It’s Happy Birthday to Dean Haglund and boy has he been celebrating! On this week’s show, you will hear all about his celebrations. You will also hear about his road trip to upstate New York. And you will hear about a very bizarre social calendar for Phil! The latest news in the writers and actors strikes gets discussed, as does the controversy surrounding “waivers” being granted to certain productions. Dean offers up at least one more television series from the past you might want to avail yourself of while you wait for new seasons of your current favorites. Phil sings the praises of “Star Trek: Picard” Season 3 and Season 1of “Shrinking”. Last week, Dean revealed what he thinks of as Robert De Niro’s 5 greatest performances. Phil follows up with a couple of alternative picks this week. Finally, the surprising box office performance (failure?) of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One gets analyzed, and the film’s strengths get celebrated and missteps get dissected.

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’s show begins with “What We’re Reading” and continues by asking such big questions as: Is the John Wick franchise the best action franchise ever? Is “Andor” the best iteration of Star Wars ever? Is “Severance” one of the best television series ever? Was there anything memorable from last week’s Oscar telecast? Are the prosecutors in the Alec Baldwin Rust shooting case arriving to work each day in a clown car? Was comic strip “Dilbert” a victim of cancel culture? Are the edited versions of the James Bond novels coming out an effort to get ahead of cancel culture or a shameless money grab? Both? Is Peacock’s “Poker Face” Rian Johnson’s remake of “Columbo” or “The Fugitive”? Or both? All that gets discussed and three popular actors get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

Happy Halloween! Come trick-or-treating with Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness as they take a cinematic tour of “Horrorville USA”, the new nickname Phil has coined for Detroit! Several horror films get discussed, including the current Detroit-set shocker Barbarian as well as non-Detroit-based classics like The Leopard Man and Séance on a Wet Afternoon. Dean has started watching HBO’s “Avenue 5” and he finds that scary! Phil also weighs in on the Jon Hamm vehicle Confess, Fletch and a big-time Oscar front-runner, The Banshees of Inisherin from Martin McDonagh. In “Celebrity Deaths”, the “killer”, Jerry Lee Lewis, the beloved comedic actor Leslie Jordan and the stop-motion animation giant Jules Bass all get remembered. And finally, in a re-visitation to a past “What We’re Reading”, Phil talks about ghostly radio signals! All in all, it’s a spooky good installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour.

Since it is Valentine’s Day, it’s only fitting that Dean and Phil are offering up a show that is nothing less than a love letter to movies, movie-going AND great comedic acting on television! In addition to a great story about Howard (“Dr. Johnny Fever”) Hesseman that involves the legendary Jack (“Dragnet”) Webb, and analysis of a handful of nominated films, shows and performances, Dean and Phil also engage in free-wheeling discussion about how we judge film and TV, how these works are consumed and what awards shows need to be moving forward. All that, plus a legend of visual effects and the Queen of Italian Cinema both get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

Season 1 of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour ended in November of 2019 after 652 episodes. Season 2 ended last week after 113 episodes. This week, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness launch Season 3 as they make the move to Subspace Radio! They will “re-set” their topics, bringing back the “Explanation of the Week” while discussing something called the “Gell-Mann amnesia effect” and the “Wingnut of the Week” while discussing sci-fi novelist and filmmaker Michael Crichton. In “Celebrity Deaths”, they will remember the legendary improviser who played “Dr. Johnny Fever”. All that, plus a deep dive into what made season 2 of “Ted Lasso” so divisive for viewers and a big award hopeful this Oscar season: Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos.

Saturday was International Ghost Hunting Day and Dean was at the forefront of it. Phil has been thinking a great deal about Buster Keaton, his influence, and other films and filmmakers that might have influenced the making of his beloved Wings of Desire. Phil asks Dean about legendary actress Ruta Lee, and an episode of “The Twilight Zone” in which she starred. One of the greatest banjo players of all time, a giant of reggae, and a founding member of a chart-topping UK pop band all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. In the return of “What We’re Reading”, Dean discusses an artist who was once the most popular in Amsterdam and who has fallen into obscurity. This leads into a fascinating discussion about communicating with the future. Phil is reading a novel that explores two different timelines in the marshes and on the coastline of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. Dean and Phil then re-visit last week’s Emmy Awards and do an analytical deep dive into the furor surrounding “Ted Lasso” season 2 and the concept of “public ownership” before reviewing season 1 of “Hacks”. Finally, we want to wish our sponsor, Empire State Gas, Many Happy Returns! Thanks for sponsoring us all these years. You’ve got great gas!

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”.

This week’s show really puts the “Hollywood” into YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! The cold open starts with a quick, wicked and insightful recap of the Writers Guild of America winners for Best Original and Best Adapted screenplays. Spring has sprung and your friends in podcasting are high energy, high-stepping their way through remembrances of 3 actors, a journalist, a beloved children’s book author, a Tuskegee Airman, and the inventor of cassette tapes, as well through a diversity-inspired round of their almost weekly celebration of vintage movie ads from the 1980s and 90s! From there, Dean and Phil set sail for the “Season of Self-Congratulation”, focusing on the forthcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Oscars. They discuss such TV shows as “Ted Lasso”, “Dead to Me” and “The Crown” and such movies as Minari, The Father, Da 5 Bloods, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and more! All that plus several of the best directors working in film today: Christopher Nolan, Chloe Zhao and Kelly Reichardt.

This week’s episode is full of a lot of what Dean and Phil do best! In “Celebrity Deaths”, they remember the singer of one of Phil’s all-time favorite songs, an artist who truly made his mark on Wall Street, a trailblazing theatre impresario, Beat poetry’s greatest champion, and in celebrating these giants, Dean and Phil also celebrate diversity. That can NOT be said for the Golden Globes, which aired this weekend and which are (once again) mired in controversy. Dean and Phil will have a ball unpacking those controversies, and perhaps stirring up some of their own where TV Awards are concerned! Still, with award shows and with the recent news surrounding movie theaters and movie release dates, it seems as if we are going to be returning to some semblance of “normal” in the not-too-distant future. Dean and Phil cover all of that, plus their views on three award hopefuls: The Little Things, One Night in Miami and Judas and the Black Messiah. They also champion two great new songs, one a Golden Globe-nominated modern classic, and the other, a terrific single from our very own Jon Lawlor! All that, plus Dean and Phil have fun with a couple more vintage movie ads.