At the time of his very public breakdown and separation from Two and a half menCharlie Sheen was one of the highest-paid television sitcom stars of all time, earning a reported $1.8 million per episode. One of his co-stars let his contract expire after season 6 for very different reasons.
Holland Taylor, who played the overbearing mother of Sheen and Jon Cryer’s characters, says she no longer wanted to be tied to the show by contract.
“When the six years were up, I said, ‘I don’t want to be under contract anymore but I’ll come to the show every once in a while if you want,'” Taylor recalled recently on the Alchemy with Anthony Mason podcast.
“They were actually surprised because when your contract expires, that’s usually the time people back away from the (Brink’s) truck,” she said. “And they never paid me very well for that show. I got paid for that show what I had done on a show eight years before or something like that.”
Taylor also points out that she was a four-time Emmy nominee for the series.
“They said, ‘We can’t pay you any more money.’ First of all, I said, “You could actually pay me the cost of this building, but don’t bother because I don’t want to continue under contract.” »
The Emmy-winning actress claims the powers that be on the CBS show kept arguing about money.
“They said, ‘But we can’t afford to give you more.’ I said, “I agree with that. I’ll just come back as a guest from time to time.
Taylor pointed out, however, that in addition to Sheen’s massive salary, other participants on the show received pay raises.
“John quadrupled his salary or something,” she said.
“I really liked this series,” she continued, “but it wasn’t full of civility.”
Gn entert
