FX Boss Believes in Charlie Sheen, Redemption

Charlie Sheen is on his way back into our living room: his FX sitcom premieres in June.

What made that network take a chance on the troubled actor? President and general manager John Landgraf was asked this question by reporters yesterday at the Television Critics Association press tour and said he was "as skeptical as you might imagine" when he first walked in to a pitch meeting with Sheen. But then...

"I saw [a very different Charlie Sheen] in the room, and what I heard was a really good pitch for a comedy series - funny, complicated, and I think the character that Charlie ought to be playing at this point."

Sheen claims he's no longer a crazy person, and Landgraf is banking on the public being as forgiving of the star's crazy actions as he's trying to be.

"I believe in redemption," the executive said. "If the project that came in was one that took no notice or made no reference to or had no consciousness of everything that went before it, and Charlie seemed to have no consciousness of it, that would have been a different matter from my standpoint, because that would have been supporting the perpetuation of something. But, in my view, that's precisely not what Charlie and [executive producer] Bruce Helford want to do, and I'm all for giving them the opportunity to turn things around."

[Photo: Pacific Coast News]