Chuck Lorre Created 'Two & A Half Men' With Charlie Sheen In Mind

[Brian Damage]

In 2003, Chuck Lorre was coming up with a new show that required some very specific casting – a comedy he says was about how “a child might be a positive influence on the life of a degenerate.”

It didn’t take long to cast the part.

“For some reason, the words ‘Charlie Sheen’ came to mind,” Lorre tells the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

Sheen and Lorre met and a ratings star in Two and a Half Men was born for CBS.

“He had a great sense of humor about it and we built a show around him,” says Lorre of Sheen, now the most highly paid television actor in Hollywood making an estimated $2 million per episode because of the show's success.

It is a relationship – and a hit sitcom – that continues today, despite Sheen’s much-publicized personal problems off the set.

“He’s a worker amongst workers,” Lorre says of Sheen today, “His personal issues don’t come onto the stage, and he’s been a good partner for a long time.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ie-sheen-48125