Retooled ‘Two and a Half Men’ finds new dynamic

The stars of CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” are scrutinizing a publicity photo depicting them as a tuxedo-clad trio sharing a vintage microphone.

Ashton Kutcher is in the center of the shot, flanked by Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones. Charlie Sheen, of course, is out of the picture.

“It’s nice,” offers Cryer, adding to Jones: “But that’s not your hand, is it? I believe they had too big a black spot there and they photoshopped in a hand.”

“That’s not my head, is it?” chimes in Kutcher.

The silliness carries a message: The three actors are a comfortable fit with each other and for the revamped “Two and a Half Men,” which returns tonight for its ninth season, minus the fired Sheen.

Executive producer Chuck Lorre and the Warner Bros. studio clashed bitterly with their erratic, hard-partying star before dumping him last March and cutting the season short. The task now is to salvage what has reigned as TV’s top-rated comedy.

Kutcher, who carries the weight of replacing Sheen as newly introduced character Walden Schmidt, diligently ticks off reasons the sitcom can remain a hit.

“The series has momentum. It has fans that are built in,” he says.

“I think the great thing the writers have done is they haven’t lost the sensibility of the show. … It’s going to offend people just as much as every episode has offended people.”

“Two and a Half Men” accomplished that by trafficking in sexual jokes and innuendo as it detailed the antics of fast-living, womanizing cad Charlie Harper (Sheen).

More fodder came from his roommates, Charlie’s neurotic, divorced brother Alan (Cryer) and young nephew Jake (Jones).

The shake-up has given the show the chance to push the envelope in a new direction: laughing in the face of death, with Sheen’s character jettisoned in a fatal accident.

Kutcher fills the vacuum playing an Internet genius, wealthy but unlucky in love, who moves in with Alan and Jake, creating a new buddy triangle. Judy Greer plays the heartbroken Walden’s ex.

Producers have been trying, sometimes unsuccessfully, to keep details of the reconstituted show under wraps. Kutcher, who sports a beard in the role, plays it coy when asked about the facial hair.

“You got to ask the writers. We’re not allowed to talk about the beard,” he says, then relents: “I was being really lazy when I met Chuck and he said, ‘I like the beard. Keep the beard.’ ”

Cryer learned about Charlie Harper’s demise in an operation worthy of the CIA.

“There was tremendous security during the whole thing and, in fact, no scripts were sent out,” he says. “You were brought to Warner (Warner Bros. Television), taken into a room with the scripts, left there for half an hour by yourself and then you had to leave the script in the room and walk out.”

He and his co-stars say that it’s all smooth sailing now.

“We’ve definitely found our dynamic,” Kutcher says.

Cryer agrees, lauding the show’s writers and his new co-star.

“I think we got a lot of great stuff in the first episode,” he says. “The writers got hold of a good dynamic, plus he (Kutcher) changed it in a way that works better than the writers had originally imagined.”

Given the bad blood between Sheen and producers, does he think killing the character of Charlie seems more vengeful than funny?

Cryer, who smartly kept out of the fray engulfing Sheen and their bosses and who says he hasn’t heard from Sheen, is diplomatic in his reply.

“The writers had an enormous challenge and you’ll see they handled it beautifully,” he says. “Change is often shocking, but it’s so true to the show. And sometimes stuff you don’t see coming happens in life.”

He laughs, ruefully: “And in that respect it was very true to life.”