Chuck Lorre Opens Up On Charlie Sheen Fiasco

With the dust having now settled, let's let "Two and a Half Men" creator set his side of the story straight.

His battles on the set and in the courtroom with now-former "Two And A Half Men" star Charlie Sheen overran gossip pages from February 2011 until the eventual settlement of a wrongful termination lawsuit between the two late this past September.

Still, Lorre hasn't been nearly as talkative as his former friend Sheen about the dust-up over Sheen's February firing from the show, following Sheen's headline-making drug use and erratic behavior on the show's set.

Lorre recently discussed the ordeal with TV Guide in a piece that hits newsstands Dec. 15. The producer claimed that he just couldn't watch Sheen keep enduring the amount of drugs he was using, which eventually sent the star into January 2011 rehab that temporarily shut down the show's production.

"You can't do that much cocaine and work." Lorre said via TV Guide. "I didn't want to be writing a sitcom while my friend died. Or worse, hurt someone else. We couldn't be complacent. There was a tragedy unfolding right in front of us. There was violence and blackouts. On a certain level, if you're looking the other way, you're responsible."

It turned out for the best, according to Lorre. While his friendship with Sheen obviously suffered, Lorre said that bringing Ashton Kutcher on this season to essentially reset the entire show was a rare gift.

"I thought, why not find out if we can do it?" Lorre has also told AOL TV recently. "If we failed, what have we failed at? Making a sitcom? Then it became exciting. We got to do something none of us ever dreamed of doing: We got to end a series and start a new series in 20 minutes."

So far, so good: this season, the show's ninth, has averaged 17.1 million viewers so far and ranks among the show's highest all-time averages. The show's Sept. 19 season premiere garnered 28.74 million viewers, the highest-rated "Two and a Half Men" episode yet.