Angus T Jones, Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer star in Two And A Half Men. Source: News Limited
LAST season, when Chuck Lorre announced there would be a same-sex marriage on the final season of his long-running CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, a predictable uproar ensued.
The problem was that the union involved two heterosexual men — original co-star Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen’s replacement, Ashton Kutcher — undergoing what Lorre openly called a “scam” marriage in order to adopt a child, a process the show suggested was next to impossible for a straight, single man, even a billionaire like Kutcher’s character, Walden Schmidt.
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Although the show has generally taken the low road in its 12 years on the air, Lorre made an effort to avoid offence with this storyline — by Two and a Half Men standards at least. As when the show introduced a lesbian character in 2013 and when it explored a transsexual storyline that same year, the writers for the most part avoided the kind of cheap humour that permeates the rest of the show.
Actors John Cryer and Ashton Kutcher in scene from Two And A Half Men. Source: Supplied
When Walden proposed to Cryer’s Alan Harper back in November, he told him he had “nine of the 10 things” he wanted in a wife. However, the 10th ingredient was off the table: “We will actually be a same-sex married couple, and like most married couples, we will not have sex,” Walden told Alan.
“Sensitive for Two and a Half Men” doesn’t quite equal sensitive, of course. Many viewers felt the storyline desexualised gay love and trivialised the struggle for marriage equality — and having lesbian character Jenny voice those precise objections didn’t remove the sting. So, last week, when I had a chance to talk to Chuck Lorre during an event at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, I asked him how the creative team had decided to explore this theme.
Jenny (Amber Tamblyn) looks on as Walden Schmidt (Kutcher) kisses his new husband Alan Harper (Cryer). Source: Supplied
Same-sex marriage is “now legal — and appropriately so,” he said. “And there’s nothing in the marriage contract that dictates physical love. Two people declare their love for each other; everything else is nobody’s business. … They just say, ‘We love each other. We want to share our lives together. End of story.’ That seemed like a great starting point.”
Lorre denied they ever intended to be disrespectful. “We all believe that people should have the freedom to marry who they love, but there is that wonderful wrinkle. ... It’s a new era we’re living in, and we got a chance to play with that,” he said.
Chuck Lorre, producer of Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and Mom. Source: AP
This article was written by June Thomas from Slate and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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