Holland Taylor Says Two and a Half Men Never Gave Her a Raise

Holland Taylor says CBS never gave her a raise across six seasons on "Two and a Half Men" — despite four Emmy nominations for the role. "I got four Emmy nominations, and they never gave me a raise. They usually do," Taylor said on the "Alchemy with Anthony Mason" podcast.

Taylor played Evelyn Harper, the mother of Charlie (Charlie Sheen) and Alan (Jon Cryer), on the CBS sitcom. She has now revealed that the size of her paycheck drove her decision not to renew her contract after season six.

How bad was the pay?

Taylor said her salary on the hit show matched what she had earned on a series roughly eight years earlier. In plain terms: six years on one of network television's biggest comedies brought no financial progress beyond her late-1990s rate.

"They never paid me very well on that show. I was paid on that show what I had made on a series like eight years before or something," Taylor said.

She was nominated four times for the Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy during her run on the sitcom. The nominations brought recognition but no money. Takeaway: prestige and pay stayed disconnected for the entire contract.

Why did she walk away from the contract?

After the sixth season, Taylor declined to renew and returned only occasionally as a guest star. She told the producers she would "visit the show occasionally" if they wanted, because, as she put it, "I did play the boys' mother."

"I stopped being under contract. So, in other words, they would say, 'Can you do a guest appearance at the end of March?' And I would say, 'No, I cannot,'" she said. "I only did it if I wanted to do it."

Taylor said the producers were "astonished" by her decision, but she valued the scheduling freedom the guest arrangement gave her.

Did producers think she was bluffing?

Yes. Taylor said the team assumed she was negotiating and told her they could not afford to pay her more.

"I said, 'You could actually pay me the cost of this building, but don't bother because I don't want to continue on under contract,'" she recalled. "And they said, 'But we can't afford to give you more.' I said, 'I'm cool with it. I just will come back as a guest from time to time.'"

Her assessment of the production was blunt: "I loved a lot about that show, but they were not full of courtesies."

What was the show's context?

"Two and a Half Men" ran for 12 seasons on CBS, from 2003 to 2015. Charlie Sheen left in 2011 after public struggles with substance abuse. Taylor's character outlasted that upheaval, appearing across the show's full run in contract and guest capacities.

Taylor's account adds a veteran performer's perspective to the long-running debate over pay parity in television, and it shows that even a four-time Emmy nominee on a 12-season hit could not secure a raise without walking.