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Chuck Lorre is a comedic genius with a plethora of projects like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Bookie to his name. However, the veteran showrunner had a long road to reach where he is right now.
Chuck Lorre was the showrunner of The Big Bang Theory | Credits: Chuck Lorre ProductionsFrom pitching a show to writing the scripts in a week and a half, Chuck Lorre has done it all. For Two and a Half Men, however, iconic star Charlie Sheen was the driving force behind the funny script of the show.
Charlie Sheen was the driving force for Chuck Lorre
It was in the early 2000s when showrunner Chuck Lorre got the idea for a sitcom. This sitcom had two (and a half) central characters featuring a rich, decadent playboy who is forced to live with his brother and his nephew.
Charlie Sheen in a still from Two and a Half Men | Credits: Chuck Lorre ProductionsHowever, when Lorre had initially thought of the idea, a script wasn’t made and Lorre was in a meeting to cast Charlie Sheen in the lead role. The showrunner revealed that he had kept the role of Charlie Harper while keeping the image of Charlie Sheen in mind.
Well, in an interview (shared on FoundationInterviews), Chuck Lorre talked about how the show came to be. Lorre further revealed that since there wasn’t a script ready he had to wrap things up quickly because Sheen wouldn’t agree to the project without seeing a script first.
We presented the idea to CBS and they said ‘It’s a cool idea. Who would you see in the lead’ and we went ‘Well, it’s kind of a Charlie Sheen kinda character’.
He further continued,
We pitched them [Sheen and his representative] the idea and we didn’t have a script. We just had the idea. He [Charlie Sheen] said ‘I can’t make a decision without seeing a script’ so Lee and I sat down in a room for about a week and a half and wrote a script.
The irony of this timeframe was that when Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn sat down to write the script, the whole story was over during those two weeks wherein they wrote the script.
For a sitcom, they needed to do better and have more episodes with fillers and punchlines that connected with the audience. As a result, Chuck Lorre created a whole other character that became world-famous for her antics.
Charlie Sheen gave birth to Evelyn Harper
Well… not like that, but because Charlie Sheen demanded a script and Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn created it in two weeks, and the story needed more characters and fletched out scenes of comedy.
Sheen’s demand resulted in Holland Taylor’s character | Credits: Chuck Lorre ProductionsTo introduce more fun to the story, Lorre further revealed in the interview that the character of Evelyn Harper was created. Mother of Charlie Harper, she appeared in a total of 98 episodes with fans loving her character.
[We] realized that we’d run out of story by the act break. So, we introduced the mom, Holland Taylor’s character, and it all came amazingly together. We sent it to Charlie on a Friday and on Monday he called us and said ‘I’m in’.
Well, the genius and brevity of Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen certainly fit amazingly well as Two and a Half Men went on to find worldwide fame and critical acclaim.
The show ran for 12 seasons (after closing down due to some issues) but received a strong rating of 7.1/10 on IMDb and an average of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. With Charlie Sheen in the leading role, the iconic American sitcom is available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.
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