Remember 2011? It was the year of Charlie Sheen's unforgettable Hollywood meltdown. He got fired from his starring role on the hit sitcom Two & A Half Men and ignited a feud with one of Hollywood's biggest names in TV, Chuck Lorre.
The Build-Up
Chuck Lorre's Two & A Half Men was a TV sitcom phenomenon, averaging 13-15 million viewers consistently throughout its first 10 seasons. After premiering in 2003, the show earned a total of 9 Primetime Emmy Awards. And, at the height of the show's run, leading man Charlie Sheen was the highest-paid actor on TV, bringing in nearly $2 million an episode! However, as Sheen's infamous personal life started to unravel, so did his time on Lorre's show.
The entire production of Two & A Half Men was placed on a hiatus in both 2010 & 2011 while Charlie Sheen was back and forth between rehab, domestic violence disputes and public displays of instability. In February of 2011, Charlie directed his anger toward Chuck Lorre in a series of interviews during which he threatened the show's creator and called him a "maggot" and a "loser," amongst other vulgar names and innuendos. CBS was then forced to announce a complete halt on production of Two & A Half Men, affecting nearly 200 employees and presenting an estimated loss of $10 million for other investors.
Warlocks & Winning
According to Charlie Sheen, he was "winning" on all levels. However, he was fired by CBS in March of 2011 because "people were really frightened that they were signing off on what could have had devastating consequences," Chuck Lorre told TV Guide. Charlie deemed this a "high treason," and went on to unleash a tirade of verbal attacks toward Lorre and Warner Bros. And while he tried to deny the air of feud between him and Sheen at the time, Chuck Lorre would remain the target of many future rants spewed by the disgruntled actor. Charlie went on to sue Lorre and Warner Bros. Television for $100 million plus punitive damages.
In 2015, the Two & A Half Men series finale aired in which Sheen's character was killed off. Charlie made vague threats at Lorre, claiming he'd "picked a fight with a warlock." Things seemed to simmer out, especially after Charlie announced he'd been living with HIV. But the feud rose to new levels in 2017, after Sheen went off on Lorre yet again on KIIS FM's Kyle & Jack 'O' Show. Holding nothing back, he called the Hollywood producer "the most miserable f***ing d****bag, the most talentless f***ing sack of s*** of f***ing stupid this side of La Brea."
Men On The Mend?
After revealing his HIV diagnosis in 2015, things slowed down a lot for Sheen. His 2012 series Anger Management didn't last long despite a record debut. And by 2018, he was struggling to pay nearly $5 million in unpaid taxes, claiming Hollywood had "blacklisted him from many aspects of the entertainment industry." That year, Charlie also spoke on Australia's Today show, where he revealed his change of heart about Lorre and his willingness to fix their troubled relationship, exclaiming "it is a thing I want to mend!"