Charlie Sheen’s “Frightening” Last Days on Two and a Half Men Revealed

In his new memoir Sitcom: A Memoir by Chuck Lorre, on shelves Oct. 13, Lorre recalled how the show had begun to “unravel” in Sheen’s final season and that the cast and crew “worked in a constant state of anxiety.” 

Eventually, the chaos culminated in the actor’s final scene on the series, which also featured Melanie Lynskey. 

“He couldn’t remember any of his lines and had to use the furniture to keep himself upright,” Lorre wrote, per an excerpt published by Vanity Fair. “Melanie was terrified. It was clear to everyone that this man, whom we’d all grown to love, was in trouble. I had no choice but to shut down the show.”

With time, Lorre was able to overcome Sheen’s antics, which included the actor writing an open letter in 2011 calling his boss a “maggot” and wishing him “pain.” (Sheen is now nine years sober and has shared candidly about his sobriety journey.)

And the pair even proved they had mended their relationship when Lorre cast Sheen as a heightened version of himself in the 2023 gambling-centric show Bookie starring Sebastian Maniscalco. 

“[My co-creator] Nick [Bakay] said, ‘Can you work with him?’ Which is a legitimate question. It didn’t end very well with he and I,” he explained to E!. “And I said, ‘I’m actually in a good place right now. And if he’s in a good place, I’d be fine with it.’”

So, Lorre “simply called him.” And the Wall Street star was just as game to move past the bad blood.

“He was to the best of my knowledge in a very good place in his life right now, that madness is in the rearview mirror,” he shared. “And we had a blast. We did a couple episodes of Bookie with Sebastian Maniscalco, and he killed it. He was hilarious at playing himself with a serious gambling problem.”

Lorre’s memoir Sitcom releases Oct. 13.

Like Sheen, read on for more stars who have had notable exits from their TV shows.