And so we said “so long and thanks for the memories” to “Two and a Half Men.”
The CBS blockbuster that graced the small screen for twelve seasons finally came to an end last week as we bid a not-so-fond adieu to the Charlie Sheen saga — err, sitcom.
Although Mr. Tiger Blood didn’t appear personally, he was there in plenty of claymation and innuendo spirit to get the thought across that he was indeed the show — gone but never forgotten.
Sight gags aplenty kept the yuks coming and built up to a somewhat not-so-surprise ending. Here’s a surprise — no one was “winning.”
Even though the show jumped the shark, outlived its laugh track, and was kept alive by artificial resuscitation, it was a blessed relief to finally pull the long-overdue plug and give Kutcher, Cryer, Ferrel, and the whole gang a decent burial.
Kudos to the writers for the very nice touch to include all the past characters as a means of paying their last respects to an old friend that had lingered in that halfway place between life and syndication for the past three seasons.
True it kept a lot of crew off the unemployment lines, and I guess that counts for something. But I really wish it would have gone peacefully out then and not traveled down that slippery slope of silly plot lines, bad jokes, and really dumbed-down, sub-quality programming that it spiraled down to.
I’m sure that the head-honchos at CBS, given enough monetary incentive, could have come up with a better replacement in the aftermath of Sheen’s epic melt-down, had the thought of all that lost revenue and free publicity not been the primary objective at the time. But there you go, that’s the Hollywood mentality — the bottom line is money and that is all that there is.
But never fail, television-land has come up with another equally sophomoric sitcom, “The Last Man on Earth” on Fox with Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte — a post-apocalyptic comedy about the last survivor of a global plague.
Not for Nuthin,™ and not withstanding the absence of zombies, viruses, and cataclysm. Oh My! Forte ain’t no “Legend.” But that’s another column.
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