Sheen gets the green
08/29/12 12:26 PM
Charlie Sheen and dad, Martin, in recent Anger Management episode. FX photo
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
Charlie Sheen's Anger Management sitcom has met "a very high ratings bar that included some additional hurdles," says the FX network.
Therefore he gets the big payoff -- a promised 90-episode order that will bring the grand total to 100 episodes in just two years' time if Sheen can stay on track.
It caps a remarkably quick comeback for the volatile actor, who less than a year-and-a-half ago had a mega-meltdown tied to his firing from the hit CBS comedy Two and a Half Men.
Anger Management, loosely adapted from the same-named movie that starred Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler, features Sheen in the lead role of an "untraditional therapist" grappling with his own temper traumas. The series recently finished its Season 1 run as this year's most-watched cable comedy series, with an average of 4.5 million viewers per episode and 2.5 million of them within the 18-to-49-year-old motherlode.
"Charlie Sheen and the entire cast did an amazing job in the first 10 episodes, which were produced in a very tight window," FX executive vice president Chuck Saftler said in a publicity release Wednesday. "I have no doubt that the producers and cast will be able to pull off the Herculean task of producing 90 episodes over the next two years."
That's roughly twice as many half-hours as the standard order of 44-48 sitcom episodes over a two-year period. The deal is similar to the one Tyler Perry struck with TBS for his House of Payne sitcom. The Lionsgate Television Group is a partner with FX in the production of Anger Management.
Production on the series is scheduled to resume on Sept. 24th, FX said, with Anger Management going into off-network syndication in September 2014. The deal means a multi-million dollar haul for Sheen, whose proclamations of "winning" are good as gold for now.