Two And A Half Men - General Discussion

[iMonrey]

 

And why a shortened season?

 

$$$, Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer get a big raise every year they come back so making a shorter final season was less expensive.

[Brian Cronin]

While true, it was still a bid odd in the sense that if the show was no longer profitable, why bring it back for so many episodes (they could have wrapped everything up in a TV movie)? And if it was still profitable, then why not keep making it? Two and a Half Men still gets noticeably better ratings than most other comedies, including CBS' own. So I think even with the more expensive pay rate, the show was relatively more successful than other shows so it was odd to cancel it. I suppose they think they can get a cheaper show that can match the ratings, but I don't think that is necessarily true.

[kelslamu]

I actually liked Anger Management.  The prison group cracked me up.  Probably says something about me though. 

[Jaded]

I actually liked Anger Management.  The prison group cracked me up.  Probably says something about me though. 

I liked it too. It's obvious some people did like it and some people didn't just like with Two And A Half Men and just about any other show on TV. 

[dttruman]

From "The Sea Is A Harsh Mistress" episode. When Evelyn Harper had some fat removed from her butt and redistributed back into her lips. Did the actress Holland Taylor actually have a similar procedure performed on her, or was that just special effects make-up  and so on created on face?

[CherryAmes]

We watch the Charlie era and mostly enjoy them but less and less as they changed Alan from a caring if pathetic family man into a mooching horndog who made no real effort to parent his teenager.  Anyway that said the episode I saw tonight really had me puzzled.  Charlie is dating Linda and connects with her son through the songs he supposedly wrote for Jake (first we hear of this) and Alan is paying household bills and seems to know exactly how much money Charlie has and where the money goes.  Alan is so concerned about the lack of income from Charlie's jingles that he gets involved in a drug test where he is 'clearly not in the placebo group'.  Anyway I don't expect much from this show but Alan the cheap moocher does not pay bills at Charlie's house and he does not have access to Charlie's bank account.  Ugh.

[dttruman]

Was the lady with all the tatoos hired because she had all the tatoos or did she have temporary ones put on?

[MarkHB]

Since there were so few posts, I've reverted to a single thread in case anyone wants to discuss the show in the future.

MarkHB

[Ubiquitous]

On 11/7/2017 at 4:12 PM, dttruman said:

From "The Sea Is A Harsh Mistress" episode. When Evelyn Harper had some fat removed from her butt and redistributed back into her lips. Did the actress Holland Taylor actually have a similar procedure performed on her, or was that just special effects make-up  and so on created on face?

I assumed they called in David Cronenberg s makeup people for this one. Ha ha

I finally saw the CSI ep in full over the weekend. That one cracked me up!

[dttruman]

On 4/2/2018 at 10:33 PM, CherryAmes said:

Alan is paying household bills and seems to know exactly how much money Charlie has and where the money goes.  Alan is so concerned about the lack of income from Charlie's jingles that he gets involved in a drug test where he is 'clearly not in the placebo group'.  Anyway I don't expect much from this show but Alan the cheap moocher does not pay bills at Charlie's house and he does not have access to Charlie's bank account.  Ugh.

He is paying alimony and child support to Judith, but I get my episodes of sequence. Is he also paying for Candy's bills also? I just know Charlie's about to come into a lot of money because of the children songs he come up with, for Linda's kid.

[CherryAmes]

On 11/7/2018 at 3:05 PM, dttruman said:

Was the lady with all the tatoos hired because she had all the tatoos or did she have temporary ones put on?

Do you mean the Hitler lady or the one who is a witch in Evelyn's coven?  Or is there another tattooed lady?  If you mean the Hitler one I hope those were temporary!!

[dttruman]

8 hours ago, CherryAmes said:

the one who is a witch in Evelyn's coven?

Isabella, this actress also had a part in the episode that was about a website dedicated to Charlie. "Charlieharpersucks.com". I can't recall her tatoos in that episode.

[Stats Queen]

On 12/18/2018 at 6:43 PM, dttruman said:

Isabella, this actress also had a part in the episode that was about a website dedicated to Charlie. "Charlieharpersucks.com". I can't recall her tatoos in that episode.

Thanks

[dttruman]

How many characters from the TV series could have had their own spin-off from this show? The ones that definitely come to mind are Berta, Rose, and Dr. Freeman,

[NoReally]

Quote

How many characters from the TV series could have had their own spin-off from this show? The ones that definitely come to mind are Berta, Rose, and Dr. Freeman,

Anyone but Alan!

[readster]

13 hours ago, NoReally said:

Anyone but Alan!

Alan had gone to the point, he would have mooched off ants and been seen living in a gutter. The show could have actually reversed things and had Alan has the bread winner for the first time in years when they fired Charlie Sheen and brought in Ashton Koocher. Instead they made Alan to the point he mooch off a mall Santa Claus and Jake couldn't apparently read anymore. 

[fuzzyreception]

This board has been dormant for far too long

A social media war of words is getting attention

While Sheen was the face of "Two and a Half Men" for its first eight seasons, the show transitioned into a post-Sheen world surprisingly well, with Ashton Kutcher joining in a new role and Cryer carrying on as Alan Harper.

In fact, ratings went notably up for the first two seasons following Sheen's departure as fans sampled the new dynamic and it remained a solid ratings performer throughout its 12-season run.

Cryer actually scored his second Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance after Sheen's departure. His first came in 2009, followed by another in 2012. Sheen was nominated four times as Lead Actor but failed to carry home Emmy gold.

Ironically, Kathy Bates did win an Emmy for her work as the ghost of Sheen's character the same year Cryer picked up his second trophy. The show would go on to pick up a total of three Emmys that year, it's largest haul in series history.

Fans were eating it all up, laughing all the way to Twitter's trending topics, with many piling on Gaetz for his own past indiscretions and for invoking Sheen's name, considering Sheen's own politics:

[dttruman]

On 8/19/2020 at 11:57 PM, readster said:

Alan had gone to the point, he would have mooched off ants and been seen living in a gutter. The show could have actually reversed things and had Alan has the bread winner for the first time in years when they fired Charlie Sheen and brought in Ashton Koocher. Instead they made Alan to the point he mooch off a mall Santa Claus and Jake couldn't apparently read anymore. 

At the very beginning of the show, Alan was a very responsible parent and bread winner who was being taken to the cleaners by his wife. Then his persona changed and they started to make him a tightwad at times in different episodes. I thought during the Kutcher episodes they went way overboard and it kind of lost much of it's humor.

1 hour ago, fuzzyreception said:

Cryer actually scored his second Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance after Sheen's departure. His first came in 2009, followed by another in 2012. Sheen was nominated four times as Lead Actor but failed to carry home Emmy gold.

Charlie may not of won an Emmy, but he was the highest paid at the time, until he blew it all.

[dttruman]

15 hours ago, fuzzyreception said:

While Sheen was the face of "Two and a Half Men" for its first eight seasons, the show transitioned into a post-Sheen world surprisingly well, with Ashton Kutcher joining in a new role and Cryer carrying on as Alan Harper.

In fact, ratings went notably up for the first two seasons following Sheen's departure as fans sampled the new dynamic and it remained a solid ratings performer throughout its 12-season run.

I'll give you the fact that Cryer was part of an excellent supporting cast, but focusing on him too much was a wrong turn. Trying to make Cryer and Kutcher co-leads and throwing in over the top story lines didn't work for me. The initial good ratings was probably due to the dedicated fans and their curiosity to see the new changes. But that wore off and the producers and writers tried to go the outrageous route and bring in Charlie's long lost daughter and other stuff.

Bottom line, the show had a good run, but like all good shows things become stale. In essence, Gaetz was right about his assessment, but there were a few memorable episodes that came from the last four seasons.

[readster]

2 hours ago, dttruman said:

I'll give you the fact that Cryer was part of an excellent supporting cast, but focusing on him too much was a wrong turn. Trying to make Cryer and Kutcher co-leads and throwing in over the top story lines didn't work for me. The initial good ratings was probably due to the dedicated fans and their curiosity to see the new changes. But that wore off and the producers and writers tried to go the outrageous route and bring in Charlie's long lost daughter and other stuff.

Bottom line, the show had a good run, but like all good shows things become stale. In essence, Gaetz was right about his assessment, but there were a few memorable episodes that came from the last four seasons.

Right and Cryer might have talked about the show running another 4 years and him getting his Emmy. However, that was mostly due to fan base and CBS not ready to throw the towel in despite the fact it was slipping fast by the second year. Plus, Kutcher's character really didn't bring anything to the show. He basically had an ex wife and mother who were jealous of his success and money and then throwing in he acted like people just did everything buy wipe his own ass to where he didn't know anything. Yet could: close on a house, run a business, make a deal with Microsoft, adopt a kid, ect. Yet, buy bread? How me do that? Made Jake look like a scholar winner some episodes. 

[Giuseppe]

Anyone know why TVLand has only been showing the Walden episodes for the past couple months? They showed some Charlie episodes, but only as part of the holiday-themed binge-a-thons. Other than that, it's been nothing but Walden.

[dttruman]

9 hours ago, Giuseppe said:

Anyone know why TVLand has only been showing the Walden episodes for the past couple months? They showed some Charlie episodes, but only as part of the holiday-themed binge-a-thons. Other than that, it's been nothing but Walden.

Maybe TVLAND  could only purchase certain kinds of episodes of certain seasons. Have you noticed that while watching some episodes, most of them are in sequence, but then a few of those episodes are left out?

[Ria]

I was watching a couple of old episodes of The Odd Couple and boy if it didn’t remind me over and over of Charlie and Alan. In many ways Two and a Half Men is just The Odd Couple done in a way that couldn’t be done in 1970. 

[WinnieWinkle]

56 minutes ago, Ria said:

I was watching a couple of old episodes of The Odd Couple and boy if it didn’t remind me over and over of Charlie and Alan. In many ways Two and a Half Men is just The Odd Couple done in a way that couldn’t be done in 1970. 

They actually do a nod to this in one episode where Chelsea and Charlie are watching TV and Alan joins them and the show they are watching is The Odd Couple.  Alan says he never liked that show:  "Well, I didn't buy the premise. Who would put up with somebody who drives them crazy for all those years? I mean, it would be different if they were related."

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, WinnieWinkle said:

They actually do a nod to this in one episode where Chelsea and Charlie are watching TV and Alan joins them and the show they are watching is The Odd Couple.  Alan says he never liked that show:  "Well, I didn't buy the premise. Who would put up with somebody who drives them crazy for all those years? I mean, it would be different if they were related."

Yes, but I got mixed messages from Charlie a lot. Remember when Charlie first went to the shrink to get advice and he was constantly telling her how much of a pain in the ass Alan was. She responded by asking why he doesn't kick Alan out and Charlie said, he is family. Yet he threw Alan out a couple of times, for stupid reasons, One for a particular bowl Charlie didn't like and I can't think of  the other right now. There were other reasons that Charlie could have thrown Alan out, the tight-wad reasons, where Alan never paid for anything (the big roll of bills) and the one about gas money when Alan loaned Charlie money, but Alan siphoned his gas tank to recoop his money. Then again Walden could have throw him out for all the same reasons

You just never knew week to week.

[WinnieWinkle]

34 minutes ago, dttruman said:

You just never knew week to week.

We've just cycled around to the earlier seasons on the channel I get this show on and Alan was so different,  He was tightly wound and fussy but he wasn't cheap and he was staying with Charlie because he genuinely thought he'd be getting back with Judith - thn he ends up staying because Charlie screws up with the lawyer and Alan gets taken to the cleaners**.  Up to then it made sense that Charlie put up with a lot because he felt he owed Alan and because he wanted to keep seeing Jake.  By the end of the Charlie years though it made absolutely zero sense that Charlie didn't throw Alan out on his cheapskate ass!

**This part of the show has me rolling my eyes so hard I've probably done permanent damage to my vision!  Charlie and Evelyn are loaded - there is no way they wouldn't have been able to pay for a new lawyer for Alan and get that ridiculous alimony agreement tossed!

Edited June 26, 2021 by WinnieWinkle

[Spartan Girl]

Well, Charlie WAS kind of the reason why Judith cleaned out Alan in the divorce because he wooed and screwed his divorce lawyer. Hence why Alan got so cheap and maybe another reason why Charlie kept him around.

[Ria]

The alimony Allen paid to both wives was absurd. Judith was a healthy young woman who didn’t have to work to support herself at all, who got the house, all expenses paid, child support while Allen still had to pay for Jake’s clothes and school extras  and Kandi was 23 and married for 6 months, no children. Allen just lacked the backbone to contest any of this. 
 

The show really did Allen no favors as the seasons progressed. They turned him into such a weak spineless mooch he contributed nothing financially to the household and was too cheap to even pay for popcorn at the movies.  And he felt no real shame about it. At least Charlie showed some emotional growth at various times. 

[WinnieWinkle]

1 minute ago, Ria said:

The show really did Allen no favors as the seasons progressed. They turned him into such a weak spineless mooch he contributed nothing financially to the household and was too cheap to even pay for popcorn at the movies.  And he felt no real shame about it. At least Charlie showed some emotional growth at various times. 

By the end of the Charlie years, Charlie despite his faults, was by far the nicer person.  Alan was just awful.

With regard to alimony he really did get taken to the cleaners with Judith but even so by the 4th season Judith married Herb and the alimony to her ended - he also was only on the hook with Kandi very briefly as whatever alimony he was paying her ended when she got that unlikely acting job on "Stiffs".

After that the cheapness had to be excused by him becoming a lazy mooch who did as little work as possibly.  He had a lot of nerve criticizing Charlie in that department!

[dttruman]

2 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

By the end of the Charlie years, Charlie despite his faults, was by far the nicer person.  Alan was just awful.

Yeah, he was more or less being a "Charlie" from the early years. He was playing the field with Melissa and Lyndsey while Charlie was begrudgingly being faithful to Chelsea until the end and they broke up.

[dttruman]

4 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

After that the cheapness had to be excused by him becoming a lazy mooch who did as little work as possibly.  He had a lot of nerve criticizing Charlie in that department!

Did it bother you that Alan (and even Evelyn for that matter and also Jenny , when we found out Charlie had a daughter) never tried to collect on Charlie's music royalties until the very end? I thought at the funeral for Charlie he would try to collect (season 9) those royalties, but did they ever cover that? I can't remember.

[WinnieWinkle]

53 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Did it bother you that Alan (and even Evelyn for that matter and also Jenny , when we found out Charlie had a daughter) never tried to collect on Charlie's music royalties until the very end? I thought at the funeral for Charlie he would try to collect (season 9) those royalties, but did they ever cover that? I can't remember.

Like most sitcoms this show always played fast and loose where money stuff was concerned - if they ever talked about royalties after Charlie died I missed it but I was not a fan of the Walden years so rarely tuned in.  What did bother me a lot was the sudden appearance of a daughter Charlie knew about.  So stupid - and such an insult to those of us who had been watching the show all along.   There were many references over the Sheen years to Charlie not having a child - they got very specific about this in several episodes - one that comes to mind is when the woman has "little Chuck" and makes Charlie believe this kid she's actually been babysitting is his son.  At the end of that episode he is going to be sending her regular support cheques.  Does that ever get referenced again?  I don't think so.

[readster]

17 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

Like most sitcoms this show always played fast and loose where money stuff was concerned - if they ever talked about royalties after Charlie died I missed it but I was not a fan of the Walden years so rarely tuned in.  What did bother me a lot was the sudden appearance of a daughter Charlie knew about.  So stupid - and such an insult to those of us who had been watching the show all along.   There were many references over the Sheen years to Charlie not having a child - they got very specific about this in several episodes - one that comes to mind is when the woman has "little Chuck" and makes Charlie believe this kid she's actually been babysitting is his son.  At the end of that episode he is going to be sending her regular support cheques.  Does that ever get referenced again?  I don't think so.

It also didn't make sense as by the time both Judith and Kandi were about, Magically, Alan has "NO PRACTICE" he was in California, with a great client base. A rise NEED for chiropractors and alternative medicines. Yet, they made it like Alan didn't know how to tie his shoes. Then they move to the fact that Jake got so stupid and got lost in an airport, yet couldn't read one damn sign on what way to go. Then he can join the military no problem? Maybe as a test subject, not an active duty. 

[dttruman]

7 hours ago, readster said:

It also didn't make sense as by the time both Judith and Kandi were about, Magically, Alan has "NO PRACTICE" he was in California, with a great client base. A rise NEED for chiropractors and alternative medicines. Yet, they made it like Alan didn't know how to tie his shoes. Then they move to the fact that Jake got so stupid and got lost in an airport, yet couldn't read one damn sign on what way to go. Then he can join the military no problem? Maybe as a test subject, not an active duty. 

Do you think the producers told the writers that the last two or three seasons that whatever the characters' funny attributes were that they needed to take them to an extreme level? In other words, Alan was stingy & a  pain in the ass and Jake wasn't too bright, so they made him obnoxious and annoying as HELL and Jake a complete imbecile.

[WinnieWinkle]

12 hours ago, dttruman said:

Jake wasn't too bright, so they made him obnoxious and annoying as HELL and Jake a complete imbecile.

It's gotten to the point for me where I have to decide when to stop watching the show as seeing young Jake, who was sweet at first and still not totally obnoxious for a few years after that, turn into the Jake of the later years of the show is just painful.  I've ranted elsewhere about the sexualization of young girls on TV sitcoms because I feel like when they hit the age of 12 the writers just can't figure out what to do with them - a similar thing happened to poor Jake.  He hit his teen years and the writers decided "hey I know let's make him the stupidest teenager who ever walked the land" rather than trying to write, you know a real kid.

The actor playing Jake protested about the skeevy plotlines on the show but IMO he should also have been protesting about the awful way they portrayed teenagers on that show!

[dttruman]

10 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

It's gotten to the point for me where I have to decide when to stop watching the show as seeing young Jake, who was sweet at first and still not totally obnoxious for a few years after that, turn into the Jake of the later years of the show is just painful.  I've ranted elsewhere about the sexualization of young girls on TV sitcoms because I feel like when they hit the age of 12 the writers just can't figure out what to do with them - a similar thing happened to poor Jake.  He hit his teen years and the writers decided "hey I know let's make him the stupidest teenager who ever walked the land" rather than trying to write, you know a real kid.

The actor playing Jake protested about the skeevy plotlines on the show but IMO he should also have been protesting about the awful way they portrayed teenagers on that show!

I think the producers saw the "writing on the wall" and thought the series can't last more than a few years at most, so they would write Jake and Eldrige out and bring Jake back only on special occasions.

[Ria]

I most enjoy the early episodes when Jake was young. The family dynamic was most enjoyable then. That was really the best and funniest parts of the show for me, the relationship between the characters. The later seasons substituted funny and warm interactions for smutty low brow sex jokes. Charlie telling Jake he cleaned up his act on the weekends but pop in on a Wednesday and he’d be scarred for life was funny. Alan getting caught masturbating in every room of the house while Charlie had the hots for his date’s 20 year old daughter was just gross. 
 

I love the scene in the season 1 episode where Jake lets seagulls into the house and Charlie, armed with chum and wearing a raincoat, enters the bedroom to lure them out of the window. We don’t see a thing, only hearing squeaking and screaming yet I can perfectly picture birds swooping down on Charlie from all angles while he cowers in terror. 
 

Or Jake standing in the pouring rain holding his soccer ball or dressed as Ben Franklin with his Tweetie Bird kite because his father and uncle forgot about him. Charlie was actually a pretty good uncle in that episode, getting the costume and attending the play and telling Jake how hard his dad worked. 
 

Or Jake’s disastrous dinner at Evelyn’s. “He broke her. He is obviously the Chosen One”. Or Allen falling off the roof and everyone asking “why didn’t you just call the guy?”

At its best the show was so much more than cheap sex jokes and smutty themes. 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Ria

[WinnieWinkle]

13 hours ago, Ria said:

At its best the show was so much more than cheap sex jokes and smutty themes. 

Absolutely!  The early years were very well written - and well acted.  I have my complaints about the way all the characters were portrayed over the years but the strength of the show, and why I started watching initially, was the for the stories that focused on Charlie and Jake.  Very, very well done and very funny.

[dttruman]

17 hours ago, Ria said:

Or Jake standing in the pouring rain holding his soccer ball or dressed as Ben Franklin with his Tweetie Bird kite because his father and uncle forgot about him. Charlie was actually a pretty good uncle in that episode, getting the costume and attending the play and telling Jake how hard his dad worked. 
 

Or Jake’s disastrous dinner at Evelyn’s. “He broke her. He is obviously the Chosen One”. Or Allen falling off the roof and everyone asking “why didn’t you just call the guy?”

I think the producers and writers used the last 2-3 years to experiment with the different dynamics using "the cheap sex jokes and smutty themes"  to see what was acceptable, humorous, and distasteful to everyone.

In the first couple of seasons of the show I thought some women's groups would protest it or even call for boycotts of the sponsors, because of Charlie's deliberate womanizing. But those episodes were written so well that the female characters knew what they were getting into or the writers made up stories about ex-girlfriends try to shoot him with a bow, run him over and so on, which made it funny and Charlie likable.

Anyway the first 5-6 seasons were the best and it started to slowly lose it's quality and popularity after that.

[readster]

On 6/29/2021 at 8:13 AM, WinnieWinkle said:

It's gotten to the point for me where I have to decide when to stop watching the show as seeing young Jake, who was sweet at first and still not totally obnoxious for a few years after that, turn into the Jake of the later years of the show is just painful.  I've ranted elsewhere about the sexualization of young girls on TV sitcoms because I feel like when they hit the age of 12 the writers just can't figure out what to do with them - a similar thing happened to poor Jake.  He hit his teen years and the writers decided "hey I know let's make him the stupidest teenager who ever walked the land" rather than trying to write, you know a real kid.

The actor playing Jake protested about the skeevy plotlines on the show but IMO he should also have been protesting about the awful way they portrayed teenagers on that show!

How true and it was like they kept taking shots at their own crappy writing. Alan asked Jake one time, when he was going to summer school "again". With Jake replying: "I guess that's who I am." I remember once episode towards the end before Charlie left where he looked at Jake and went: "Who are you and why are you this dumb?" 

[Kiddvideo]

Teddy’s wedding vows crack me up every time. “And the lovemaking. What can I say about the lovemaking.”

[NoReally]

8 hours ago, Kiddvideo said:

Teddy’s wedding vows crack me up every time. “And the lovemaking. What can I say about the lovemaking.”

Then: "I can't say this."

Evelyn: "If you don't, I will"