“For two seasons creators Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay and their hilarious cast, led by Sebastian Maniscalco, made us laugh while pulling back the curtain on the world of sports betting,” a Max spokesperson said in a statement, via Variety. “We won’t be moving forward with a third season, but we are grateful to have worked with such a brilliant team on this laugh out loud comedy.”
Bookie was also notable for featuring Charlie Sheen in the role of Charlie Sheen—a surprising reconciliation between him and Lorre after the former’s very public departure from Two And A Half Men. You know, when Sheen called Lorre a “low rent, nut-less sociopath” and Lorre dropped a piano on his character’s head in the series finale. (To be fair, he dropped one on his own head too.) Apparently, every time Lorre and Bakay considered a celebrity cameo for Bookie, Lorre’s mind told him “It should be Charlie.” Sheen agreed (on the condition that they didn’t do “drug-addled Charlie anymore”) and the two fell back into an easy rhythm. Lorre admitted that he “was nervous… But almost as soon as we started talking, I remembered, we were friends once. And that friendship just suddenly seemed to be there again.”
“I don’t want to be too mawkish about it, but it was healing,” he continued. “And he was also totally game to make fun of himself. When he came to the table read of that episode, I walked up, and we hugged. It was just great.” Even if Bookie folded before Lorre intended, that’s a pretty good payout.
