Chuck Lorre was "frightened" for Charlie Sheen during his final days on Two And A Half Men.
The 73-year-old TV icon, who created the beloved show along with the likes of Mike and Molly and The Big Bang Theory, has recalled the atmosphere on set leading up to Charlie, 61, being sacked in 2011 amid a public meltdown.
He told E! News: “I think I can speak for everyone who was working on the show back then that we were frightened that something terrible was going to happen.
“We were frightened that Charlie might get hurt, that someone else might get hurt.”
Chuck insisted that his concerns towards the end were "no longer about misbehaviour", and instead focused towards something more serious.
He added: “This was about our people, including our friend and the star of the show, physically in danger and people around them would be in danger.
“So, it was a scary, scary time, and it took me many years to put it in perspective.”
In his new book Sitcom, Chuck has opened up about Charlie's final scene on Two And A Half Men, and why it had to be the end.
In an excerpt shared by Vanity Fair, he wrote: “He couldn’t remember any of his lines and had to use the furniture to keep himself upright.
“Melanie was terrified. It was clear to everyone that this man, whom we’d all grown to love, was in trouble. I had no choice but to shut down the show.”
Chuck and Charlie are on better terms now, and actually reunited for 2023 show Bookie.
Meanwhile, that same year, Two And A Half Men director Jamie Widdoes recalled his experiences of the star towards the end of the sitcom's run.
Speaking on Vice TV's The Dark Side of the 2000s, he said: "We all just would soldier on, and we would try and separate whatever was going on with Charlie outside with our job, which is to make a television show.
"And that became more and more trying and more and more of an issue. We were all genuinely worried about him.
"And Charlie [would just say], 'Don't worry I'm fine.' Whatever he was battling outside was starting to not just leak in, it was starting to flood in."
And Gabriel Solana, Sheen's personal make-up artist, claimed the actor struggled with the monotony of the show.
Gabriel said: "I knew that something in Charlie wasn't already too comfortable in the show because he'll come to me and say, 'I don't know man, I'm not feeling this. This is a little bit monotonous for me already. What's next for me?'"