letterten 2003-04 fall preview

debuts Monday, Sep 29, 10:00pm

premise from	A hedonistic jingle writer's free-wheeling life comes to an abrupt halt when his brother and 10-year-old nephew move into his beach-front house. [CBS link]
stars	Charlie Sheen ("Spin City"), Jon Cryer ("Pretty in Pink" ), Angus T. Jones ("Bringing Down The House"), Marin Hinkle ("Once and Again")
producers	Lee Aronsohn, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, Mark Burg, Oren Koules
studio	Chuck Lorre Productions and The Tannenbaum Company, in association with Warner Bros. Television Production Inc.

opinions
	Sheen and Cryer? Is it 1987? A seemingly odd pairing that I think will work. CBS has been successful in launching new sitcoms on Monday. With a "...Raymond" lead-in, you've got a bunch of recognizable faces in yet another take on "My Two Dads" this season. This one feels more like an friend you haven't seen in awhile than another "been there."
	Charlie Sheen gets to play up his spoiled playboy image. Jon Cryer gets to play up his geeky nebish image. Throw in Blythe Danner and a brainy kid and stick it right after "Everybody Loves Raymond" and nothing in world can keep this show from being a hit. There are some nice punchlines, particularly from Sheen, but the show isn't quite as funny as the laugh track thinks it is and a subplot involving Cryer's lesbian wife seems really stale. Why was Emilio Estevez too busy to play the Cryer part? That would have been funny. [note: This information was acquired before Blythe Danner was dropped from the cast.]

my thoughts on "Two and a Half Men"
	Full season. The "...Raymond" lead-in and the lack of same genre competition makes this only one of what I think are two "close to sure hits" on the CBS sked.