In the future, television enthusiasts will probably look back on the current age of the medium and conclude that Chuck Lorre was one of the finest creators for the small screen. Already known as “the king of sitcoms,” the producer is the brains behind The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, Mike & Molly, The Kominsky Method and Two and a Half Men.

Like anyone else, however, Lorre doesn’t always get it right. One of his more recent inventions was United States of Al, about “an interpreter from Afghanistan who moves to Columbus, Ohio, with his friend Riley, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.” The sitcom was widely criticized for being tone deaf, and was duly canceled after two seasons.

On the other side of that pendulum, Two and a Half Men was definitely one of his biggest successes. Yet even that did not come without its challenges. Most significantly, the show lost two of its three leading stars along the way, leaving Lorre to contemplate ending the sitcom prematurely altogether.

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Even longer before that, the New Yorker had to fight CBS over another casting decision.

CBS Did Not Want Jon Cryer To Star In Two And A Half Men

The first ever episode of Two and a Half Men aired on CBS on September 22, 2003. As alluded to in the title of the show, the story had three main characters: two brothers and one of their sons. Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer portrayed the two siblings, with then ten-year-old Angus T. Jones completing the line-up.

Chuck Lorre was quite content with those casting choices, but the executives at the network were not quite as convinced. The producer revealed more details about this particular fight during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May 2019, around the time when The Big Bang Theory was wrapping up its own run on CBS.

“There was a lot of pushback when I was doing Two and a Half Men. They didn’t want Jon Cryer,” Lorre said.

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Despite the hesitance to go with Cryer in the role, Lorre stuck to his guns and the network eventually caved. The actor would go on to win two Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on the show.

Why Did CBS Dislike Jon Cryer’s Casting In Two And A Half Men?

Following his success as Alan Harper in Two and a Half Men, Jon Cryer got to really elevate his career to new heights. Multiple other acting gigs followed, including his more recent star turn as Lex Luthor in Supergirl and a number of other DCEU television shows.

Before Chuck Lorre put his stocks on him in TAAHM, however, Cryer had become something of a poisoned chalice. His very first major TV role was in yet another CBS sitcom, titled The Famous Teddy Z in the 1989-90 season.

Playing the very main character, he starred in the 20 episodes of the show, before it was canceled after just one season. In fact, five episodes were filmed but never aired. His next project was the sitcom Partners, this time on Fox.

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The show met a very similar fate, being canceled after one season of 22 episodes. “[Jon had] been in a series of pilots that didn’t get on the air — or, if they did, they got canceled — and he got pinned with that label: ‘show killer,” Lorre told THR.

Chuck Lorre Was Considered “The Angriest Man In Television”

The fight between Chuck Lorre and CBS over the decision to cast Jon Cryer in Two and a Half Men might have been instigated by the network, but the producer quite readily – and admittedly – added fuel to that particular fire. In those days, he had earned himself the moniker “angriest man in television.”

When THR asked him why that was, Lorre said: “Because I was fighting with network executives all the time. I was trying to get my way with broadcast standards, all that note-driven nonsense. I had my fists up because I had a vision.” His particular field of strength was apparently not always looked upon with the greatest favor in the industry.

As such, Lorre felt he had to fight harder in order to execute that vision he had. “Even though they were sitcoms – maybe considered a bastard genre – I still wanted to do it well. The anger was the only way I could carve out some safe space to do it,” he recalled.

Eventually, Lorre learned that the mellow path was the better one, as he concluded: “It’s taken me a long time to understand that anger isn’t necessary.”