Production
[edit]
Sheen's dismissal and replacement
[edit]Following a February 2010 announcement that Sheen was entering drug rehabilitation, filming of the show was put on hiatus,[15] but resumed the following month.[16] On April 1, 2010, People reported that after seven seasons, Sheen announced he was considering leaving the show.[17] 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.[18] Sheen eventually stated that he would be back for two more seasons.[19] 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.[20]
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.[21]
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.[22] This affected an estimated 200 employees,[23] and caused Warner Bros. Television, CBS, Lorre, Sheen and other profit participants an estimated $10 million loss from the unmade eight remaining episodes.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27] Jon Cryer did not publicly comment on the matter. In response, Sheen called him "a turncoat, a traitor, [and] a troll" in an E! Online interview,[28] although he later issued a "half-apology" to Cryer for the remarks.[29] 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.[30]
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.[31] 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.[32] Hugh Grant was approached to replace Sheen but he declined.[33][34] 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!"[35]
On August 2, 2011, it was reported that the season nine premiere would begin 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 (later titled Valerie's Family: The Hogans and then The Hogan Family). Her character was killed off-screen and she was replaced the following season.[36][37][38][39]
Sheen said he would watch his "fake funeral attended by [his] fake ex-girlfriends, from [his] very, very real movie theater, with [his] very real hotties in tow."[40][41] His respo