Dead Eyes

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Actor/comedian Connor Ratliff (The Chris Gethard Show, UCB, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) embarks upon a quest to solve a very stupid mystery that has haunted him for two decades: why Tom Hanks fired him from a small role in the 2001 HBO mini-series, Band Of Brothers.

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Our Editor's Take

Since January 2020, comedy fans have enjoyed the Dead Eyes podcast. Actor and comedian Connor Ratliff hosts this quirky and feel-good show. Ratcliff's mission is to find out why Tom Hanks fired him from the TV miniseries Band of Brothers in 2001. Each episode is a theme relating to his experience, all featuring hilarious anecdotes.

Authentic and humorous, the Dead Eyes podcast has featured some wonderful guests. Listeners can expect to hear from actors Zach Woods and D'Arcy Carden, as well as comedian Seth Rogen. The show aims to explore rejection in the entertainment world. Many of the guests share their experiences in this area in candid and witty interviews.

With each episode, podcast fans will get closer to finding out why Tom Hanks fired Ratliff. Listeners may enjoy the host's funny persona. Comedy enthusiasts should check out Dead Eyes Episode 12. Ratliff talks about taking on a non-speaking role. This ended in a hilarious disaster and is unmissable.

The podcast features whimsical music, giving it a sense of charm and cheerfulness. The genuine conversations between the host and his guests keep listeners coming back. Host Connor Ratliff is also known for creating and starring in The George Lucas Talk Show.

The Dead Eyes podcast became famous when Tom Hanks starred as a guest in season three. In the series finale, Hanks and Ratliff finally sit down to discuss what happened decades before.

Three seasons of Dead Eyes mean followers won't get bored anytime soon. Fans will enjoy solving the mystery of why one of Hollywood's biggest stars rejected Ratliff. The title of the podcast indicates the reason. This limited-episode show is entertaining from start to finish.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture
Play Trailer
Coming Soon: Dead Eyes
Jan 10 2020
Coming Soon: Dead Eyes
A quest to solve a very stupid mystery that has haunted comedian Connor Ratliff for two decades: Why Tom Hanks fired him from a small role in the 2001 HBO mini-series, Band Of Brothers.Subscribe today and catch the first episode, launching 1/23!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Season 2

Season 2 Prologue (w/ Ira Glass)
Oct 15 2020
Season 2 Prologue (w/ Ira Glass)
Season 2 fast approaches. Connor seeks sage wisdom and advice from This American Life creator Ira Glass.Dead Eyes Season 2 premieres on Oct 22.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
11 - Piss Siblings
Oct 22 2020
11 - Piss Siblings
Connor books an unusual role on HBO's VEEP after over a decade in the show biz wilderness, with some help from his friend Shannon O'Neill (How To Fix A Drug Scandal, Broad City). Featuring VEEP's Matt Walsh and Tony Hale.The Chris Gethard Show episode where Shannon spills the beans.The Chris Gethard Show clip where Connor has to eat vegetables.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
12 - Pathetic Man
Nov 5 2020
12 - Pathetic Man
Connor accepts a non-speaking role with a memorable name, then experiences a series of minor humiliations. Featuring Lauren Lapkus (The Wrong Missy, Jurassic World, Crashing).Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
13 - Hilary & Robert & Punch & Judy
Nov 19 2020
13 - Hilary & Robert & Punch & Judy
Connor tracks down his former agent, Hilary Gagan, as well as her former assistant, Robert Styles, who both reveal conflicting memories about his Band of Brothers firing.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
14 - Thinking About Don't Think Twice Again
Dec 3 2020
14 - Thinking About Don't Think Twice Again
Connor tries to understand what made him right for a small role in writer-director Mike Birbiglia’s 2016 critically-acclaimed feature film Don’t Think Twice. Co-star Tami Sagher recounts filming an excruciating scene while Connor observed. Ira Glass, the film’s producer, tries to understand what Connor is trying to do with this podcast. Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
15 - Marvel's Agents of C.A.S.T.I.N.G.
Dec 17 2020
15 - Marvel's Agents of C.A.S.T.I.N.G.
In an attempt to understand why neither he nor Tom Hanks has yet to book a role in a superhero project, Connor assembles an Avengers-style team of actors from Marvel films & TV shows with a diverse range of casting "superpowers." Featuring Zach Cherry (triumphed over Connor to win the role of "Street Vendor" in Spider-Man: Homecoming) Chris Gethard (cut from Iron Man 3) and Lea Thompson (lead human actor in the very first Marvel feature)!Chris Gethard's "I Got Cut From Iron Man 3"Lea's Howard the Duck tweetOne of Lea Thompson's Burger King CommericalsEpisode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
16 - Castaways
Dec 31 2020
16 - Castaways
As 2020 comes to a close, Connor finds himself inexplicably stranded on a desert island with a cassette player and tapes containing deleted scenes from the first 15 episodes of the show.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
17 - Lacking Warmth
Jan 14 2021
17 - Lacking Warmth
Connor talks to the creators/writers/directors/producers of Freaks and Geeks Judd Apatow and Paul Feig about failure, success and uncomfortable encounters with famous people.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
18 - Saturday Tonight Live
Jan 28 2021
18 - Saturday Tonight Live
After failing to book Jimmy Fallon on the podcast, Connor instead talks to his good friend, comedian Alex Song-Xia, whose brief time as a writer on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ended before her contract was up. Also, Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic and Band of Brothers aficionado Alan Sepinwall weighs in on the character Lieutenant George Rice, played by Fallon in the epic mini-series. His new podcast Too Long; Didn’t Watch is now available Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
19 - Young Tom Hankses
Feb 11 2021
19 - Young Tom Hankses
Connor talks to three actors who shared roles with Tom Hanks when they were kids: Elijah Wood (Radio Flyer), David Moscow (Big), and Michael Conner Humphreys (Forrest Gump).Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
20 - The Big Zielinski
Feb 25 2021
20 - The Big Zielinski
In the Season 2 finale, Connor talks to Band of Brothers Lead Writer and Supervising Producer Erik Jendresen, and learns the truth about Episode 5 "Crossroads" and Private John S. Zielinski.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Season 1

Coming Soon: Dead Eyes
Jan 10 2020
Coming Soon: Dead Eyes
A quest to solve a very stupid mystery that has haunted comedian Connor Ratliff for two decades: Why Tom Hanks fired him from a small role in the 2001 HBO mini-series, Band Of Brothers.Subscribe today and catch the first episode, launching 1/23!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
01 - He's Having Second Thoughts
Jan 23 2020
01 - He's Having Second Thoughts
In the year 2000, actor Connor Ratliff is fired by Tom Hanks from the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers for supposedly having "dead eyes". Two decades later, Connor talks about it with his friends D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place, Barry) and Zach Woods (Silicon Valley, The Office, Avenue 5).Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
02 - Tristesse
Jan 30 2020
02 - Tristesse
A 10-year-old Connor acts onstage in a 1985 production of Oliver! and has a seemingly disastrous first television interview. Years later, a 17-year-old Connor stars in a production of Ordinary People across from Emmy-winning actor Jon Hamm (Mad Men, The Town, Baby Driver), who was a senior in college at the time.Connor and Jon look back on their time working together and recount their highs and lows in various audition rooms.Plus, a recreation of Connor's Band of Brothers re-audition scene featuring Nicole Drespel (UCB, Broad City, 30 Rock), and a candid conversation about the audition process with a real New York City casting director.See 10-year-old Connor's appearance on KRCG-TV's Showtime.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
03 - The Replacement
Feb 6 2020
03 - The Replacement
Connor doesn't trust his memory.Actor, comedian, and showrunner of Adam Ruins Everything Adam Conover explains that, without a doubt, Connor is misremembering the details of his experience on Band of Brothers. At least some of them.Award-winning illustrator Maëlle Doliveux critiques an autobiographical comic that Connor wrote and drew about being fired.Connor has an overdue conversation with actor Adam Sims, his replacement on Band Of Brothers. The two discover their respective stories share more in common than they'd anticipated.For Maelle's full analysis of Connor's comic, check out the Dead Eyes YouTube channel.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
04 - Any Questions?
Feb 13 2020
04 - Any Questions?
Connor imagines an alternate timeline with the help of Saturday Night Live alumn Bobby Moynihan, who played a major role in one of Tom Hanks's late-career triumphs: David S. Pumpkins.Watch the Haunted Elevator sketch that gave the world David S. Pumpkins.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
05 - The Last Remains of the Dodo
Feb 20 2020
05 - The Last Remains of the Dodo
Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann learns how she unwittingly provided the soundtrack to Connor's entire Band of Brothers experience.Listen to Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo and the rest of Aimee's catalogue on Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever else you get music.Follow Aimee on Twitter @aimeemannWatch Tom Hanks present at the Academy Awards as Toy Story's Woody.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
06 - Ryan Johnson's Star Wars Prequel Rumors
Mar 5 2020
06 - Ryan Johnson's Star Wars Prequel Rumors
EPISODE VIRYAN JOHNSON'S STAR WARS PREQUEL RUMORSIt is a period of hope: the late 1990s!A student at the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts, CONNOR RATLIFF is tasked with creating a web page to promote himself as an actor.This leads to the unlikely creation of a fictional character with a name that would someday become legendary in ways that even a Jedi master could not have predicted.Meanwhile, half a world away, veteran stage actor HOLMES OSBORNE's career is ascendant, thanks to an opportunity given to him by TOM HANKS in his feature film debut as writer/director, That Thing You Do! Soon enough, he would be revealed to the world as DONNIE DARKO'S FATHER.Little do they know that a young man named RIAN JOHNSON has just begun a 7-year journey to make a movie of his own, the success of which would set in motion a chain of events that would transform him into one of the most powerful filmmakers in the galaxy...More than two decades later, a mysterious podcast reveals the ways in which these seemingly unrelated figures are connected. Connor, obsessed with his firing from Band of Brothers, enlists his friend, Syfy's JACKIE JENNINGS, to help him unpack the myriad ways that their fates are entwined, in his unending search for ANSWERS...Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
07 - GTM
Mar 12 2020
07 - GTM
Connor chases another phantom, one that went missing from the 2019 romantic comedy Isn't It Romantic between its filming and its release. It's a self-contained casting mystery, and he only has one episode to solve it.The truth is out there.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
08 - Show-Me State
Apr 9 2020
08 - Show-Me State
When a global pandemic hits, Connor loses another show business job and moves back in with his parents.Featuring Ryan Miller from the band Guster, plus Bill and Gretta Ratliff.Episode Transcript---Follow the show @deadeyespodcastAdvertise on Dead Eyes via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.