by Maureen Ryan
After a day in which Charlie Sheen took to the airwaves to criticize everything from his boss to Alcoholics Anonymous, CBS has finally had enough.
Production on ‘Two and a Half Men,’ the troubled star’s uber-successful sitcom, was set to resume on Monday. Four more episodes were to have been made before the ‘Men’ wrapped up work on its eighth season.
But in a statement issued late Thursday, CBS said that it was halting production on those episodes. “Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen’s statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Bros. Television have decided to discontinue production of ‘Two and a Half Men’ for the remainder of the season,” the statement read in full.
UPDATE: Sheen fired back about the shutdown late Thursday night, repeating his slurs against ‘Men’s’ creator, Chuck Lorre, and calling him a “contaminated little maggot” and a “worm.”
“I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon,” Sheen ranted. He also stated that the fans of the show were “my people … not yours.”
Sheesh. All things considered, CBS’ actions on Thursday weren’t surprising.
In a rant to the Alex Jones radio show, Sheen called the creator of ‘Men,’ Chuck Lorre, a “clown” and referred to him as “Chaim Levine” (Lorre’s original name is Charles Levine). Sheen also said he had cured his addictions “with my mind” and called A.A. a “bootleg cult.”
Not satisfied with the rambling vitriol he displayed in that interview, Sheen later told TMZ that he “violently hates” Lorre and also wants to fight him in an Octagon ring.
What happens when you call your boss a “stupid, stupid little man,” make arrogant remarks about your own genius (“I’ve got poetry in my fingertips”) and somehow insult Thomas Jefferson along the way? Production on your show is halted by the powers that be. For this season, at least.
In this piece, I argued that ‘Two and a Half Men’ should be shut down permanently, because Sheen is clearly heading for disaster, if not death. CBS and Warner Bros. Television have decided, for the moment, that they don’t want to be in business with Sheen. Will that change by the time production on Season 9 of ‘Men’ is set to begin this summer?
Who knows. If CBS doesn’t cancel the show, network executives should, at the very least, replace Sheen with another actor. And hope Sheen doesn’t send his “Vatican assassin warlocks” after them.
