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Series / George & Tammy

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Stand by your man

George & Tammy is a 6-episode biographical Miniseries from 2022 starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon as Country Music power couple Tammy Wynette and George Jones. The series charts their career from their first meeting in the 1960s through their comeback tour in the 1990s.

Tropes associated with George & Tammy include:

  • Addled Addict: Tammy, who while mostly able to function while on stage and tour is prone to overdoses from the painkillers she's addicted to and whose fear of needles leads her into an abusive relationship with Ricky when he's the only one willing to inject her. George later also begins abusing cocaine on top of his alcoholism.
  • Alcoholic Parent / Junkie Parent: Both George and Tammy, to varying degrees.
  • The Alcoholic: George, big time. He sobers up briefly during his marriage to Tammy, but when he falls Off the Wagon, he falls hard and isn't able to sober up again until decades later.
  • Approval of God: Georgette Jones, the daughter of George & Tammy, served as an Executive Producer on the series and voiced her approval of the portrayal.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: George dresses eccentrically, makes animal noises at weird times, and is very often drunk, but when he's on his game he can still make some of the most beautiful country music in history.
  • The Cameo: Tim Blake Nelson appears in the first episode as Roy Acuff, who performs "Wabash Cannonball".
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: George is an eccentric on his best day, and when he's drunk (which is often) it gets even worse.
  • The Comeback: The final sequence in the series shows the reunion tour George and Tammy held to great success in the 1990s.
  • Descent into Addiction: Tammy is shown to first become reliant on painkillers following a botched hysterectomy. After subsequent surgeries fail to cure the pain, she becomes a full-blown addict and abuser of painkillers.
  • Disappeared Dad: George is absent from his and Tammy's daughter Georgette's life following their divorce, and in the final episode it's shown how much this has alienated her from him.
  • Dr. Feelgood: Tammy received tons of highly addictive painkillers from doctors to deal with the pain that resulted from a botched hysterectomy, and quickly becomes and addict and abuser. This trope is exploited in one scene were Tammy convinces a pharmacist to give her the painkillers she wants by offering an autograph to his wife.
  • Drunken Master: Deconstructed with George. It's often commented that his fans love the wild, drunken George, and it's implied that he falls Off the Wagon due to wanting to get back on top after Tammy's success started to overshadows his own. But he's still hell to work when he's drunk, alienates most of his family and coworkers, and only truly gets his bearings back when he's sober again in the 1990s.
  • Good People Have Good Sex: George and Tammy are shown to have a very passionate love life, even after they're divorced and rearried to other people.
  • Gun Nut: When he gets particularly drunk, George is liable to threaten people with guns.
  • Production Posse:
  • Real Men Love Jesus: Both Peanutt and later George credit the Christian Church with helping them get and stay sober.
  • Southern Belle: Tammy, born on the Alabama/Mississippi border, is a Southern Belle through and through.
  • Titled After the Song: Various episodes of the series are drawn from songs sung by Jones and Wynette.
  • What Might Have Been: The project was originally intended to be a film directed by Tate Taylor and starring Chastain and Josh Brolin. Eventually it was reworked into a miniseries, and although Brolin left the role of George due to scheduling conflicts, he remained on the series and an Executive Producer.

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