Upon Charlie Sheen’s dramatic firing from Two and a Half Men, many felt the sitcom was as good as over. But as the story goes, Chuck Lorre and the crew bounced back by bringing in Walden Schmidt as Harper’s replacement. Although Ashton Kutcher did prove to be a good match for Jon Cryer’s Alan, the show never reached its previous heights post-Sheen’s exclusion.
It also didn’t help that the sitcom ended on a pretty bizarre note, which many felt was an insult to viewers who had invested a substantial portion of their time in the sitcom.
Two and a Half Men finale was absurd, even by the sitcom’s standards
In hindsight, the humor of Chuck Lorre‘s Two and a Half Men hasn’t translated well into the modern climate, and it’s very much a product of its time. But this isn’t to say the show doesn’t have its moments, and at its peak, the show was unanimously beloved by many for its comedic bits. Unfortunately, the finale, and the final season in general, was a major letdown, even by the deteriorating standards of its previous installments.
A sizeable portion of the fandom absolutely loathed Alan’s abrupt marriage to Walden, who, despite being straight, opted to tie the knot to secure an adoption. Many weren’t fond of the desexualization of gay relationships, and some argued it trivialized the struggle for marriage equality at the time. Unsurprisingly, according to Jon Cryer, the resolution to their story originally started as one of their dumb ideas. He recalled (via Larry King Now):
Originally, that was one of their stupid ideas because the writers always come up with stupid ideas in the room that are sort of the dumb things they throw out.
This wasn’t the lone controversial aspect of the finale, as the resolution to Charlie Harper also proved to be pretty divisive.
Chuck Lorre initially intended to bring back Charlie Sheen for the finale
Given how things initially concluded between Sheen and Chuck Lorre, a reunion at the time was completely out of the cards. However, for the finale, Lorre did attempt to tie Sheen back for Charlie Harper’s resolution, who was eventually crushed by a piano.
Interestingly, the writer had planned an elaborate absurd monologue for Harper, which never came to fruition as Sheen refused to return to the show. Lorre recalled (via Entertainment Weekly):
He would then explain that these dangers only apply to average people. That he was far from average. He was a ninja warrior from Mars. He was invincible. And then we would drop a piano on him.
Similar to fans, the Platoon star wasn’t too thrilled by the ending and publicly took shots at the showrunner. Fortunately, the duo reconciled several years later, and Sheen himself has changed his ways for the better.
Two and a Half Men is available to stream on Max.
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