CSI + 2 1/2 = ?
Scott D. Pierce
But nothing on those shows is any wackier than the "Two and a Half Men" writers writing an episode of "CSI" and vice-versa.
"I mentioned it as something ridiculous ... about a year ago," Lorre said. "It went viral from there."
And the results are on the air this week. CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naran Shankar wrote tonight's "Two and a Half Men" (8 p.m., Ch. 2); Lorre and "Men" co-creator and executive producer Lee Aronsohn wrote Thursday's "CSI" (8 p.m., Ch. 2).
Mendelsohn said that when Lorre called her with the idea, she "went into Naran's office and he said, 'What a nut!"'
"I've been called much worse," Lorre said.
Before long, executives at both production companies and the network were enthusiastically on board. Much to Lorre's surprise.
"The fact that it's taken hold and we're having this conversation now defies every sense of reality that I have," he said. "It's mind-boggling that we actually did this."
The shows' stars were taken aback. Aronsohn said Charlie Sheen's first reaction was, "Are you serious?" Shankar said William Petersen's first reaction was, "Are you crazy?"
(A few of the series' stars make cameo appearances on the other show, but this is a writers' crossover.)
But in tonight's episode of "Men," there's a suspicious death at Charlie's (Charlie Sheen) house. There are suspects, interrogations, an autopsy — the kind of stuff you see on "CSI" every week.
"The biggest challenge for us was doing a comedy with a murder in it. I mean, generally, our stories are a little lighter," Lorre said.
"Our characters usually don't have to react to corpses," Aronsohn added.
On Thursday's "CSI," a sitcom diva is murdered in Las Vegas, and the investigation takes Grissom (Petersen) to Los Angles."
The writers operated like freelancers — they brought in an outline and "then the writing staff takes it apart and puts it back together again," Lorre said.
"They gave us the forensics and the plotting of the crimes, and we kind of put in our little ha-ha's," Aronsohn said.
And both teams learned from each other.
"We learned that puns were the lowest form of humor," Shankar said.
"We learned it again and again and again," Mendelsohn added.
Aronsohn said he and Lorre "couldn't even follow the conversation" when the "CSI" writers were plotting out crimes and forensics.
"We learned a whole lot about plotting and reverse-engineering stuff," he said.
All four producers expressed their delight at working with one another.
"Speaking for me and Carol, we would be happy to do anything like this with Chuck and Lee again. We had a great time," Shankar said.
And the end result is that both episodes are clearly identifiable as the "Two and a Half Men" and "CSI," just with a bit of a twist.
"It's probably one of the more dramatic 'Two and a Half Mens' and one of the funnier 'CSIs,"' Aronsohn said.
"We managed to make a mutt out of both shows," Lorre added.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
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