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The swinging-bachelor lifestyle of commercial-jingle composer -- and chronic gambler -- Charlie Harper (Sheen) was sorely disrupted when his Malibu beach house was invaded by his uptight brother, Alan (Cryer), and Alan's ten-year-old son, Jake (Jones). Given the childish hedonism of Charlie and the domestic immaturity of the soon-to-be-divorced Alan, young Jake turned out to be the true "grown-up" in the Harper household. Also seen from time to time were Marin_Hinkle as Alan's ex-wife Judith (who may or may not have been gay); Melanie_Lynskey as Charlie's erstwhile lover and next-door neighbor Rose; and Holland_Taylor (replacing the pilot episode's Blythe_Danner) as Charlie and Alan's control-freak mother, Evelyn.