Was Anyone Really Watching?

Earlier this week, Charlie Sheen was officially fired from his show, "Two and a Half Men". No one was especially surprised at this news considering how Sheen had been torching the show's writers and the network. But here's what struck me about the situation: this is allegedly the most-watched comedy of television, yet I didn't here one single person come out and demand that Sheen be kept on or that the show be left alone. Instead people seemed very accepting of this decision, almost as if they don't care. This is stunning to me because we live in a world in which shows that are being cancelled for having terrible ratings can't be put down without some sort of online petition springing up, yet a show apparently watched by 10 million people a week can be shut down and no one becomes too upset about it. How is it that a show like "Terriers" gets a week-long eulogy from TV critics who are only too happy to tell us how stupid we are as a species because we weren't watching this magnificent show, yet TV's most-popular sitcom is about to be shelved and no one is up in arms? (This confirms to me that the whole 'most-watched' tag does not equal 'best'.) I'm just left wonder where all the "Two and a Half Men" supporters who are mad at CBS are?

Now, apparently, I'm jumping the gun in saying the show has been officially cancelled, because its fate hasn't been formally announced one way or another. I guess the network is still deciding whether to not to simply cut their losses or to try and retool the show with some major plot overhaul. There is talk of people like Jon Stamos and Rob Lowe coming on to take Sheen's place, but I'm not sure if it would be the same character played by a different actor or an entirely new character, at which point it isn't the same show. Allow me to just let CBS know that, either way, this a terrible idea. Look, this isn't the 1970s when you can switch a main character (a la "Bewitched" when they changed Darrens) and people have to roll with it because there are only three things to choose from. I remember when they changed daughters on "Roseanne" - people were confused by it and that was a character that had maybe two lines an episode. Besides, changing a character when the entire show revolves around them doesn't really work. Ironically, you can ask Charlie Sheen about this, because he was the guy brought in to replace Michael J. Fox on "Spin City" and that show was off the air not that long after. Look, CBS, this show had a nice run - it was on for 8 years, made you a ton of money and will continue to do so in reruns. Perhaps you've milked that cow dry.

-Speaking of a franchise that should be allowed to die quietly, Michael Bay has been making the rounds in anticipation of the new Transformers movie coming out this summer. During one interview, Bay actually admitted that the second Transformers movie was not very good and that they didn't do a great job. (As someone who paid to see it I agree with you, Michael.) Bay apologized for how it came out and promised this third one will be better. This is a really disturbing new trend among Hollywood filmmakers and actors. Just last year, Shia LeBeouf said that he was unhappy with the way the last Indiana Jones movie turned out and apologized to the franchise's fans. Here's a crazy idea, Hollywood, how about, instead of putting out crap and then simply apologizing for it after the fact, you take the time to work on a good script and don't rely heavily on explosions and generic action-movie dialog? What if you realised that what you made was terrible before you unleashed it on the general public for $10 a pop? If you wanted to know why movie sales are down, there is your answer. It has nothing to do with illegal downloading or the recession - it's because people can tell in a thirty second trailer that a movie is going to be stupid, which is apparently a full two years before Hollywood catches on. But, at least they said they were sorry.