Ashton Kutcher Explains Why It Was Time to End The Ranch, Takes a Swipe at Two and a Half Men
Ashton Kutcher is opening up about the decision to close up shop on The Ranch.
The star and executive producer of the recently ended Netflix comedy was a guest on Monday’s episode of the WTF With Marc Maron podcast. During the interview, he suggested that the Colorado-set series had reached its natural conclusion, and there was no incentive to keep it going.
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“The story [of The Ranch] was told,” he said. “I love everything that we did. Everybody there was still highly in love with each other… We got to the point where we were able to let everybody know [that] this was the last season, and that we were going to wrap it up, so everybody had time to find their next gig.
“Netflix owns the show,” he added, “so it’s not like there was this big syndication boon that’s going to come if we shoot two more seasons.”
While rationalizing the decision to call it quits, Kutcher insinuated that his last sitcom, CBS’ Two and a Half Men, ended later than it should have.
“I’ve been on shows where you keep going, and you keep going,” he said. “And then you’ve got a brother who’s a gorilla.”
Interestingly enough, Kutcher was referring to one the earliest episodes from his Two and a Half Men tenure, Season 9’s “One False Move, Zimbabwe!,” wherein Walden’s primatologist mother Robin (played by Mimi Rogers) revealed to her son that he had been raised alongside a gorilla, whom he always thought was an imaginary childhood friend. The episode culminated in Kutcher being tickled by a man in a gorilla suit.
During the Q&A, Kutcher also revealed that the character of Walden wasn’t what he signed up for when he agreed to replace original series star Charlie Sheen.
“I went and met with [series co-creator] Chuck Lorre and he seemed like a really smart guy, and he had an idea for this character that I thought was really interesting, which wasn’t the character that I wound up [playing],” Kutcher said. “I got the script and was, like, ‘Well, that’s not what we talked about.’ But he had an idea for this character that I thought was interesting.”
The That ’70s Show alum ultimately did four seasons of Two and a Half Men and “had a really good time,” despite his creative concerns. “I actually went through a divorce [with Demi Moore] when I was on that show, which is a really hard thing to do. Having a family while going through that, I needed that. And those people were all there for me and supported me… and it was phenomenal.”
Do you agree with Kutcher about ending The Ranch? Or his remarks on Two and a Half Men‘s life span? Drop your thoughts in a comment below.
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