As 'George & Tammy' ends, the show features Wilmington locations and courts controversy

Country music mini-series "George & Tammy" delves into one of the most famous, productive and dysfunctional romantic and musical partnerships in pop culture history: the tumultuous marriage of country legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette, who made enduring music even while battling considerable personal demons, not to mention each other.

With A-list actors Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain playing, and singing, the roles of Jones and Wynette, the show's action, while set in Nashville, plays out against a Wilmington backdrop.

Based in part on a book, "The Three of Us," by the couple's only child, Georgette Jones, "George & Tammy" was shot in the Wilmington area in late 2021 and early 2022 with an estimated $50 million budget.

It premiered in early December, and the sixth and final episode of "George & Tammy" is scheduled to air Friday.

You can watch it on Showtime and the Paramount Network, and stream it on Paramount+ (with the Showtime bundle) or on Hulu.

With many scenes shot on sets or using interior locations, the Wilmington area isn't featured quite as prominently as in some other movies and TV shows that have filmed here. Still, plenty of Port City locations do show up. (Warning! Spoilers follow if you've not seen the show.)

More: George and TammyWilmington-shot country music series 'George & Tammy' premieres, shows off Thalian Hall

More: Wilmington filmAfter a near-record year for Wilmington's film industry, what's coming in 2023?

Historic Wilmington theater Thalian Hall was prominently featured throughout the show's first episode, titled "The Race Is On," with The Hall playing one of the many venues Jones and Wynette toured when they fell in love.

In a subsequent episode, one of Jones' most famous low points plays out on Wilmington's Love Grove Memorial Bridge, also known as One Tree Hill Way. Jones was a great singer but also a prolific drinker, and in the scene, after Chastain/Wynette takes all of the keys to all of Jones' many cars to keep him from leaving to get more booze with which to continue his bender, Jones hops on his riding lawn mower and drives it to the bar.

In the show, the bar where Jones ends up is venerable Wilmington dive and music venue The Rusty Nail on South Fifth Avenue. There, Shannon as Jones gets wasted with friend and bandmate Peanut Montgomery (Walton Goggins), attacks the wall with his pool cue and briefly considers the attention of an attractive young bar patron. The Nail turns into a honky tonk for a few scenes, with Shannon performing on the venue's cozy stage.

Some outdoor concert scenes were shot at Legion Stadium, but you can't see much of the venue because the shots in those scenes are so tight. In episode No. 5, "Two Story House," however, when Chastain as Wynette waits for Jones to finish his set so she can follow him on stage, long shots show her smoking in one of Legion's concrete, bunker-like hallways.

In another scene, Steve Zahn as villainous county songwriter and promoter George Richey shows his true colors by assaulting his wife, Sheila (Kelly McCormack), in a car parked by the restrooms at Buck Hardee Field next to Legion Stadium.

Multiple scenes play out at a distinctive, '60s-modern mansion with lots of white latticed brick on Blythe Road in Wilmington's Glen Meade neighborhood. The house stands in for the Nashville home where Wynette moves with her kids after she leaves Jones, and where she marries Richey while she's in a drugged-out stupor.

A couple of scenes are shot in the brick-walled Dickerson Alley downtown off North Second Street downtown, and the interior of the historic New Hanover County Courthouse is set to make an appearance in the show's final episode, at least judging from a teaser scene in which Jones faces a judge and admits he's an alcoholic.

Along the way, a number of Wilmington actors get some screen time.

Longtime Port City theater actor Gray Hawks probably gets the most as a real estate agent who sells Chastain/Wynette her new house, and William Flaman shows up as the bartender Shannon/Jones confides in and later frightens with his unruly behavior.

Jana Allen, credited as "concerned woman," has a scene with Chastain in which her character perhaps serves as a reminder of what Wynette's life might've been like had she not achieved country music stardom. Also, Wilmington actor Paul Teal shows up as a backup singer in a recording session.

"George & Tammy" has been generally well-reviewed, with Shannon and Chastain praised for their performances, if not their singing, in the leading roles. The show had an 82 percent "fresh" rating on review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com, and it also broke a 46-year record as the most-watched show ever to premiere on Showtime, with an estimated 3.3 million viewers.

The show has at least one notable detractor, however. Tyler Mahan Coe, who writes and produces the acclaimed classic country music podcast "Cocaine & Rhinestones," isn't a fan. In a tweet, he called "George & Tammy" one of the worst country biopics ever made (and there have been some doozies).

In another tweet, however, and in a YouTube video, Coe, who is the son of country singer and songwriter David Allan Coe, accused the show of plagiarism, saying a monologue spoken by Jones in a bar was taken from his podcast without his permission.

Coe noted the similarities between a passage in his podcast and the lines spoken in the show, saying on Twitter that "half of George Jones' little speech in the post-credits opening bar scene of Episode 4 is lifted directly from" his podcast.

Indeed, many of the lines spoken by Shannon in the scene Coe references are strikingly similar, in some cases identical, to the words Coe wrote for his podcast. Coe cited the source he used, a biography of Jones, in writing his podcast, and said he was paraphrasing a direct quote by Jones about the dark side of fame.

In a video, Coe said he felt "ripped off," calls the show's writing "downright lazy" and reads excerpts of what he said "may very well soon be evidence in a court case."

Coe said he doesn't know if he has an "actionable" case, but added that "I'm going to have a lawyer look into" the matter.

"George & Tammy," of which Chastain is a co-producer, was created by Abe Sylvia ("The Eyes of Tammy Faye"), who is among a half-dozen credited writers on the show's Internet Movie Database page.

Coe did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, and neither did publicists representing "George & Tammy."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Country TV show George & Tammy features Wilmington, courts controversy