According to a source, Les Moonves was determined to bring the show back and was in discussions with Warner Bros. Television, which produces the show and which fired Sheen earlier this month, in an attempt to rebuild the numerous bridges burned between the ranting actor and the California-based program staff.
They included the "Men" co-creator and executive producer Chuck Lorre, who Sheen deemed a "contaminated little maggot" before hitting him with a $100 million lawsuit, and its staff, described by the former movie star as "trolls."
"Moonves wants to get the show back on the air. He's all for it," the insider said. "He says certain people need to forget anything and everything Charlie's done recently and just move on with the business at hand."
The source added, "The core issue is, as he put it, the volatile relationship between Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre. He believes that if CBS and Warner Bros. TV honchos can find a way to get Chuck and Charlie to speak again, cooler heads will prevail."
While Warner Bros TV may want to make Chuck Lorre happy, as he produces a number of their shows including "the Big Bang Theory," Les Moonves has to deliver ratings. His Monday night schedule looks like junk, on toast, without Charlie Sheen. Rob Lowe or Scott Baio are not going to deliver viewers like Sheen will, even if Sheen is half-crazed most of the time. CBS affiliates are on the warpath, demanding something be done. If Sheen can be propped up by cranes, pills, and on-set doctors, for another two years or so, he will be.
Don't be shocked if Warners and Chuck Lorre come to a parting of the ways. It has happened before. Lauren Graham, star of "Gilmore Girls" (yes, you are saying "who?") got the show-runner and creator (one Amy Sherman-Palladino) fired because she did not like the creative direction of the show (a romance between her character and a beta male character, one she thought "unworthy.") Kiefer Sutherland got "24" creator and producer Joel Surnow fired, out of PC creative concerns. [Surnow wanted more conservative themes, Sutherland is quite liberal.] On TV, stars generally rule. People don't tune into see producers. Replacing the actor who originally played "Darren" on "Bewitched" was nearly fifty years ago. In todays fragmented TV audience, a star is even more valuable.
Even if he's a walking time bomb. Which Sheen is, undoubtedly. Don't be surprised if Sheen ends up back on Two and A Half Men, and Lorre is given his walking papers. There's a lot of money involved, I don't see CBS continuing Two and A Half Men without Sheen. Warner Bros. TV must make Moonves happy. Moonves in turn must make shareholders, his bosses, and affiliates happy, which means ratings. Which means, Charlie Sheen. Sheen may be crazy. But he knows who has the most power, between him and Chuck Lorre. It's not Lorre.
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26 comments:
"Lauren Graham, star of "Gilmore Girls" (yes, you are saying "who?") got the show-runner and creator (one Amy Sherman-Palladino) fired because she did not like the creative direction of the show (a romance between her character and a beta male character, one she thought "unworthy.")"
Holy crap. Seriously? That's what happened? Do you have sources for that? (The beta being the coffee shop owner, right?)
... yes I am a straight guy and yes I watched Gilmore Girls DON'T JUDGE ME
Remember, Whiskey, like Maximus says, Charlie Sheen is fighting the Devil!
Charlie Sheen's coup d'etat is complete. I really have to admire the guy. Most people would be groveling to get their jobs back. Instead he disparaged his employers mercilessly. Admittedly he's loaded and unlike "normal people" but even in Hollywood circles most would not have had the gumption to do what he did.
I don't watch network television or follow stars, but I've caught myself up on Sheen, mainly because his crazy clips have flooded my inbox. What I've noticed, that many fail to see, is that he "sobers up" for tough questions. His quick-change reminds me of the A-Team's Murdock: you know the guy is completely insane, yet his actions seem to drive him right to his goals and, every now and then, some extremely lucid speech and actions make you question just how crazy he is. Sheen will wax megalomaniac and then ratchet down to have a sincere, well thought out, response...makes you wonder if the rest isn't just as well thought out.
Well I hope he does, sorely missing 2.5 men from the list of boring soaps to watch to kill time.
"... yes I am a straight guy and yes I watched Gilmore Girls DON'T JUDGE ME "
Too late.
That's what happened to make season five of the Gilmore Girls so awful? I'm with Rollory: source?
Since you've judged him, let me remain anon.
After a show has run long enough you really don't need the original writers. It may require a genius to come up with a winning premise, set of characters, pace and style of dialogue, etc. but once its well established any number of available writers can easily replicate the feel of the show in new episodes. I think fan fiction is a testament to that.
Look at Seinfeld, where despite the name the creative writing genius was really Larry David. He didn't write for the final season, but the ratings were higher than any previous season.
A real man would have got on his hands and knees and begged master for forgiveness.
Chicks dig that.
What women wouldn't want to partake of the immense reproductive value offered by a groveling slave animal?
Rollory -- that inside rumor was reported in DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, a few other places. I wasn't on set or anything but yeah that's what happened. Yeah the beta guy was the coffee shop owner. I think Television Without Pity also had that rumor.
It was weird to see Sherman-Palladino fired over ostensibly, money. And the new guy cater to Lauren Graham's Alpha Male fantasies. It certainly worked, most of the female fanbase loved the sidelining of the male lead for the new guy, some rich dude Alpha.
Let me add the trajectory of Gilmore Girls is fascinating. As is female-oriented TV in general, in what it tells you about what women in aggregate want.
Originally, the show was conceived as a sponsor-driven (Campbell Soup) "wholesome" family show about a struggling single mom and her drive to get her kid into a prestigious college and re-connect with her parents. SWPL bait, in other words, with "wholesome" family lessons palatable to Campbell's soup.
The show within the second season became a soap opera relationship driven deal, and got higher ratings to boot. Who was sleeping with whom, with the beta male guy on the outside looking in. Very revealing. A complete woman's fantasy, and just as revealing was the sidelining of the struggle to get the daughter into Harvard.
So that's what happened to "24". I loved the first 5 seasons. I only watched season 6 in hope Janine Garaflo would meet some horrific end. Season 7, we barely made it through 2 episodes.
I thought you said sheen was losing and acting beta, criticizing his bosses etc. guess you were wrong.
Les Moonves wants Charlie Sheen back on Two and a Half Men. I knew it!
Wait you already made a post where you claimed Sheen had shown himself to be old, weak and non Alpha.
Now magically Sheen is an all powerful Alpha man and all submit to his greatness.
And it's a bit of a stretch to claim a drug addict who over pays prostitutes and porn stars for sex is a true alpha male.
Meanwhile these same women are having sex with men who are paid to have sex with them.
Sheen isn't an alpha he's just a rich beta who is playing at being an alpha.
He's no more an alpha than he is a Vietnam vet, Wall street tycoon or any other character he pretends to be in films.
Well everyone, the one conclusion we can come to is that Whiskey is DEFINITELY a BETA....and a rather weird and pathetic version of such. And honestly, fuck man...Gillmore Girls???!!!! Yes Rollory I do judge you as a complete pussy faggot...not for watching Gilmore Girls though, more so for being a Whiskey fanboy.
I have always liked Charlie Sheen's attitude about things. I remember years ago some high profile Madam got busted and her clientele were outed by the media. Most of them were high-earners, and people of influence, and most of them grovelled and snivelled to the media about how sorry they were.
Not Charlie.
When confronted about it, he basically left the media reeling with "Yeah, I'm a client...So F*cking What?"
As far as 2.5 men is concerned, I hate that show. I think it's beneath him to be on it. I can't stand Jon Cryer and his wussy mangina attitude, and that kid is just waste product.
Do something else, Charlie.
Sheen did look old, wasted, and crazy. That did not change. BUT ... and there is a big BUT.
BUT he has made himself a public spectacle. Oh sure, women no longer long for him, as the tamable bad boy he was before. Crazy and sick are not sexy (Sheen was Alpha, in that most women would say "I'd hit it") Now he no longer is Alpha. Crazy and sick is not sexy.
But the publicity angle and ratings galore he'll pull is something else. Moonves lost the NFL on Sundays, affiliates are likely screaming bloody murder, what is he going to put on, Scott Baio on the show?
Lets get real, the trainwreck that is Charlie Sheen will pull in 30 million viewers tops, to that sitcom. Particularly if they work in "winning" and tiger blood and adonis DNA into the dialog for Sheen.
Gilmore Girls? I followed it closely because women and female culture are worthy of intense study and scrutiny. What they like, what they don't like, "wholesome" vs. soap opera, beta vs. Alpha male. You can learn a lot by what women say they want, and what they actually want and respond to.
It was a decent family type show for a few seasons. I definitely noticed the increase in soap-style relationship drama as it went on, but the early seasons were totally charming. I only saw a few episodes of the last season (including part of the finale, I think), they had pretty much lost me by then.
In retrospect, also, it's interesting to note how Rory goes from the car mechanic boyfriend to the rich playboy boyfriend (who is also the son of a rich playboy).
I remember thinking during the finale that there was no way any of these couples were headed for a happily ever after, when the previous relationships - the ones set up early in the show's arc, as potential that was clearly intended to (and did, for a while) develop over time - were so much better.
@7:48: your power of argumentation, the weight of your evidence, and your ability to recognize a joke, are all beyond compare.
What is Sheen's net worth? Why does he even WANT to work any more? Anyway, that show was about done already. I say pull the plug and move on.
It's all about the money. Very smart move by Sheen's agent for drawing complete media attention to this issue. It highlights how Sheen is an asset more than liability, additionally this move will draw more viewers to his show.
Look at all the dirt he has done to women. He makes Chris brown and Kayne West look like choir boys.
There isn't that much alpha in the world Whiskey. Sheen is disturbed, truly disturbed. I have no idea why Americans find this sort of thing amusing.
To witness another human being undergoing a mental meltdown and cheer on his decent into madness like a gladiator match says what about our culture or society??? Can we say that we've officially become a dystopia of epic proportions (hi rose)???
I wonder if France has an equivalent to the Charlie Sheen fiasco?
I guess Charlie Sheen is wining after all.
* chic noir shrugs shoulders and lets out a deep sigh*
rollory yes I am a straight guy and yes I watched Gilmore Girls DON'T JUDGE ME
Word around the chateau is you're a major fanboy of the ladies from The View.
Someone said that you once mentioned that the thought of Joy Behar in a thong made you feel combustible.
Why France, specifically?
And, as far as I know, they don't.
Beta male? Me? Of course! Nearly all men, all the time, are beta males at best. After all, by definition, only 10% or less of men can be Alpha. Just as only 5% or less of women can be drop dead beautiful.
Sheen's public meltdown is of course, something the (mostly) female viewing public enjoys: Celebrity Rehab, Surreal Life, etc.
Rollory said...
Why France, specifically?
And, as far as I know, they don't.
Yup, because the French find this sort of thing distasteful.
"I wonder if France has an equivalent to the Charlie Sheen fiasco?"
Well, there is John Galliano . . .
Does nobody else suspect that Sheen may be doing a 'Joaquim'?
I saw the begining of Scary Movie 3 on the BBC last night and he has aged more than I'd expect since then.
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