FRIDAY

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Mr. Cryer in Parade magazine
• Two and a Half Men
• Mr. Cryer's bio

E-mail a friend

Tavis: Jon Cryer is a talented actor who's enjoyed success in film and television. His movie credits include, as you well know, Pretty in Pink, Hot Shots, and No Small Affair, but now he's a bona fide TV star opposite Charlie Sheen on one of the few hit sitcoms left on television these days, Two and a Half Men. The show airs Monday nights at 9:30 on CBS, and here is a scene from Two and a Half Men.

Jon Cryer: Here. This'll make you feel better.

Charlie Sheen: Thanks.

Jon: OK, why don't you go upstairs and change because we really want to look our best for our dates.

Charlie: What are you talking about? I'm not going on a date.

Jon: Yeah, you are. Come on, Charlie. Desiree Barrington. Nominated for 2 daytime Emmys. Named most promising ingenue by Soap Opera Digest. She totally revitalized 'Young & the Restless.' Occasionally I have lunch at my desk and watch a little TV.

Tavis: Jon, nice to see you.

Jon Cryer: Hey, nice to see you as well.

Tavis: I heard you chuckle quietly there when I mentioned that this show is one of the few successful sitcoms left on television. I wasn't joking. I'm serious.

Jon: No, it's the last of a dying breed.

Tavis: Yeah, it is.

Jon: We're like buffalo. Just wandering around, chewing our cud.

Tavis: I just read that there are only, what, 16 sitcoms that got picked up for this fall. So you guys made the cut, but that's, like, the lowest number in, like, forever.

Tavis: In recorded history. In ancient Greek times, they had one year where it actually was a little more than that, but, um--

Tavis: That's heady stuff.

Jon: It's--well, yeah. You know, I think it's just... Things wax and wane, and reality's great. It's just a fad! I'm telling you!

Um, I like reality shows. I watch some of them. Uh, 'Extreme Makeover.' Whoa. That's the one. My favorite thing about 'Extreme Makeover' is that there's always a moment where somebody looks like they got their head caught in an outboard motor 'cause it's always right after the first batch of operations, you know? And they've got, you know, like, 18, you know, bandages, and their mouth is held open by clamps and this and that, and they look in the mirror for the first time and they go, 'I'm beautiful.'

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

Jon: You can't buy that. That's a wonderful moment. We're not gonna do that on our show.

Tavis: There is a serious conversation to be had, which may be tough with you, I see.

Jon: Ha ha ha! Good luck, mister. Good luck, Smiley.

Tavis: But there's a serious conversation to be had, it seems to me, though, about whether or not we really are experiencing the death of the sitcom as we know it.

Jon: OK, I'm gonna get all serious on you for a moment. Um, what it is, it has to do with perceived authenticity, OK?

Tavis: Wait, try that again.

Both: Perceived authenticity.

Tavis: I like that.

Jon: When audiences watch reality shows, they perceive that it is authentic. But we understand; we are in the business. We know these things are edited to within an inch of their life, a lot of the situations are kind of set up, and, you know, they have producers, and it's their job--

Tavis: So Omarosa really isn't a--

Jon: No, she's lovely. Have you hung out with her? She's a sweetheart. She picked out my shirt. She's darling. Uh, no. Ha ha. I don't know the woman.

But it has to do with people perceive that because we, uh, because audiences have been so led into the culture of show business. Uh, you know, there's 'E.T.,' there's 'Extra,' there's 'Access.' And has anybody noticed that on all those shows, everybody yells all the time? 'Tonight on ‘Access Hollywood'!' Am I--I'm not the only person who's noticed that, I hope.

Tavis: I'm with you on that.

Jon: OK, thank you. No, next time you watch, you'll go, 'Jeez. These people are screaming at me for no reason.' But anyway, what happens is, everybody knows this. Everybody knows that in 'The Matrix,' they know how that shot was done where he dodged the bullet. They know that. They know all the backstage stuff, so that doesn't seem authentic to people anymore. They see a reality show, and that seems authentic to them. They see a woman on 'Extreme Makeover' with her face in a cast and... That's authentic, you know? And they buy that.

Tavis: Do that one more time.

Jon: Wait. OK, let's see if I can... There we go.

Tavis: That was good.

Jon: Thank you. Uh, at any rate--but my point is, sitcoms are where the artifice is right out there, right in front of you. You hear the people laughing. Obviously they're not really in the living room. Seems of a different time to some people. But the fact is, if you keep doing it well, I think people will keep watching it.

Tavis: You know the old adage, 'If I had a dime for every time I've been asked so-and-so, I'd be a rich person.' You know that. So, I'm not gonna ask you about this, but if you had a dime for every time you've been asked about 'Pretty in Pink,' how rich would you be?

Jon: Uh, I would buy and sell this entire show! Um...

Tavis: We're not that expensive.

Jon: Which isn't that expensive. Um, but it'd be nice. It'd be a nice nest egg. Uh, no. I, you know, I'm so glad to have done something that people gravitate to and that people enjoy and that people remember, mostly. I mean, let's face it. We wouldn't get into this business if we wanted people to forget about us. So I'm grateful, and it was a great, fun character, and I made a lot of friends, and so I have, you know, uh... You know it was almost 20 years ago, which is kind of freaky.

Tavis: That long?

Jon: Yeah, it was 1986, so that's 18 years ago. But, again, you know, I still look fantastic.

Tavis: Yes, you do.

Jon: So, really...

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Jon: There's no problem for me.

Tavis: OK, so the seriousness lasted about 35 seconds longer than I thought it might. That's it. Let me... Your TV show, now, you're on hiatus now. That's that fancy word for 'It's vacation time' in Hollywood. But you're on vacation for the summer, so how are you gonna spend your vacation?

Jon: I am going to hang out with my son...

Tavis: No, I said, 'spend your vacation.'

Jon: Oh, yes. OK, sorry. Oh, yes. Uh, um, yes, prostitutes. Yes, clearly.

Tavis: How old is he? 4?

Jon: He's 4.

Tavis: That's not a vacation.

Jon: Ha ha! It is. It's fun. He's fun. He's starting to use turns of phrase, which is fun. The other morning, he said, 'OK, Daddy. How about this?'

Tavis: 'How about this?'

Jon: I love that. 'How about this? I'm just gonna run this up a flagpole and see who salutes.' And I mean, you know, he's 4! You know? Oh, I love him. He makes me laugh so hard.

Tavis: What do 4-year-olds do? Is this the Disney World stage?

Jon: He goes to Disneyland because Disneyland is so close by. See, I grew up in New York City. Disneyland might as well have been Mars. I never got to go to Disneyland. I went like twice in my life. But he lives an hour away, so we take him with some regularity and--

Tavis: Bet he's burnt out on Disneyland.

Jon: He's burnt out! I want to take him, I'm like, 'Come on, the Matterhorn!' He's like, 'Let's just go home.'

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Jon: But he hasn't ridden on the Matterhorn yet, and I think that will mess him up for life.

Tavis: 'How 'bout this, Daddy? We go home.'

Jon: 'How 'bout this?' We'll get in the frigging car.

Tavis: So you're gonna hang out with your son this summer.

Jon: Yes. I'm gonna hang out with my son and I might get back to writing and doing--

Tavis: You've written some stuff in the past.

Jon: Yes. I have written some films.

Tavis: Did you make a deliberate decision to put the writing on hold, to concentrate on the acting? Is there a reason why you want to go back to it now?

Jon: Well, I thought that while I was doing the sitcom I would continue it. Because sitcoms are a wonderful schedule. For an actor, they're like an office job. They're the closest thing to an office job.

Tavis: Oh, yeah, the office job where you work 16, 18 hours a day sometimes.

Jon: Uh-nuh-huh! See, that's where you're wrong, Mr. Smiley. No, there's only 2 days a week that are actually longish days. Most of the rest of the days are really pretty short.

Tavis: Those the table read days?

Jon: Yes, exactly. And so those days I figured I'd be getting my writing in. I've done a lot of sitcoms before, but none of them were successful. So I didn't understand that what will happen is you'll have to do a lot of publicity and go places and do things and you know. So I haven't had time this last season to write the way I had been. And I can't--I've been loving doing the show so much, I can't say that I miss it that much, because writing is really hard for me. But I'm a good speller.

Tavis: Speaking of real hard, it may be real hard for the Lakers to win this thing. And I raise that because I hear you're a huge Laker fan.

Jon: Huge Laker fan.

Tavis: So I'm surprised you actually made it to the set tonight after what happened last night.

Jon: I don't know what happened last night. I think they were just, uh--they, you know, they just let Chauncey Billups through the, you know--Gary Payton had a bad night, and Karl Malone had a bad night. You know, a couple of those 3s that Kobe went for in the third quarter...

Tavis: Might have made a difference.

Jon: Yeah. It would have been a different story if either one of those had hit. So you know--

Tavis: Sounds like when the acting thing is over maybe you got a job as a commentator alongside Marv Albert or somebody. You know this game pretty well.

Jon: I--you know, we'll see. I actually went to a Laker game and got seats on the floor, which was amazing. Never happened to me. I was sitting right next to the Hornets' bench. They were playing the Hornets, obviously. And--no, that would be weird if I was sitting next to the Hornets' bench and they weren't playing the Hornets. That would be really bizarre. But I just had such a temptation to play with them, these just gargantuan human beings, and I was just like, 'Oh, wait, no, I got the ball! Wait!' But I'm a little white guy.

Tavis: I'm out of time, and I gotta go. But you should know when your sitcom is successful, you can get courtside seats.

Jon: Apparently! Yes, this is great!

Tavis: So stay successful, you'll be OK.

Jon: I'll work on it.

Tavis: Nice to see you, Jon. That's our show for tonight. As always, catch me on the radio. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Keep the faith.