Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom, created by Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn, that aired for 12 seasons on CBS from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. The series originally starred Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper, a hedonistic jingle writer, alongside Jon Cryer as his uptight brother Alan, and Angus T. Jones as Alan's son Jake. Supporting roles were played by Holland Taylor, Marin Hinkle, Conchata Ferrell, and Melanie Lynskey.
In February 2011, CBS halted production for the rest of the eighth season after Sheen entered drug rehabilitation and made disparaging comments about Lorre. Sheen's contract was terminated the following month. Ashton Kutcher was then hired for the ninth season onward to star as Walden Schmidt, a billionaire who buys Charlie's house after Charlie's death.
Angus T. Jones reduced his role starting in the 10th season, citing a religious awakening and dissatisfaction with the show's content. He later left the show, appearing only briefly in the series finale. During the later seasons, the cast expanded to include Amber Tamblyn as Jenny, Charlie's long-lost daughter, in the 11th season; Jennifer Taylor as Chelsea, Charlie’s longtime girlfriend, in the sixth and seventh seasons; and April Bowlby as Kandi, Alan’s second wife, in the third season, with recurring appearances in later seasons. Edan Alexander joined the cast as Louis, a foster child, introduced in the 12th and final season.
In 2012, the show became the third-highest revenue-generating program, earning $3.24 million per episode. Ratings peaked during Sheen's tenure, saw a boost during Kutcher's first season, but gradually declined afterward, leading to the series' cancellation after the 12th season.
Overview
The series revolved initially around the lives of the Harper brothers, Charlie and Alan, and Alan's son Jake. Charlie is a bachelor who writes commercial jingles for a living, while leading a hedonistic lifestyle. When Alan's wife, Judith, decides to divorce him, he moves into Charlie's Malibu beach house, with Jake coming to stay over the weekends. Charlie's housekeeper is Berta, a sardonic woman who initially resents the change to the household, but eventually accepts it. Charlie's one-night stand Rose was first introduced as his stalker in the pilot episode.The first five seasons find Charlie in casual sexual misadventures with numerous women until the sixth season, when he becomes engaged to Chelsea, but the relationship does not last, as Chelsea breaks off their engagement. Afterwards, Charlie flies to Paris with his stalker Rose in the show's de facto eighth-season finale. However, in the ninth-season premiere, Charlie is said to have died after he was struck by a Paris subway train. Rose hints that she threw Charlie into the train's path after learning that he had cheated on her.
Alan's attitude and experiences are contrasted with Charlie's. Throughout the series, Alan deals with his son Jake's growing up and the aftermath of his bitter divorce, while having little success with women. His marriage to Kandi at the end of the third season was short-lived. In the fourth season, Alan is back at the beach house paying alimony to two women out of his low earnings as a chiropractor. In the seventh season, he begins a relationship with Lyndsey McElroy, the mother of one of Jake's friends. Their relationship is temporarily suspended when Alan cheats on her and accidentally burns down her house, but the relationship is eventually resumed.
In the ninth-season premiere, the beach house is sold to Walden Schmidt, an Internet billionaire going through a divorce from Bridget. Alan leaves to live with his mother Evelyn when the house is sold, but later Walden invites both Alan and Jake back to live in the beach house.
At the end of the ninth season, Jake joins the US Army; he appears occasionally during the 10th season, briefly dating Tammy, who is 17 years his senior and has three kids, as well as Tammy's daughter Ashley. In the season, Walden proposes to his English girlfriend Zoey, only to be turned down and discover she has another man. He becomes depressed. Meanwhile, Alan gets engaged to his girlfriend Lyndsey, while Judith leaves her second husband Herb Melnick after he cheats on her with his receptionist. Alan and Lyndsey's relationship of three years ends as she wants to move on. Rose returns and briefly dates Walden, later stalking him as she did to Charlie. Walden begins to date a poor but ambitious woman named Kate and changes his name to "Sam Wilson", pretending to be poor to find someone who wants him for him, not for his money. They later break up when he reveals who he really is, though Kate realizes that Walden's money helped her become a successful clothing designer. Jake announces he is being shipped to Japan for at least a year, so Alan and he go on a father-son bonding trip. Other than a cameo in the series finale, this is the last time Jake appears on the show, though verbal references are made to him.
In the 11th season, a young woman arrives at the beach house, announcing that she is Charlie Harper's biological daughter, Jenny. She moves in with Walden and Alan, and later displays many of Charlie's traits, including a love of women and alcohol. Lyndsey begins dating a man named Larry. In an attempt to learn more about Larry, Alan takes on the pseudonym "Jeff Strongman". His double life becomes complicated when "Jeff" begins dating Larry's sister, Gretchen.
In the 12th season, after a health scare, Walden decides to reprioritize his life by adopting a baby. He realizes that the only way to do this is to be married, but does not know anyone who will marry him. He asks Alan to marry him and pretend that they are a gay couple, thus ensuring success at adopting. Jenny moves out of the house, and moves in with Evelyn, due to Walden and Alan's preparing to adopt. They adopt a child, Louis, and subsequently divorce to pursue relationships with women. Alan proposes to Lyndsey a second time and she accepts, while Walden begins a relationship with Louis' social worker, Ms. McMartin. Charlie is revealed to be alive, having been kept prisoner by Rose until escaping, but he dies in an accident before he can reunite with Walden and Alan.
Production
Sheen's dismissal and replacement
Following a February 2010 announcement that Sheen was entering drug rehabilitation, filming of the show was put on hiatus, but resumed the following month. On April 1, 2010, People reported that after seven seasons, Sheen announced he was considering leaving the show. According to one source, Sheen quit the show after filming the final episode of season seven, purportedly due to his rejection of CBS's offer of $1 million per episode as too low. Sheen eventually stated that he would be back for two more seasons. On May 18, 2010, the New Zealand website Stuff.co.nz reported that a press release issued by Sheen's publicist confirmed that Sheen had signed a new contract for two years at $1.78 million per episode. "To put a fitting end on the two and one-half months of whirlwind speculation, I'm looking forward to returning to my CBS home on Monday nights," Sheen was quoted as saying.On January 28, 2011, Sheen voluntarily entered a rehabilitation center for the third time in 12 months. According to Warner Bros. Television and CBS, the show was put on hiatus for an indefinite period of time.
The following month, after Sheen's verbal denunciations of Chuck Lorre in a radio interview with Alex Jones and an online interview with TMZ.com, CBS announced that Two and a Half Men would cease production for the rest of its eighth season. This affected an estimated 200 employees, and caused Warner Bros. Television, CBS, Lorre, Sheen and other profit participants an estimated $10 million loss from the unmade eight remaining episodes. Afterward, Sheen was interviewed on ABC's 20/20, NBC's Today and CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, where he continued to criticize Lorre and CBS. On March 7, CBS and Warner Bros. Television jointly announced that they had terminated Sheen's Two and a Half Men contract, citing "moral turpitude" as a main cause of separation. No further decisions about the show's future were released.
Cast members Marin Hinkle and Holland Taylor expressed sadness at Sheen's departure and personal problems. Jon Cryer did not publicly comment on the matter. In response, Sheen called him "a turncoat, a traitor, a troll" in an E! Online interview, although he later issued a "half-apology" to Cryer for the remarks. Sheen sued Lorre and Warner Bros. Television for $100 million, saying that he had filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and Two and a Half Men's cast and crew; however, only Sheen was named as a plaintiff in court documents.
In April 2011, Sheen mentioned during a radio interview during his tour's stop in Boston that CBS and he were discussing a possible return to the show. Lorre announced the same month that he had developed an idea for a revival of Two and a Half Men, excluding Sheen, with Cryer in a key role alongside a new character. Hugh Grant was approached to replace Sheen but he declined. On May 13, CBS announced Ashton Kutcher would join the cast. Kutcher stated, "I can't replace Charlie Sheen, but I'm going to work my ass off to entertain the hell out of people!"
On August 2, 2011, the season-nine premiere was reported as beginning with Sheen's character killed off and his ex-girlfriends attending his funeral. Afterward, Charlie's Malibu home would be put up for sale; interested buyers would include celebrities from Lorre's other sitcoms and John Stamos, as well as Kutcher's character, Walden Schmidt, "an Internet billionaire with a broken heart." Reviewers compared the situation to what happened in 1987 to Valerie Harper, who was fired from the sitcom Valerie. Her character was killed off-screen, and she was replaced the following season.
Sheen said he would watch his "fake funeral attended by fake ex-girlfriends, from very, very real movie theater, with very real hotties in tow." His response to the season-nine premiere was very positive. He reportedly felt Charlie Harper's funeral was "eerie but fun", and that the introduction of Kutcher's character in a cloud of his own character's ashes was particularly enjoyable.
File:AshtonKutcherJonCryerHWOFSept2011.jpg|thumb|right|Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer
The attention Two and a Half Men received due to the change in characters gave the series a boost. Average total viewers during the 2011–2012 season rose 13% to 15 million and the 5.2 rating in the 18–49 demographic rose by 27%. Kutcher's debut as Walden Schmidt, in the episode "Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt", was seen by 28.7 million people on September 19, 2011. The Nielsen company reported it the highest-rated episode since the series began. At the 2012 Emmys, Two and a Half Men was nominated for four awards and won three, the most Emmys it had won in a single year since it began. In 2012, Kutcher replaced Sheen as the highest-paid U.S. actor currently on the air, receiving $700,000 per episode. For Kutcher's second season, the show moved to the 8:30 pm Thursday time slot, replacing Rules of Engagement. ''Two and a Half Men improved ratings for the time slot, which were up from the previous year. Jennifer Graham Kizer of IVillage thought that the series changed tone in its Kutcher era, saying it felt "less evil". Lorre, Cryer, Hinkle, Taylor, Ferrell and Lynskey had nothing but praise for Kutcher, believing he had "saved the show".
Kutcher was the highest-paid actor on television for four years according to Forbes'', earning an estimated $24 million between June 2012 and June 2013, $750,000 per episode. Cryer was the second-highest-paid star on American television, earning $600,000–700,000 per episode.
In 2021, Sheen expressed regret for his past behavior, saying, "There 55 different ways for me to handle that situation and I chose number 56."