Call in the mind readers. It’s confirmed: Chuck Lorre has “cooked up something fabulous” to get rid of Charlie Sheen’s character on ‘Two and a Half Men’ and replace Charlie Harper with a new character played by Ashton Kutcher, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler told reporters on Wednesday. But no one but Mr. Lorre knows exactly how the switcheroo will work. From Dick Wolf killing off ‘Law & Order’ star Michael Moriarty to Marc Cherry’s graphic disposal of Nicollette Sheridan on ‘Desperate Housewives,’ Mr. Lorre won’t be the first show runner to replace an allegedly difficult but beloved actor. Just how well Lorre can seamlessly write Kutcher into the show, and Sheen out of it, could determine whether ‘Two and a Half Men’ can keep attracting record audiences or will fizzle out in coming seasons. This week at the annual up-fronts when networks pitch their shows to advertisers, CBS announced it’s renewing two more Lorre sitcoms, ‘Mike & Molly’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory.’
Even if the network or studio know what Mr. Lorre is planning, it could change a dozen times before the episode is shot, says Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, which makes ‘Two and a Half Men.’ The sitcom producer has been known to tweak the script in mid-shoot if a joke or scene doesn’t get a laugh from the live audience. “Even if Chuck solidified what he wants to do, things change constantly, scripts change, from a Monday script to a Friday table read to the shoot,” Mr. Roth says.
