In the News: What's Going on with Charlie Sheen?

Charlie Sheen on "Two and a Half Men"
Credit: CBS

The situation involving Charlie Sheen is a huge mess to everyone involved. This post is going to break down what happened, what caused the show to be stopped, and I'm going to try to guess what's going to happen from here. All that and more on how much of a a-hole Charlie Sheen is are after the jump.


To say Charlie Sheen has problems is an understatement. Last year, after beating his wife, he entered rehab as a preventative measure. He wasn't there for long but Two and a Half Men lost two episodes. Later that year, he was found in a hotel room where he drank alcohol, took cocaine, and caused $7,000 worth of damage. Then there was the night in vegas where he slept with porn stars. Then he was taken to the hospital after suffering "severe abdominal pain". This led him to enter at home rehab. This halted production on the show which lost four episodes over this. The show was scheduled to resume production on Monday to for four more episodes.

Then Charlie Sheen went onto "The Alex Jones Show". On the show he went on a tirade against Two and a Half Men executive producer and creator Chuck Lorre. He called him "Chiam Levine" (which is considered by many to be antisemitic) and went on to say “I violently hate Chaim Levine.  He's a stupid, stupid little man and a pussy punk that I'd never want to be like. That's me being polite." He also went on to say "That piece of shit [Lorre] took money out of my pocket, my family's pocket, and, most importantly, my second family—my crew's pocket. You can tell him one thing. I own him." He also called Alcoholics Anonymous  a "bootleg cult" with a 5 percent success rate, compared to the Sheen method which has an 100 percent success rate. He also called everyone he deals with "fools and trolls" and called Thomas Jefferson a "p*ssy."

This seemed to be the last straw for Warner Bros. and CBS. Later that day they shut down production on the remaining four episodes and released this statement "Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen’s statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Brothers Television have decided to discontinue production of ‘Two and a Half Men’ for the remainder of the season.”

Sheen then went on to write this letter to TMZ:

What does this say about Haim Levine after he tried to use his words to judge and attempt to degrade me. I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows... I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can't handle my power and can't handle the truth. I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words—imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists. I urge all my beautiful and loyal fans who embraced this show for almost a decade to walk with me side-by-side as we march up the steps of justice to right this unconscionable wrong.

Remember these are my people ... not yours...we will continue on together...

Charlie Sheen

He's been all over the place, on many radio shows giving interviews, and checking in with TMZ every day, sending another statement saying he'll be showing up to work on Monday morning. He's also scheduled to give an interview with ABC this Tuesday. 


Probably more important to the television landscape, especially at CBS, is what happens to the show Two and a Half Men. Sheen clearly will never make another episode of the show. The question is does the show ever make another episode without Sheen. Many people say no, they think that Sheen is too important to the show and they have quoted what Chuck Lorre has said in the past, which is that he will never make "One and a Half Men". If this is true, and CBS and WB can't convince him to make the show without Sheen, then she show will never make another episode. Lorre is too important to them becasuse he has created other hits for them (The Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly) and they want him to continue creating hits.


On the other hand, there's a lot of money involved. If next season never is made, CBS and WB will lose about $250 million in revenue (CBS gets ad money which is worth $200,000 per 30 second spot, WB gets syndication money, which is about $3 million per episode). I think that they two parties will be able to work out something where the show exists next season in some form (whether it's with another actor or without the "Charlie" type character all together). The show is worth too much money to be thrown away.  We probably won't know until May what's going to happen to the show.


This is a very messy situation that is going to continue playing out over the next few weeks.


What do you think about the situation? Do you think the show should end? How bad of a man is Sheen?

(I'd like to thank my sources for the information present in this post: The AV Club, and the New York Times!)