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Last year, Charlie Sheen was fired from CBS’s popular comedy series “Two and a Half Men.”
Sheen was the lead character in the series for eight seasons before his “bad boy” antics and constant bickering with the producer cost him his job.
But did the show’s audience leave with Sheen?
Sheen’s character, Charlie Harper, was a successful “jingle writer” who lived on the beach in Malibu. When he wasn’t writing songs for commercials, his idea of happiness included frequent and meaningless encounters with women – very much a mirror image of his real life.
To put an end to the character, the producer of the show had Charlie brutally killed by being hit by a subway train.
Sheen was adored by the fans of the show, and it was unclear at first how “Two and a Half Men” would fare without him. Fortunately, his two co-stars Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones, who played his brother Alan and bungling nephew Jake respectively, have remained with the show.
Their presence has helped ensure the show will have a fighting chance to continue its popular run.
The producers of “Two and Half Men” claimed it was the dawn of a new age for the show as they set about in search of Sheen’s replacement.
Ashton Kutcher, the highly popular actor and comedian who is best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the sitcom “That 70’s Show,” was a favorite for the new leading role and was ultimately chosen.
Kutcher plays Walden Schmidt, an internet billionaire who attempts suicide over his impending divorce. He is rescued by Alan and promptly buys Charlie’s beach house, moving in and formally becoming Charlie Sheen’s replacement.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, almost 28 million viewers turned in to watch Ashton Kutcher’s first episode on the show. This compares to the average 14.6 million viewers who watched Charlie Sheen in last year’s season.
The Hollywood Reporter said that more viewers were to be expected simply because they wanted to see the show with Kutcher’s new character.
This comparison of numbers helps raise the question as to whether the show was getting old, and if Sheen’s character was becoming stale in the later seasons.
Episodes seemed to be the same story over again, even in spite of more creative efforts by the writing staff to produce new scenarios for Sheen’s character.
The producers felt that bringing in a new face would help the show regain the spark that was overwhelming in the midst of its first season, back in 2003.
There are significant differences between Sheen’s and Kutcher’s characters on the show.
As opposed to Sheen playing a character that hates the idea of commitment to any one woman, Kutcher’s character can’t stop thinking about his failed marriage, and he is enthralled with the idea of having one woman in his life.
Despite this, the producers have gambled on the idea of having him play a very immature man, one that is a silly adolescent.
Making the transition of having the star character whose outlook on life is very lonely and commitment phobic, to a warmhearted individual is very significant in terms of how the show would be perceived in the future.
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