"Two and Half Men" star on rocky road to the final season

The 12th and final season of the hit CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men" premieres Thursday night.

The show had some very public ups and downs and a significant change in cast, but co-star Jon Cryer pulled through it all, reports CBS News Ben Tracy.

"I intend to keep coming to the lot even if they don't want to let me in," Cryer said. "I'm gonna be that guy just sitting out in front of the lot."

One-third of the original "Two and a Half Men," Jon Cryer has been coming to Stage 26 on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California for more than a decade.

The show debuted in 2003 and has earned Cryer two Emmys. It also turned low-brow humor into one of the highest rated sitcoms on TV.

"The show has never tried to be classy," Cryer said. "We are an unapologetic sex farce. If there was ever any warmth, the slightest bit of warmth injected, we undercut it in a moment with a fart joke or boobs or something like that."

But in its final season, the show is showing its softer side. Cryer's character Alan is getting married to Walden, played by Ashton Kutcher -- two straight guys using gay marriage to up their odds of adopting a child.

"Alan would be stupid enough to do something like that," he said. "Walden, I'm not so sure. He's got options."

But Alan isn't quite as much of dork as Cryer's character, Duckie, in the 1980s hit film "Pretty in Pink."

In the season 12 premiere, Cryer revisits his famous role for Halloween.

Cryer admits that Duckie left him with a certain reputation, what he affectionately calls "a slightly effeminate heterosexual dork."

Now with his sitcom coming to an end, Cryer is trying to savor every moment.

"They wheeled out a cake for me cause it happened to be on my birthday we were shooting the pilot of "Two and a Half Men," he said. "And I blew out the candles and they asked me 'what did you wish for?' and I said 'I wished that in ten years all of us are still here.'"

Little did they know, telling his wish, didn't stop it from coming true.

"And they all laughed like 'yeah, he's dreaming,'" Cryer recalled. "But then it turned out most of us were; most of us with one notable exception."

That notable and now infamous exception was Charlie Sheen, who had a very public meltdown and was fired from the show.

Cryer admitted he was worried that the show he put so much time into was going to sink under all the pressure.

"All during the craziness that was going on, the big thought in my mind was, 'is my friend going to die tomorrow?'" Cryer said. "You love him so much and he's capable of being this wonderful guy. But you know he's on that edge."

Cryer is now in a new dark comedy called "Hit by Lightning," but he's less worried about life after sitcom stardom and more about how his wife, Lisa, will adjust.

"The strangest thing is gonna be for my wife who's never been with me when I wasn't doing this show," he said. "She doesn't know. I could be, you know, that guy who just walks around the house in a threadbare bathrobe and, you know, with the Brandy Alexander and wear my sunglasses and just like watch reruns of the show. That could be me."

If it comes to that, at least he will still be laughing.