The FX network hasn't seen a pilot episode or even a script of the new Charlie Sheen sitcom "Anger Management" that it plans to launch in June.
But FX President John Landgraf told TV critics Sunday that he'll take the gamble, because "this is a different Charlie Sheen" and "I believe in redemption."
The pickup is not, he added, "a cynical publicity stunt."
FX has committed to 10 episodes, then 90 more if it likes what it has seen. The show is based on the 2003 Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson movie of the same title, with Sheen playing a man struggling with his career while raising a 13-year-old daughter.
"This is the character Charlie ought to be playing now," said Landgraf. "He has a checkered past, but he is very self-aware and he wants to do more positive things in his life."
Sheen personally pitched the show, Landgraf says - to several networks - and he thinks last year's bad boy has gotten his act together.
"I think we saw a different Charlie Sheen than we saw around the time he was leaving 'Two and a Half Men'," Landgraf said.
And yes, Landgraf said, he knows it's not a sure thing, particularly since he buys almost no shows without seeing a pilot.
"But everything you do," he said, "is a roll of the dice."
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