Two and a Half Men, Long live the Surviving King.

Charlie is both talented and clearly burnt out. Of course, the same is probably true for the rest of the cast of the wonderfully funny television show called 'Two and a Half Men." Now that Charlie has chosen to go his separate way, I say 'chosen' because wizards understand and control their fate and therefore, Charlie Sheen chose to force CBS to fire him. So be it. I look forward to his next work of art.

That said, while Charlie Harper has embodied a central role in this drama, it is still an ensemble with many other important characters who have not made the same choice Charlie Sheen has recently made. First and foremost, Alan, Charlie's neurotic brother, played by John Cryer, deserves at lest 30 percent of the credit for this drama's success. While Charlie Sheen deserves a clear 30% as well, Jake, played by Angus T. Jones gets a full 15% of the credit (he is the half man after all). Their mother Evelyn, played by Holland Taylor, Berta the maid, played by Conchata Ferrell, Rose, Charlie's stalker, played by Melanie Lynskey and Alan's ex-wife Judith, played by Marin Hinkle all deserve at least the lions share of the other 15%. Truth be told the percentages shift with the same frequency as Charlie's girlfriends.

Two and a half men is a fusion of the odd couple and Arrested Development. The tragic lose of Charlie is just the blow that any dysfunctional family needs to galvanize the family into a moment of unity. I hope this family is able to take advantage of this opportunity.

The key at this juncture is in how the family deals with the tragic loss of Charlie. So start there. How did we lose him? With Charlie Harper, it was only a matter of time. Fast cars and lots of booze are a recipe for disaster in any universe. Personally, I picture Charlie Harper fantasizing his own demise by rocketing off a precarious turn on the kings highway at 120 into the pacific ocean. Given his behavior, however, he probably dies of asphyxiation on his own vomit after a another night of debauchery. In the end, the exact cause is probably unimportant in the face of the realization that hemorrhoids will need to find another songwriter to elevate shingles to jingles.

The point is that life goes on. The opportunity to host retrospectives on Charlie's life after "the accident" is a hook that any number of scripts can be hung on. Here is one example.

Since Charlie has never been the most responsible guy, there is no will. The inheritors of Charlie's condo would be either Alan or his mother or both. This gives us the opportunity to explore how far Evelyn will go to satisfy her greed when faced with her pencil thin sense of motherly obligation. It also begs the question of how desparate Alan would be in the face of Charlie not being there to be his benefactor.

Evelyn would decide to sell the condo unless Alan can get a roommate and save his Malibu home, because "After all, even if Alan IS a lost cause, grandmother can never put jake out on the street."

Alan gets his chance.

From now on, the roommates rotate every few weeks since no one can ever replace Charlie for Alan, Jake, Berta, Rose, and Evelyn. Perhaps one day, a roommate will come along who can live up to the magical dysfunction that was Charlie but until then, Alan must keep interviewing and living through one trail situation after another with different Charlie Parker Arch-types.

Given that all these characters live at the pleasure of the amazing comedic genius of Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn and others, I feel confident that this scenario could work.

I look forward to where Two and a half men will end up now that Charlie has died.

Reading "Seeking Atmosphere" by E. Berman PsyD.

Recently, Fortune Magazine released it's list of the Top 100 Best Companies to work for. As a manager of a business one imagines reading this list with a question of where am I on this list? More realistically, how can I make my company better? In order to craft plans for employee retention and satisfaction, growing productivity and improving communication one should turn to an organizational psychologist.

In her article, "Seeking Atmosphere", Psychologist Eileen Berman concludes that good leaders bring out the best in people, and that both high and low productivity can be traced back to the top of an organization (Berman, 2009). One imagines that, as a manager, this is an inspiring message. A task of an organizational Psychologist in this author's business would be help identify ways to implement a milieu that engenders loyalty and happiness in my company.


BERMAN, E. L. (2009). Seeking Atmosphere. Industrial Management, 51(2), 6.