In a November 2012 interview with a Christian website, Angus T. Jones said he had recently converted to Christianity and joined a Seventh-day Adventist church. He attacked the show as "filth that contradicts his moral values" and said that he was sick of being a part of it. Producers explained that Jones was not expected back on the set until 2013, because his character was not scheduled to appear in the final two episodes before the winter hiatus.
The role of youngest family member was filled by Amber Tamblyn, who plays Jenny, the long-lost illegitimate daughter of Charlie Harper, and later by Edan Alexander, who plays Louis, Walden Schmidt's adopted son. On March 18, 2014, Angus T. Jones officially announced his departure from the show by stating that he had been "a paid hypocrite". Nevertheless, he appeared in a cameo in the series finale on February 19, 2015. Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper (seasons 1–8), a hedonistic bachelor, former rock musician-turned-jingle/children's songwriter, Alan's brother, Jake's uncle, and Jenny's father. Despite his arrogant and rambunctious demeanor, he does possess a kind heart, though he very rarely shows it. He is written out of the series at the beginning of season nine, after being pushed in front of a train and killed offscreen, due to Charlie Sheen being fired from the show.
In the episode "Why We Gave Up Women", Charlie's ghost, portrayed by Kathy Bates, visits Alan, and is forced to spend eternity in hell as a woman with a pair of testicles. He has a daughter named Jenny, whose existence he never disclosed to his family. In season 11, she resurfaces as an adult, but has no idea he had died.
The series finale abandons the idea that Charlie is deceased by revealing that Rose faked his death and held him prisoner in a pit for four years. Jon Cryer as Alan Harper, Charlie's younger brother, a struggling chiropractor, Jake's twice-divorced father, Walden's best friend, and Jenny's uncle. State Long Beach but continually stricken with bad luck due to poor choices and mistakes, which are due to a lifetime of suffering from Charlie's abuse and Evelyn's neglect, as well as favoring Charlie over him. In the 12th and final season, Alan agrees to "marry" Walden for the latter to adopt a child, and for months, the two pretend to be a gay couple.
In the series' penultimate episode, Walden and Alan end the marriage as Walden had successfully adopted a six-year-old named Louis. Alan finally proposes to Lyndsey and agrees to marry her in the final episodes. Cryer is the only cast member who appears in all 262 episodes of the series. Parents need to know that this adult-oriented comedy pins most of its jokes on references to alcohol and sex. One character's promiscuous behavior is played for laughs, and episodes have implied oral sex, masturbation, etc. Characters also use words like "assface," "peckerhead," "bitch," etc.
Female role models are scarce, and most women are portrayed as controlling, confused, or desperate. There are also jokes about a woman questioning her sexual orientation and a running gag about a single woman being a stalker. Star of the first eight seasons, Charlie Sheen, is often in the news for real-life behavior involving violence, drugs, prostitution, and family drama. At the end of the ninth season, Jake joins the US Army; he appears occasionally during season 10, briefly dating Tammy , who is 17 years his senior and has three kids, as well as Tammy's daughter Ashley . In the 10th season, Walden proposes to his English girlfriend Zoey , only to be turned down, and discovers she has another man.
Meanwhile, Alan gets engaged to his girlfriend Lyndsey, while Judith leaves her second husband Herb Melnick after he cheats on her with his receptionist . Alan and Lyndsey's relationship of three years ends as she wants to move on. Rose returns and briefly dates Walden, later stalking him as she did to Charlie. Walden begins to date a poor but ambitious woman named Kate (Brooke D'Orsay) and changes his name to "Sam Wilson", pretending to be poor to find someone who wants him for him, not for his money.
They later break up when he reveals who he really is, though Kate realizes that Walden's money helped her become a successful clothing designer. Jake announces he is being shipped to Japan for at least a year, so Alan and he go on a father-son bonding trip. Other than a cameo in the series finale, this is the last time Jake appears on the show, though verbal references are made to him. Angus T. Jones played the "half man" in Two and a Half Men, Jake, Alan Harper's son.
He became the highest paid child actor on TV at age 17, but then voiced his desire to leave the series after forging down a religious path in real life. Jones eventually left the series, but returned for the series finale in 2015. External linksWebsiteTwo and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS for twelve seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. Originally starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the series was about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper, his uptight brother, Alan, and Alan's mischievous son, Jake. After Alan divorces, he and Jake move into Charlie's beachfront Malibu house and complicate Charlie's freewheeling life.
Television reached a multiyear broadcasting agreement for the series, renewing it through at least the 2011–12 season. In February 2011, however, CBS and Warner Bros. decided to end production for the rest of the eighth season after Sheen entered drug rehabilitation and made "disparaging" comments about the series' creator and executive producer Chuck Lorre. Sheen's contract was terminated the following month and he was written out of the show after it was confirmed that he would not be returning to the series.
Ashton Kutcher was hired to replace him the following season as Walden Schmidt, a billionaire who buys Charlie's house after his death. The entire hour was dedicated to the out-of-nowhere idea that Charlie — killed in France, per an explanation in Season 9 — was still alive. We learn that he has spent the last four years living in a dungeon built by his former stalker turned current wife turned kidnapper (long story; not worth it) and now, recently escaped, he plans to kill both Alan and Walden. Sheen himself never shows up,Lorre tried to get him involved, at least.[/footnote] but a look-alike does and, suddenly, we see a piano, absurdly delivered by a helicopter, fall down and crush him to death. The camera pans back to break the fourth wall and reveal a smirking Lorre in a director's chair. That is the impossibly lame way the show ended after 12 seasons, once again offering something so ridiculous it defies scrutiny.
In a role that brought her two Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actress in a comedy series, Ms. Ferrell appeared as Berta in more than 200 episodes between 2003 and 2015. (Ashton Kutcher replaced Mr. Sheen in the last four seasons.) Her Berta was a merciless, unshakable, ungrammatical old hippie with an expansive knowledge of the phone numbers of local drug dealers. She gave other characters unwelcome nicknames (Zippy for Charlie's brother, Alan, played by Jon Cryer; Fatal Attraction for Rose, the neighborhood stalker, played by Melanie Lynskey). Charlie Sheen was one of the original "men" in Two and a Half Men, playing Charlie Harper in the first eight seasons of the CBS sitcom opposite Jon Cryer as his on-screen brother.
Sheen entered drug treatment and the eighth season was cut short, and he famously clashed with executive producer Chuck Lorre in the press and social media, resulting in his dismissal from the series (and the coinage of the phrases "winning" and "tiger's blood"). His character was killed off and later played as a ghost by Kathy Bates. During the season 9 premiere, Charlie was said to have died after falling in front of a train on vacation in Paris with his stalker neighbor, Rose . After his death, Charlie's house was sold to Walden Schmidt , who allowed Alan and Jake to continue living there, creating a modern family of sorts. — ultimately revealed that Charlie had been alive all along but kept prisoner by Rose.
After managing to escape, he returned to his oceanside home, only to have a piano fall on him, leaving him dead once and for all without ever reuniting with Alan and Jake. Angus T. Jones as Jake Harper (seasons 1–10; guest, season 12), the slacker son of Alan and Judith, and older half-brother (or brother, if Alan's paternity claim is to be believed) of Milly, and cousin of Jenny. In season one, episode 17 ("Ate the Hamburgers, Wearing the Hats"), his real name is revealed to actually be Jacob. As he grows older, he changes from a rather bright, independent child into a dimwitted buffoon. At the end of season 10, he announces that he is going to Japan for a year.
Despite his absence, he is mentioned often in seasons 11 and 12 and makes an uncredited cameo via archive footage in season 12, as well as returning briefly in person in the series finale. Conchata Ferrell as Berta (seasons 2–12; recurring, season 1), the family's outspoken housekeeper and close family friend. She shows great animosity towards Alan and Jake, while she adores Charlie and later, Walden. During the Kutcher years, her role was increased on the show, appearing in more episodes.
The role was originally only intended for a two-episode arc in the first season, in which she would leave as a result of Alan and his son moving in. Throughout the series, Alan continues to deal with his son Jake's growing up, and the aftermath of his divorce, while having little success with women. His marriage to Kandi at the end of the third season was short-lived. In the fourth season, Alan is back at the beach house paying alimony to two women out of his meager earnings as a chiropractor.
In the seventh season, he begins a relationship with Lyndsey McElroy (Courtney Thorne-Smith), the mother of one of Jake's friends. Their relationship is temporarily suspended when Alan cheats on her and accidentally burns down her house, but the relationship eventually resumes. The series revolved initially around the life of the Harper brothers Charlie and Alan, and Alan's son Jake. Charlie is a bachelor who writes commercial jingles for a living while leading a hedonistic lifestyle. When Alan's wife, Judith, decides to divorce him, he moves into Charlie's Malibu beach house (due to Charlie's selfishly scorning Alan's female divorce-lawyer) with Jake coming to stay over the weekends. Charlie's housekeeper is Berta , a sharp-tongued woman who initially resists the change to the household, but grudgingly accepts it.
Charlie's one-night stand Rose was first introduced as his stalker in the pilot episode. The most fascinating thing about Two and a Half Men is that all of the critical complaints are about the same notes that make it popular. The very point of the show is that there isn't anything intelligent or deep happening; you won't miss anything if you skip a week, or even a season.
It also means that it appeals to viewers who don't necessarily demand complex story lines but instead are happy to keep their sitcoms simple, to be told when to laugh and for how long. Men — and I'm sure some women — love to entertain the notion that maybe they, too, can be Charlie Harper, a man who wears a bowling shirt and khaki shorts but manages to get every single woman he glances at. They want the fat royalty checks for doing minimum work (Charlie wrote cheesy jingles; Walden is an Internet billionaire), they want the huge beach house with the beautiful view of the ocean.
But those things aren't attainable, of course, so instead we watch these characters every week, patiently wading through the endless jokes about Alan's impotence or Charlie's collection of STDs. He went from being a down-on-his-luck man who felt bad about sponging off Charlie to doing literally anything for money, and caring less and less about his son as the series progressed (although that isn't entirely unwarranted). With the addition of Walden to the cast, Alan's nebbish traits have gotten upped to eleven, with him making no effort to find a place of his own or get a job and relying on Walden for money. It's gotten so bad that he was completely willing to go gay and marry Walden if it meant that he could stay at the house. His moral compass has also dissolved completely, giving in to sex with a philandering Lyndsey without remorse and generally acting as selfish as Charlie in some episodes.
Ladies' man Charlie Harper is living the good life as a successful jingle writer in a seaside mansion in Los Angeles. That is, until his nerdy brother Alan , who was thrown out by his ex-wife, moves in, bringing his ten-year-old son Jake (Angus T. Jones). Sadly, however, Charlie's womanizing nature eventually catches up with him in 2011 when he catches a train the hard way.
Enter suicidal billionaire Walden Schmidt as the new owner of Charlie's home. After quickly becoming friends with Alan, he continues to let him and Jake live with him while they get over the loss of Charlie. Charlie's ability to coast through life coupled with Alan's excessively uptight nature lead to them butting heads frequently. From the ninth season, Charlie dies while living overseas, and his house is bought by Internet billionaire Walden Schmidt. However, rather than kick Charlie and Jake out, he invites them to live with him, and the three form something of a makeshift family.
Things took an unexpected turn at the end of season 8 when Sheen started behaving erratically in real life. The Harper brothers Charlie and Alan are almost opposites but form a great team. They have little in common except their dislike for their mundane, maternally cold and domineering mother, Evelyn.
Alan, a compulsively neat chiropractor and control-freak, is thrown out by his manipulative wife Judith who nevertheless gets him to pay for everything and do most jobs in the house. Charlie is a freelance jingle composer and irresistible Cassanova who lives in a luxurious beach-house and rarely gets up before noon. Charlie "temporarily" allows Alan and his son Jake, a food-obsessed, lazy kid who shuttles between his parents, to move in with them after Alan's separation/divorce. The sitcom revolves around their conflicting lifestyles, raising Jake (who has the efficient, caring dad while having a ball with his fun-loving sugar uncle who teaches him boyish things), and bantering with Evelyn and various other friends and family. Other fairly regular characters include Charlie's cleaning lady Berta and his rich, self-confessed stalker neighbor Rose who often sneaks in to spy on Charlie. Charlie Sheen's real-life brother Emilio Estevez has guest-starred as an old friend of Charlie's; his father Martin Sheen has appeared as Rose's father.
Sam Sheen, the real-life daughter of Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen, appeared as Lisa's daughter on November 22, 2004. Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher's fiancée and later wife, appeared on the show as his love interest in season 11. Melanie Lynskey as Rose (seasons 1–2; recurring, seasons 3–12), the Harpers' strange neighbor and Charlie's stalker and friend. Initially, Charlie hated Rose and wanted nothing to do with her, but eventually they became friends and he later fell in love with her.
In the ninth-season premiere, Rose claimed that Charlie "slipped" in front of a Paris Métro train after she had caught him cheating on her. She was later seen taking Bridget Schmidt under her wing as an apprentice stalker, but this storyline was eventually aborted. After formally meeting Walden at the local tavern, Rose rushed into a relationship with him, and caused her ferrets to attack Walden and Alan when Walden broke up with her. Naturally, she continues to stalk Walden, as well as the Harpers, despite Charlie's apparent death.
In the finale, she is revealed to have kept Charlie imprisoned in a pit for four years. Ashton Kutcher as Walden Schmidt (seasons 9–12), Alan's best friend, roommate, and ephemeral husband. A friendly, hopelessly romantic internet tycoon, he is a billionaire despite being somewhat immature and naïve for most of his life. During his time in the household, he grows into a responsible adult and forms close friendships with Jake, Herb, Berta, Judith, Evelyn, and Jenny.
He also serves as a surrogate uncle figure to Jake, in place of Charlie. In the 12th season, Walden decides to reprioritize his life after a health scare by deciding to adopt a baby. He realizes that the only way to do this is to be married, but does not know anyone who will do it, so he asks Alan to marry him and pretend that they are a gay couple, thus ensuring success at adopting. Jenny moves out of the house and moves in with Evelyn due to Walden and Alan preparing to adopt.
They adopt an African American child, Louis , and subsequently divorce to pursue relationships with women. Alan proposes to Lyndsey a second time, and she accepts, while Walden begins a relationship with Louis' social worker, Ms. McMartin . Charlie is revealed to be still alive, having been kept prisoner by Rose until escaping, but he is killed before he can reunite with Walden and Alan. It's an Odd Couple in today's world -- single dad, self-involved bachelor brother/uncle, and precocious kid.
Add to that a soon-to-be ex-wife questioning her sexuality, an overtly emotional mother , and a neighbor who's a full-time stalker, and you've got a real nut house packed into 30 minutes. With Mel Brooks' pen it might work, but instead, Two and a Half Men falls into the dreaded sitcom trap of predictable story lines about boys chasing girls, and lame jokes about hookers and phone sex. In fact, if it weren't for some scene-stealing secondary characters -- including Taylor's turn as the brothers' self-absorbed mother and Lynskey's spot-on portrayal of the bubbly stalker-next-door -- the show would be a total waste of time.
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