Fish in a Drawer

Infobox Television episode
Title = Fish in a Drawer
Series = Two and a Half Men


Caption = Charlie, Alan and Berta discover Teddy's body
Season = 5
Episode = 17
Airdate = Start date|2008|5|5
Production = 3T6267
Writer = Evan Dunsky
Sarah Goldfinger
Carol Mendelsohn
Naren Shankar
Director = Jeffrey Melman
Music = "The Man I Love"
"Unchained Melody"
"Who Are You" (altered version)
Photographer =
Guests = Hope Allen, John Burke, Dan Cole, George Eads, Michael Lowry, Nicole Malgarini, Jenny McCarthy, Carrie Reichenbach, Jamie Rose, Hollie Stenson, Nakia Syvonne, Brett Wagner, Robert Wagner, Ping Wu
Episode list = List of Two and a Half Men episodes
Prev = "Look at Me, Mommy, I'm Pretty"
Next = "If My Hole Could Talk"

Fish in a Drawer is the 17th episode of the 5th season of "Two and a Half Men" and the 113th episode overall. The episode was written by "" writers Evan Dunsky, Sarah Goldfinger, Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar who swapped shows with the writing staff of "Two and a Half Men".

Plot

At the reception of Evelyn and Teddy's wedding, Charlie still wants to marry Courtney, his new step-sister, and decides to go up to his room with her. When they lay down on the bed, in the dark, Charlie discovers that he is lying on something, when he turns on the light he finds Teddy lying dead on his bed with his pants on his knees, and lipstick on his "hoo-hoo". When Charlie tells Alan, they find out they have an even bigger problem: telling their mother. After pulling Evelyn away from the piano, they tell her and she then cashes in their honeymoon tickets for a trip for one to Fiji before calling the police.

After the police arrives and examine the crime scene, Charlie, Alan, Evelyn, Berta, Courtney, and Jake are brought to the station for separate questioning. Charlie ends up being more obsessed with his interrogator, Alan is afraid of going to jail and he could not talk straight, Evelyn spends more time complaining about their coffee, Berta turns out to be a waste of time and Jake talks about food. It gets clear pretty soon that Evelyn is an easy target, since almost all of her prior husbands had died. But after the files of Teddy and his daughter Courtney come back, the crime team discovers that their real names are Nathan Krunk and Sylvia Fishman, and they aren't even related. It turns out that Sylvia (Courtney) and Nathan (Teddy) actually were con artists. The crime team thought that Nathan was murdered, because of the bruise on the back of his head, but it was revealed that he died of a heart attack, while attempting to have sex with Sylvia. The bruise had happened two days earlier.

Production

Quote_box|width=30%|align=left|quote="In the worst-case scenario it's just an oddity. It's like the last episode of 'The Prisoner,' where everything just went all crazy. It could be something people will discuss for the next 40 years."
source=- Jon Cryercite news|title='Two and a Half Men,' 'CSI' pull a switch on CBS|url=http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/partii/ny-etcbs5674428may05,0,4479398.story|publisher=Newsday.com|first=Jay|last=Bobbin|date=2008-04-05|accessdate=2008-06-26] In 2007 Chuck Lorre, the creator of "Two and a Half Men" contacted Carol Mendelsohn, the showrunner of "", about a crossover. The first reactions to this were that it was a stupid idea, Naren Shankar commented that when Mendelsohn first told him about the idea he replied: "What a Nut".cite news|title="Two & A Half Men" & "CSI" Make TV History|url=http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/05/tv/main4072701.shtml|publisher=Showbuzz|work=Show Writers Teamed Up, Swapped Scripts To Create Crossover Episodes|date=2008-04-05|accessdate=2008-06-26] However, that same year, the idea resurfaced, when Lorre and Mendelsohn met at the World Television Festival in Canada. In the beginning, even the cast had some question marks with the whole plan, but they eventually just jumped aboard.

When Mendelsohn was giving a talk, she accidentally mentioned about the crossover, that same day "Variety Magazine" was already inquiring about the crossover episodes. Mendelsohn eventually revealed the crossover at the Banff event in Canada.cite news|title=CSI, Two and a Half Men to trade writers?|url=http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/06/13/csi-two-and-a-half-men-to-trade-writers/|publisher=TV Squad|first=Bob|last=Sassone|date=2007-06-13|accessdate=2008-06-26] After the episde was taped Lorre stated: "The biggest challenge for us was doing a comedy with a murder in it. Generally our stories are a little lighter" stated Lorre in an interview, "would our audience go with a dead body in it? There was a moment where it could have gone either way. I think the results were spectacular. It turned out to be a really funny episode". The corresponding "CSI" episode aired on May 8. cite news|last=DeLeon|first=Kris|title='CSI' and 'Two and a Half Men' Crossover Previews|url=http://www.buddytv.com/articles/csi/csi-and-two-and-a-half-men-cro-18859.aspx|publisher=BuddyTV|date=2008-04-24|accessdate=2008-06-26]

Reception

The episode gave ABC's indomitable "Dancing With the Stars" some strong competition, as it scored a solid 8.5 rating and a 13 share against the final half hour of "Dancing," which drew a 12.3/18.cite web|author=Studiobriefing|title=Fish in a Drawer (Two and a Half Men) on The IMDB|url=http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0182742/|publisher=The Internet Movie Database|accessdate=2008-07-21] The episode gained positive reviews; it has a 9.2 superb rating on TV.com.cite web|title=Fish in a Drawer (Two and a Half Men) reviews|url=http://www.tv.com/two-and-a-half-men/fish-in-a-drawer/episode/1197488/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;16|publisher=TV.com|accessdate=2008-06-26] . cite web|title=Fish in a Drawer (Two and a Half Men) review by dpm1did1|url=http://www.tv.com/two-and-a-half-men/fish-in-a-drawer/episode/1197488/reviews.html?review_id=508296&
|publisher=TV.com|accessdate=2008-07-21] On TVrage the episode gained 8 out of 10 stars. On Yahoo! TV the episode got 91% Great Episode! and 9% Not so great episode, Based on 68 ratings. cite web|title=Fish in a Drawer (Two and a Half Men)|url=http://tv.yahoo.com/two-and-a-half-men/show/fish-in-a-drawer/episode/169196;_ylt=Arylu63cC5ueGPdwnbcfxkutv9EF|publisher=Yahoo! TV|accessdate=2008-07-23]

Cultural References

Listen
filename=Fishinadrawer.ogg
title=Title reference
description=The title reference, said by Evelyn
format=Ogg
* The opening song is an altered version of The Who's "Who Are You", which is the opening theme of "CSI".
* George Eads, who portrays crime scene investigator Nick Stokes on "CSI" made a cameo as a guest at the wedding reception. He walks up to a woman that Alan had just been talking to and asks, "Friend of the bride or friend of the groom?" Alan then tells him, "Friend of mine."
* The super-tight zoom-in, on, for example Jake, spilling strawberry over his shirt, and the grainy flashback styles are also borrowed from "CSI".
* At her wedding reception, Evelyn sings both "The Man I Love" and "Unchained Melody".
* The title reference of this episode is said by Evelyn, on an answer to how Charlie and Alan's father died.

ee also

* Two And a Half Deaths, the corresponding "CSI" episode.

References

External links

*
*
* [http://www.chucklorre.com/index.php?p=209 Vanity Card #209] the vanity card that closes this episode.
* Short 3-part documentary on Youtube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1giHpkh7kGU Pt. 1] , [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-0v9Ck7msQ&feature=related Pt. 2] , [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UzGrXftM1A&feature=related Pt. 3]