LG, pretty rare that I go against "the grain" (you) here but I generally agree with Stone River here.
What does Sheen care, he will still make money from the show even when he is not on it. Lorre was lucky to have Sheen and I have a feeling that he and CBS will deeply regret firing him.
I believe you're right about the money thing because I'm guessing he gets compensated for reruns aired in syndication. At least I assume he does.
In the meantime, CBS does regret canning Charlie in that there are suddenly a lot of broadcasting hours to fill over the long term and they have to figure out a way to do it. That's in addition to possibly rescheduling shows airing before or after
Men did. Either way, CBS is taking a hit in the ratings for not having new episodes of
Men and it also ultimately affects other shows on their network the same night.
Chuck Lorre is not a one trick pony, 2 1/2 men is just one of his TV series that is/was successful. Actors come and go, influential producers with a good track record last a lot longer, and if you piss on one of them like Charlie has then good luck finding another gig anytime soon.
This is actually the portion I disagree with. Guys like Marv Albert, Paul Reubens, David Letterman, Rob Lowe, etc. have bounced back from ugly sex scandals which were really bad PR blows to whatever work they were doing at the time. Yet all of them have continued on with their careers like nothing ever happened. Tim Allen, Robert Downey Jr., etc. survived drug scandals.
At the end of the day, all Charlie did was be a major asshole. Not much else. He might have trouble finding a leading man gig for a top-tier, weekly television sitcom for a little while but he'll have no problem whatsoever getting cast into one-off projects like a major Hollywood movie.
I don't remember Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Alec Baldwin or even Mel Gibson getting serious help for their various public meltdowns. Only person I ever recall going in for "help" was Michael Richards from the Seinfeld series, but his career was on the downhill slope anyway before exploding into a racist rant at a stand-up gig.
Two And A Half Men is the biggest show he has ever had and the success of that show has afforded him other opportunies like The Big Bang Theory and Mike and Molly, but even those shows are nothing compared to what is essentially The Charlie Sheen show and yes, Charlie is the show.
Chuck Lorre is also an alcoholic and was fired from Roseanne, so he has his problems too.
Charlie Sheen will easily find another show to do and producers are already approaching him, so I really don't know where you get this idea that he will have a problem finding another gig. You obviously don't work in the industry, because you would be aware that he is getting offers now.
I touched on most of these things above already, but like you say, it was essentially the Charlie Sheen show in which Charlie played a PG-rated version of himself on tv. Not much different than Jerry Seinfeld or Tony Danza playing themselves on tv for years.
Jon Cryer's phone wasn't ringing with anything hot until Charlie Sheen rolled into his life and gave some washed up 80's movie chump decent work again. He's a twerp for essentially distancing himself from Sheen and selling him down the river in interviews. Charlie was right to criticize him recently.
