Chillpak Hollywood Hour

Chillpak Hollywood Hour

Tomorrow is Canada Day and the end of the week is Independence Day in the USA. Your friends in podcasting have thoughts about celebrating. They have thoughts about Team Canada’s big win in the World Cup. They have thoughts about why very few of the listeners to this podcast are in Canada! Phil got back from the Carolinas and has stories about being the “Guest of the Day” in Charlotte, North Carolina (the Queen City), and about beaches and alligator encounters in Kiawah Island, South Carolina (the Lowcountry). Dean asks Phil about Bill Murray’s baseball team in Charleston and Phil regales with tales of Carolina Day and America250. Turning to show business, the gents celebrate the best box office year at the movies since 2019 and glean some important lessons from that success, lessons they fear may be lost on the industry, but which certainly seem to be lost on the press covering the industry. Particular focus gets put on the just-opening, and already disastrous Supergirl and on Sam Raimi’s 2026 “survivor horror thriller film”, Send Help. Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe [https://deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Deep Dive

In many ways, our expansion of the long-running Chillpak Hollywood Hour into an entire universe of different podcasts here on Substack was inspired by our desire to take some of Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness’ longer form conversations and put them in one place where people can easily find them by topic. So, welcome to to DEEP DIVE! Today’s show features an in-depth analysis of and appreciation for the filmography of the writing, producing, directing AND editing team of Joel and Ethan Coen. An effort is made to delineate what each brother brought to this partnership and an argument is made that they might be the most “American” of filmmakers since, at least, John Ford. Their frequent collaborators get celebrated, the many connections between their films get discovered and the large themes they have been exploring all their careers get discussed. Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe [https://deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Television with Marc Hershon

It’s possible more television shows get discussed in this episode of Television with Marc Hershon than in any installment yet! As has become their fashion, Marc and host Phil Leirness categorize shows by defining which ones are worthy of “binge-watching”, which ones might be “guilty pleasures” and which ones, no matter how good or how popular, are “nope” they aren’t going to be watching. Now, they have even added “re-starts” (i.e. shows they stopped watching only to, you guessed it, “re-start” quite a while later) and “vouches” to the mix. These last are shows that you have been aware of, but you aren’t going to take the time to invest in them until people you trust have vouched for their quality, or at least their entertainment value. Just some of the series that get discussed are “Hacks”, “Spider-Noir”, “Widow’s Bay”, “Outlander”, “Not Suitable for Work”, “His and Hers”, “Ponies”, “Russian Doll”, “The Sympathizer”, “Pachinko”, “Mobland”, “Ballard”, “For All Mankind”, “Dracula”, “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” and “Battlestar Galactica”. After our most recent episode, Marc invited listeners to share their “Guilty Pleasures, Binge-worthy, and Nope (as in ‘Nope, I’m never going to watch that show!’)” and one listener, Amber, did just that. As Marc had promised, he and Phil cover them in this episode. All Amber’s selections are interesting, and the story she shared about Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” is absolutely hilarious! Marc and Phil would love to hear from you about your selections. So, just drop ‘em in the comments. Marc Hershon is a branding expert who has dreamt up names for countless hit products. He is a comedy veteran, a comedy impresario, and he teaches improv comedy. He has penned several television movies, and is the co-author of I Hate People, a guide to getting “what you want out of your job.” He has reviewed comedy podcasts for The Huffington Post and Splitsider and was the longtime producer and host of “Succotash [https://succotash.libsyn.com/]” the comedy podcast podcast. Marc has spent much of his adult life trying to get people to stop using the word “podcast” and to use “soundcast” instead. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe [https://deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Chillpak Hollywood Hour

There are two Carolinas in the USA. North and South. Phil is exploring both of them. So, this week’s show was pre-recorded quite a few days earlier than usual. In it, Dean and Phil discuss The Actor’s Gang, a well-respected theater company and training ground for talented performers (like their pal, Steve Benaquist). Dean and Phil continue to talk about the late, great artist David Hockney, his love of smoking, and the ways in which he taught the world to think of Los Angeles, namely as it pertains to light. Light and its interplay with shadows is absolutely top of mind for your friends in podcasting and they go deep into film noir, talking about such great actors as George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, Edmond O’Brien, and Edward G. Robinson, and such great directors of noir as Fritz Lang and Robert Siodmak. The movies They Drive by Night, The Killers and Scarlet Street all get appraised. Finally, Phil holds court about the 1980 neo-noir The First Deadly Sin, which was the final motion picture produced by Frank Sinatra, and the final lead performance for Sinatra as an actor. It was supposed to have been directed by Roman Polanski, which has Phil asking, “What if it had been?” He also suggests another young director (at the time) who would have been a better choice than the film’s eventual director, Brian G. Hutton. Nevertheless, Hutton did director a couple of Dean’s favorite movies, so Phil shares the quite interesting details of Hutton’s career. Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe [https://deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Interview

Lily Holleman Leirness is an acclaimed and accomplished actress, sketch comic and improviser. She has lived in Los Angeles for more than two decades and has spent much of that time getting up every morning and letting the City of Angels know why she is there, be it as the longest-tenured president in the history of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, or as a “care actor” doing standardized patient work in an effort to help train medical students. She is married to your friend in podcasting, Phil Leirness, who interviews her on her birthday about the significance of having a birthday on the Juneteenth holiday, about her year-long cancer journey, about the ways in which acting saved her life, and what she sees herself pursuing as an actress moving forward. Lily is also an artist (and an art historian) and she discusses where those paths may lead her. Finally, she shares her thoughts about the brilliant Steven Soderbergh movie The Christophers, and the entire conversation takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina! Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support out work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe [https://deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]