Two and a Half Men Shouldn t Have Continued

Chuck Lorre, left, on the set of the comedy “Two and a Half Men” with Lee Aronsohn, a co-creator.

Credit... Kevin Scanlon for The New York Times

BURBANK, Calif.

ARMS folded, brow furrowed and lips pursed in a stubborn scowl, Chuck Lorre is sitting in a canvas-back chair on Stage 26 on the Warner Brothers lot here, staring into the distance as Jon Cryer and Kelly Stables rehearse a lovers' quarrel from a coming episode of "Two and a Half Men."

The pose is vintage Chuck Lorre: tightly wound, with a roiling intensity that appears to presage an angry outburst. Yet as the scene ends with the actors making a slapdash exit off a patio, Mr. Lorre lets out a cackling laugh. As he calls the performers over to consult with the gathered writers and producers, an impish grin slides over his face — and it becomes clear that, far from being angry, he had simply been imagining himself as the miffed lover.

"Don't give in to him too easily," he tells Ms. Stables. "He's hurt your feelings, so you don't want to make eye contact with him. And when you do look, think about it. Don't jump up to him."

Consciously or not, those words echo the slow softening of Mr. Lorre's own persona in recent years. Long recognized as a piercingly funny writer and producer on a string of hit shows, including "Roseanne," "Grace Under Fire," "Cybill" and "Dharma and Greg," he also gained a reputation as a volatile personality who jumped from one project to another, frequently lashing out at studio and network executives, television critics and performers.

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Credit... Greg Gayne/Warner Brothers

That Chuck Lorre is rarely in evidence today. What has replaced him is a man who has engineered subtle changes both to himself and to his characters, changes that have made him one of the most successful comedy producers in television with two shows among the five highest-rated comedies.

When "Two and a Half Men" begins its seventh season Monday night on CBS, it will do so in a way that is unusual for a series that has reached 140 episodes, still commanding the sustained attention of Mr. Lorre; his co-creator, Lee Aronsohn; and most of the original writing staff.

Next door on the Warner Brothers lot is "The Big Bang Theory," which begins its third season on Monday at 9:30, right after "Two and a Half Men," with Mr. Lorre and another co-creator, Bill Prady, in control. Week after week from August through April, Mr. Lorre, 56, beats a path between the two sets, their respective writers' rooms and editing bays, overseeing details as small as the color of one character's blazer and the print on a beach towel.

Such stability is the polar opposite of much of the arc of Mr. Lorre's career in Hollywood. "I think Chuck has come to appreciate — as much as those of us who believe in him — just how good he is," said Peter Roth, president of Warner Brothers Television. "He's more comfortable in his own skin. And he's learned to relax and enjoy his success more."

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Credit... Sonja Flemming/CBS

The money probably helps. In March CBS and Warner Brothers signed deals to extend "Men" through 2012 and "Big Bang" through at least two more seasons. In 2006 Warner Brothers sold the rights to run repeats of early episodes of "Two and a Half Men," and the show quickly became one of the biggest comedies in syndication, which boosted the audience for original episodes on Monday nights on CBS to an average of 15 million per week last season, according to Nielsen Media Research. This summer "The Big Bang Theory," with its gentler, less racy story lines, continued to build its audience, which totaled about 10 million a week last season.

Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, said in an interview that he believes neither show had reached its full potential. " 'Two and a Half Men' has many years left in it, and clearly 'Big Bang Theory' is absolutely on the right trajectory in the ratings to be a tremendous hit."

Mr. Lorre's current fortunes contrast greatly with what was a long, bitter road. After spending years knocking around Los Angeles as a guitar player and songwriter, he began writing for children's animated series and then moved into scripted comedy. In 1990 he joined the writing staff of "Roseanne," lasting just two years in its famously volatile work environment.

He then helped to create two more comedies with well-known female leads; he quit after a year on "Grace Under Fire," starring Brett Butler as a single mother with an abusive past, and was fired in his second season on "Cybill," starring Cybill Shepherd.

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The top-rated CBS sitcom returns for another season on Sept. 21.

Far from being discouraged, his response was to create "Dharma and Greg," a series about "a female character who is full of unconditional love and generosity and joy and delightfulness." It was, he said, "a great antidote to the previous years." So naturally he soon left.

"I was an idiot," he said. "It's one of my great regrets that I left that show." In his defense Warner Brothers and Mr. Roth dangled a huge carrot: a $30 million package to develop sitcoms. Of course, he added, "wonderful things have occurred with 'Two and a Half Men,' and 'Big Bang Theory' wouldn't have happened if I didn't leave, but I shouldn't have left."

At Warner Brothers, Mr. Lorre was asked to expand an idea for a show about two brothers, but he soon became intrigued by the idea of exploring the relationship between an aging bachelor playboy and his divorced brother's young son. With the help of Mr. Aronsohn, "Two and a Half Men" was born.

Mr. Lorre immediately recruited Charlie Sheen to play the lead role, and Mr. Cryer ended up as his brother. Mr. Sheen asked Mr. Lorre how long he saw the relationship between the bachelor and the boy lasting. "He said, 'I want to send the boy to college,' " Mr. Sheen recalled. The actor playing the boy, Angus T. Jones, was 9 in the pilot. "It was clear that Chuck was taking this very seriously, and he has always shown a genuine responsibility to guide this thing to the end."

Video

The CBS sitcom returns for a new season on Sept. 21.

Mr. Lorre embarked two years ago on "The Big Bang Theory," which focuses on two eggheads (Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons) and their attempts to relate to a sexy neighbor. People on the set of "Two and a Half Men" watched warily to see if he would disappear from the set of the older series. To do so "would be a tragic mistake," Mr. Lorre said. "That's been the great gift that got me to this place where I could then branch out and do a second show. To walk away from it or to give it less attention would just be so inappropriate."

That's a measure of Mr. Lorre's growth, said Mr. Aronsohn, an executive producer on both series. "I think he genuinely wanted to see one thing through from beginning to end," Mr. Aronsohn said. "Over the last 15 years he's grown a lot as a human being. One of the processes of growing up is you learn to embrace what you have."

Mr. Lorre still fights — most openly when the CBS standards and practices department tries to rein in the thinly veiled double entendres and outright vulgarities that have drawn so much attention to "Two and a Half Men." He agitates that the network that broadcasts the Victoria's Secret fashion show sometimes objects to an actress in her underwear. Frequently he lashes out by chastising the censors in the producer "vanity cards" that are displayed at the end of each episode — and which themselves are sometimes censored by the network. (Unredacted versions are collected at chucklorre.com.)

Also a sore subject is that although "Two and a Half Men" has been the most-watched half-hour comedy for several years, it has never won an Emmy for best comedy or for its writing or acting. On Sunday both Mr. Sheen of "Men" and Mr. Parsons of "Big Bang" are nominated for best actor in a comedy, and Mr. Cryer of "Men" is up for best supporting actor.

Less noticed are more subtle evolutions of many aspects of the two series. Charlie Harper, the debauching lothario played by Mr. Sheen, is now struggling to maintain a relationship on "Men." Mr. Lorre said he knew from the beginning of "Big Bang" that he had underwritten the character of Penny, the eye candy next door played by Kaley Cuoco. Last season her intellectual strengths and emotional vulnerabilities gained depth, and the belly shirts and short shorts of the early days often gave way to sweatpants and T-shirts.

If Mr. Lorre has softened, his combative spirit — and most certainly his desire to win — has not disappeared. "If you believe in what you're doing, you should fight for it," he said. "I have in the past fought for it in ways that I have to say I regret. You can fight for your autonomy creatively and still be civil. That's something I've learned along the way."

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/arts/television/20wyat.html

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