Great theaters and great comedy are on the minds of your friends in podcasting. First, Dean and Phil pat themselves on the backs for taking the time at the beginning of the year to preview the film that ended up winning the Palme d’Or at the just-completed Cannes Film Festival. Then, they finally, after a break of months, return to the Time Out list of the “100 Greatest Movie Theaters in the World”, and share their connections to some of the very top selections. From great movie theaters to one of the most historic live television stages in the world, the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, Stephen Colbert’s farewell to the “Late Show” gets analyzed and his return to late night television the very next night in Monroe, Michigan (on Public Access television) gets celebrated. Finally, two of the most legendary comedy filmmakers of all time get compared: Mel Brooks and Ernst Lubitsch. The “Lubitsch Touch” gets explained and the all-time great comedy film To Be or Not to Be gets discussed in fascinating detail.

This week’s show begins with a cold open about Spanish film star Carmen Sevilla. It continues with Dean and Phil previewing an email from a loyal listener (that they will answer on NEXT week’s show). The email involves the ongoing Writer’s Guild strike and Dean and Phil use it as a springboard to discussing the latest labor negotiation news in Hollywood and to ponder the question “Is Ryan Murphy (once again) the worst person in the world?” Last week, the life and career of Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson was celebrated. This week, Phil reveals tidbits from her final (?) still-to-be-released movie, The Great Escaper (starring Michael Caine). After that, Dean and Phil offer up remembrances of three more great stars of the silver (and small) screen: Julian Sands, Frederic Forrest, and Treat Williams. The second half of the show is all about Indiana Jones (and “The Dial of Destiny”), Akira Kurosawa (and two of his independent films), and the Martin Scorsese classic Raging Bull.