Comedy And Crime Trade Places

See Also: 'Two and a Half Deaths' Episode Guide

Two one-of-a-kind episodes air on CBS this week.

Two and a Half Men airs their part of the writer-crossover with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tonight at 9:00pm ET/PT. In the episode, a body is found in Charlie's (Charlie Sheen) house, and this leads to some CSI-type scenes and procedures. The episode, "Fish in a Drawer", was written by CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar.

Shankar told USA Today that "Fish in a Drawer" is a "little tiny bit of a mystery. It has the style of our show. You've got the colors of our show, the blues and greens of the interrogation room. They did a really great job making it feel like a CSI." The live audience at the taping for the episode had to deal with a plot that is unusual for Two and a Half Men: one that revolves around death. "You could feel the audience a little bit hesitant to jump in on the laughs at first, but then they saw we were all in on the joke, as well," Sheen said. CSI's George Eads (Nick Stokes) will make a cameo appearance in the episode.

On Thursday at 9:00pm ET/PT, CSI will air its half of the crossover with "Two and a Half Deaths". The episode was written by Lee Aronsohn and Chuck Lorre, executive producers for Two and a Half Men. Fans of CSI "will see something that has a lot more jokes per minute than even our funnier episodes, (which) tend to be drier, more black comedy," Shankar explained. "Two and a Half Deaths" revolves around the murder of a sitcom diva (played by Katey Sagal). "It's nice to have something where your tongue is so far into your cheek that it's coming out your ear," William Petersen (Gil Grissom) said about the crossover. "Within the context, it's a total CSI episode." Two and a Half Men stars Sheen, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones will make a quick appearance in "Two and a Half Deaths".

Even though Two and a Half Men and CSI switched writers, the writing teams for both shows were integral in creating the episodes. "You want the episode to fit into the whole body of work," Lorre said. "I didn't want to produce an episode that didn't feel like our show, and Naren and Carol felt the same way." Aronsohn explained that the writers for each show did what they do best. "The comedy in both shows is mostly Chuck and me," he said. "The forensics and crime is mostly them."

The original article is from USA Today. Check out "Fish in a Drawer" tonight at 9:00pm ET/PT and "Two and a Half Deaths" Thursday at 9:00pm ET/PT on CBS.

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