Two adults. One kid. No grown-ups.

Genre: Comedy
Episode(s): 7.08 “Gorp. Fnark. Schmegle.”, 7.18 “Ixnay on the Oggie Day”, 9.01 “Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt”
Role: Gail (guest appearance)
Status: Ep. 7.08 original airdate November 16 2009, 7.18 March 22 2010, 9.01 September 19 2011 (U.S.)
Series Creator(s): Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn
Cast: Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones, Conchata Ferrell, Jennifer Taylor, Ashton Kutcher
Network: CBS

• Overview
• Memorable Gail Quotations
• Said of Two and a Half Men
• Two and a Half Men Episode Trivia
• Reception: Awards & Personal Thoughts
• Two and a Half Men Online

More Two and a Half Men images of Tricia in our Two and a Half Men Photo Gallery

Series and episode overview by Tricia Helfer Fan:

Two and a Half Men is one of CBS’ longest-running shows and America’s most popular sitcoms. Since 2003, the show has followed Charlie Harper (Sheen), a hedonistic writer/bachelor with a taste for women, his uptight brother Alan, and Alan’s underachieving son Jake, and their blundering under the same roof.

In episode “Gorp. Fnark. Schmegle,” Charlie and his current girlfriend Chelsea (Taylor) are dining with Chelsea’s sexy old college girlfriend Gail, when Gail suddenly breaks down at the restaurant and tells them about her difficult break-up. When Chelsea invites Gail to stay over at the Harpers for a couple of days to recover, Charlie soon finds himself rather too sexually attracted to the gorgeous and vulnerable Gail, and eventually has his brother unwittingly chase her out of the house with his clumsy advances.

In episode “Ixnay on the Oggie Day”, Charlie & co. happen to be dining at a fast food place when they happen to run into Gail. Having broken up with Chelsea since they last met, Charlie is now also on the rebound and he and Gail soon end up sleeping with each other. Or as Charlie himself puts it, “There’s no arguing with a boner.”

In episode “Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt”, Charlie has untimely met his maker and an internet billionaire ends up buying his beach house.

* * * *

Tricia Helfer portrays Gail, Chelsea’s stunning old college roommate.

From episode 7.08 “Gorp. Fnark. Schmegle.”:

[sobs] “I know, it’s just hard. I thought I knew him. That we were gonna be together forever like you and Charlie.”

“I feel bad for kicking your brother out of his room.”
[Charlie: "Well, that's only because you don't know him."]

[sobs] “I’m sorry I’m such a basket case.”

[Chelsea: "I want you to make Gail happy."]
[Charlie: "You're on board?"]
“It was my idea.”
[Chelsea: "Don't worry, she and I have done this before."]
“In college.”
[Charlie: "I knew it. Okay! Let's turn that frown upside down!"]

[Charlie: "Gail, are you okay?"]
[sobs] “I’m fine.”
[Charlie: "Good, good. I'm gonna run some errands, can I get you anything while I'm out?"]
[sobs] “A reason to live?”
[Charlie: "Alrighty."]

“Maybe Chelsea will let me borrow you?”

[sobs]“Sorry. I just got some bad news.”
[Charlie: "What happened?"]
“My boyfriend…”
[Charlie: "Rufus?"]
“That’s my dog.”

[says in her head] “Oh, dear God, no.”

From episode 7.18 “Ixnay on the Oggie Day”:

“I’m still not over my break-up. But I’m not much of a drinker, so… Cheers!” [holds up a pizza]

[Charlie: "Have you ah... seen Chelsea?"]
“Yeah, actually I had dinner with them on… We had dinner with them just the other night.”
[Charlie: "Her and Brad?"]
“Yeah, come to think of it he was there.”
[Charlie: "Sounds like they're an item now, huh?"]
“I guess.”
[Charlie: "You guess?"]
“What do you want from me, Charlie? They’re in Mexico for the weekend.”

“I hope that smile’s for me…”

From episode 9.01 “Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt”:

[Alan: "But I think we can all agree that Charlie lived life to its fullest and gave it everything he had."]
[Isabella: "Gave me herpes."]
[Chelsea: "Chlamydia."]
“Vaginal warts.”

Select quotations regarding the show from Tricia Helfer and her co-workers:

On why Two and a Half Men is one of her favorite guest appearances:
“It’s hard to say because like you just said, they are varying. I think I could have a favorite if they were all the same type of show, but since they all have different tones, it’s hard to pick a favorite. You like them for different reasons. If I had to pick… It would be Two and a Half Men, strictly because I never did comedy before. I never did a sitcom, a three camera half hour show; it was definitely a challenge and something new. I’d certainly like to do more of that and it’s obviously great to have the number one sitcom comedy show on your resume. That was definitely something I was glad to do.”
- UGO interview, August 3 2010

Coming soon/not available.

Two and a Half Men episodes 7.08, 7.18 and 9.01 have not received any awards or nominations.

Personal Thoughts

Sandra: Two and a Half Men is one of those shows that I tend to only tune in to when there’s “nothing better on” (which goes for pretty much all American sitcoms). Which isn’t to say it’s a bad show, by no means, but rather goes to show how little television I watch these days in general. But as much as the two continuing themes of the show — sex and women — probably irk some, it is still probably the most popular half-hour comedy in America today, and I don’t know that I have any argument against that. Personally, I’ve laughed more watching one episode of Half Men than a full season of Friends. (I’m only saying.)

It was really interesting to see Tricia doing full-fledged comedy for the first time on the show as well. Except for a couple of quasi-comedic characters on Chuck and Warehouse 13, she hadn’t really done any comedy until Two and a Half Men‘s Gail, and despite Gail’s one-dimensional character (especially in the first episode) it was not a bad comedy debut at all. Tricia is particularly good in the second episode, in which Gail as a character is imo a lot less vanilla and artificial than in the first.

Below are some Two and a Half Men related links that may be of interest to you.

• Two and a Half Men official site
• Two and a Half Men TFL-approved fanlisting
• Two and a Half Men TFL-approved Gail character fanlisting
• Two and a Half Men on IMDb.com
• Two and a Half Men on MetaCritic.com
• Two and a Half Men on Wikipedia.org