Charlie Sheen must be pretty pleased with himself. While he might be facing a potential 45 days in jail in Aspen Colorado, he’s trying to get smoking privileges as part of his deal. Maybe he’s on a high from his historic contract to sign back on for two seasons to the hit comedy Two and a Half Men. While Sheen was asking for $2M+ per episode, it seems he’ll jump from $850K to the new $1.8-1.9 million per. That keeps him in his top-paid current actor spot. Do the math and you’ll see that Sheen will be getting close to $100M for two years of continuing to play smart-assed, afraid-of-commitment Charlie Harper.
I guess it had to happen some time, but some of my fave CBS shows are being cancelled. The surprise is that one of them is Julia Louis-Drefyus’ current vehicle, The New Adventures of Old Christine, which is a ridiculously funny sitcom about a neurotic woman and her crazy extended family. (Comedienne Wanda Sykes, who also stars in ‘Old Christine,’ is losing her Wanda Sykes show on Fox — another disappointment because it’s actually pretty funny, though quite caustic, and it replaced MadTV, which was cancelled last year.)
Here I was thinking that Drefyus was the only main Seinfeld alumni to have a successful followup show. However, Patrick Warburton, who played David Puddy, a one-time boyfriend of Dreyfus’ Elaine character, seems to be doing ok as a star of the David Spade vehicle Rules of Engagement. The latter has been renewed. Other CBS comedies that had potential but were lacking something are Gary Unmarried and Accidentally on Purpose. Jay Mohr of ‘Gary’ used to be a regular on Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Ghost Whisperer, which has also been cancelled. There were a few good seasons, but they’ve passed. Another supernatural-based hit, Medium, with Patricia Arquette, is staying.
The biggest surprise is that one of my all-time favorite police dama, Cold Case, is gone. There was something decidedly different about Cold Case, and the characters felt so real. It was a nice balance to the intensity and sometimes gore of hit police procedurals. It would probably have done better NOT running on Sunday nights. It’s weird that CBS would cancel such a great show and instead order a remake of the classic but not brilliant Hawaii 5-0.
Now, the Ausiello Files and Live Feed are both saying that ‘Old Christine’ and Ghost Whisperer have a chance of being picked up on ABC. ‘Old Christine’ really does deserve another chance; there’s a serious lack of good comedies on TV these days. Other CBS cancellations include Numbers and Jerry Bruckheimer’s brand new Miami Medical.
HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm will mostly be filmed in New York next season, not in LA. The show, which might be in it’s last season, is created/ written/ acted/ produced by Larry David, who is of course the co-creator of the Seinfeld TV series.
The CW is renewing One Tree Hill, cancelling Melrose Place, and ordering a couple of new shows, Hellcats and Nikita.
