A new Two and a Half Men sans Sheen

NEW YORK (AP) — Charlie Sheen is gone, but his sitcom Two and a Half Men is likely to stick around. Although the eight-year-old show is aging and revolved around Sheen’s playboy character Charlie Harper, Warner Bros. Television and CBS have every incentive to try to keep it going after producers fired him on recently.

The show, for one, is a huge moneymaker: It is the most popular comedy on air, and in syndication. But the more important question might be whether viewers will buy a remade show next fall.

There are numerous examples of shows losing stars and plugging along with other actors, though not necessarily in the same roles. Just ask Dick Sargent, Jimmy Smits, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Sandy Duncan and, yes, even Sheen. In Sheen’s case, he worked for two years on ABC’s Spin City, essentially replacing original star Michael J.

 Fox in 2000 when Parkinson’s disease made it impossible for Fox to continue. NYPD Blue continued for a decade with Smits after its original lead actor, David Caruso, decided he wanted to try movies.

Fawcett-Majors was television’s biggest new star when she left Charlie’s Angels in 1977, although she made guest appearances afterward.

Cheryl Ladd joined the cast the same year, with the show running another four seasons. Duncan had a tough task in 1987: Replace Valerie Harper in Valerie. It was eventually renamed The Hogan Family and went off the air in 1991. Suzanne Somers left Three’s Company in 1981, and was replaced by Priscilla Barnes.

The show ended in 1984. Each of those new actors played different characters than the ones who left. That wasn’t the case with Sargent, who moved right in as Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery’s husband Darrin Stephens when the original Darrin, Dick York, left in 1969.

The show ended in 1972. Even if Two and a Half Men returns, it’s highly unlikely that there will be a new Charlie Harper. The hard-partying Sheen embodied the character; some suggested it was written with his real-life persona in mind.