turlock” character, and 2) The show was pre-recorded. And it’s a good one, wherein Dean and Phil drill down into the improv form known as “deconstruction” in “Live Event of the Week” and while posing the question “Why can’t we have nice things?” the bombing and destruction of the Georgia Guidestones gets discussed. In a “What We’re Reading” all about the FBI, the influence of “The X-Files” and misogyny, Dean provides a full book report on a terrific work in anticipation of its author being a guest on a future episode of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! Instead of “Celebrity Deaths”, your friends in podcasting (and broadcasting) celebrate the 100th birthday of Hollywood’s greatest icon, which leads to favorite stories about Kenny Rogers and Steve Martin. Finally, the Emmy Award nominations get unpacked, with Phil wagging a finger at the omissions of “Reservation Dogs” and Selena Gomez, and particular attention gets paid to “Abbott Elementary” and to the horse race for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

This week, Dean and Phil discuss a limited television series about the making of “The Godfather”, Season 3 of Amazon’s “The Boys”, the new AMC series “Dark Winds”, and whether Dean was ever in an episode of “Lonesome Dove”. Phil’s travels to Turlock get talked about, as do lava rocks, the recent planetary alignment, Lily’s final week as president of The Los Angeles Breakfast Club, safety (or “warning”) art, and Braille Institute’s Braille Challenge. Your friends also respond to emails, tweets and texts from loyal listeners like you (yes, you!), pertaining to such topics as Kim Novak, the oft-discussed Skidoo, Jean Harlow, whether last week’s episode was a paid advertisement, and “Celebrity Deaths”.

Dean is back from the UK and reports on his travels. Phil has been availing himself of classic movies and has thoughts on an indie gem from the 1980s, a mind-bending oddity from Joseph Losey, and a 1960 epic about the founding of Israel. The episodic series “Space Force”, “Barry” season 3, “Our Flag Means Death”, “Hacks” season 2, “The Book of Boba Fett”, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and season 2 of “The Mandalorian” get discussed. Four giants of the music industry and 3 beloved character actors get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Finally, Dean and Phil explain why Tom Cruise was probably the perfect person to produce and star in a brilliant sequel 36 years after the original, and Phil shares some inspiring words relating to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

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.