Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
June 24, 2011

It took 45 episodes of Pop Culture Happy Hour for our intrepid host, Linda Holmes, to miss a week — and, naturally, it was a documentary film festival that did her in. So, freed from the shackles of Linda’s efforts to keep our conversations from flying off the rails, we used her absence as an opportunity to let the show deteriorate into mayhem.

Not content to merely bring in our beloved pal Tanya Ballard Brown as a replacement, we also deployed the Emergency Katzif (asking our esteemed producer, Mike Katzif, to pop over for a discussion of Green Lantern), and even swapped out Tanya for NPR film reviewer and theater expert Bob Mondello (for a segment on Company, the Stephen Sondheim production wending its way through select movie theaters).

Then, of course, we booted our man Mondello in time for a round of What’s Making Us Happy: Dog loans! Your Aunt Diane! An unlikely Tom Hanks endorsement! And, to cap off what is surely the gayest PCHH episode of them all, a Sunset Boulevard homage on Glee!

As always you can follow us on Twitter: Linda, Trey, me, Glen, Tanya and Mike. (Bob Mondello prefers the simplicity of yelling out windows, like they did in the old days.) Or, of course, find us on Facebook. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]