Off the Wagon: Difference between revisions

In any show featuring a recovering [[The Alcoholic|alcoholic]] (or other such drug addict), they will inevitably return to drinking at least once during the series. In fairness, this happens quite a bit to recovering alcoholics in real life as well, but it's not as inevitable as television would have us believe (although it is one reason why many [[Real Life]] programs to help with alcohol and drug addiction take pains to stress that someone is a ''recovering'' alcoholic / addict rather than a ''cured'' one, and that it is an ongoing and often lifelong process rather than something that can be quickly fixed). In a drama, this is almost always a [[Very Special Episode]]. In a comedy, it can be done either as a [[Very Special Episode]] or just for laughs. The relapse can be caused by trying to [[Drowning My Sorrows|drown sorrows.]]

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Marvel Universe|Marvel Comics]]' [[Iron Man]] has fallen off the wagon more than once. In fact, he has tried to help fellow superhero Ms. Marvel/Binary/Warbird in her own battle with alcoholism.

* ''[[Secret Six]]'': Bane references this trope by name when he takes a dose of the super-steroid Venom to save Scandal. And by save Scandal we mean [[Psycho Serum|brutally murder several super-villains]] [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BuENOh6AKqA/Sbb45iUWqTI/AAAAAAAAD_E/XdLTtoZos0w/s1600-h/SecretSix002.jpg then completely lose his fucking mind and see Batman everywhere]. And worse, it doesn't even work.

* Katchoo from ''[[Strangers in Paradise]]'' tends to do this when she's had a big fight with a friend, especially Francine.

* In ''[[Irredeemable|Incorruptible]]'' this happens to {{spoiler|Louis Armadale, once he finds out that Max had killed a child}}.

* ''Haunting in Connecticut''. Where the father starts out in recovery and later falls off.

* "[[Airplane!|Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking...]]"

* Played straight in ''[[Hamlet 2]]'', where Dana Marschz, the main character, during goes on a drinking binge as part of his [[Heroic BSOD]]/DarkestHour sequence.

* William Munny in ''[[Unforgiven]]''. First drinking. Then violence.

* Thea in ''[[Applause]]'' does well for a time with the drinking, but does give in to drink and becomes confrontational toward her ex-husband.

 

== Literature ==

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[The West Wing]]'', Leo McGarry (though only in a [[Flash Back]])

* ''[[Law and Order]]'', Lenny Briscoe hits the bottle, and it leads (somewhat indirectly) to the death of a major character.

* Subverted in the ''[[My So-Called Life|MSCL]]'' ep appropriately titled "On the Wagon". Patty suspects Rayanne has fallen off, but it turns out she hasn't.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'s'' Saul Tigh does this at least once an episode, to the resignedness of his commanding officer. His wife, Ellen, simply never gets ON the wagon in the first place and is probably mainly responsible for Saul's drinking: {{spoiler|because I'd drink too, if I had to kill my wife for being a suspected Cylon collaborator and then find out that oops, I'm a Cylon myself}}.

* ''[[Kitchen Confidential]]'' had Jack Bordain take a sip of champagne, but spit it back into the glass.

* ''[[Life]]'' had an episode, "Powerless," where Dani Reese is forced at gunpoint to start downing vodka shots. Of course, Reese had spent the beginning of the episode at a bar before going to her AA meeting.

* Averted (so far) with ''[[Law and Order]] / [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU's]]'' Capt. Don Cragen, who has been known to keep a bottle of vodka in his office and serve others from it.

** Played straight with SVU's Sonya Paxton, though, who fell off the wagon and came to court drunk, causing a mistrial and her going to rehab.

*** Actually, she was never on the wagon, but was playing the [[Functional Addict]].

* Subverted in an episode of of the sitcom ''[[Titus]]'': The title character's father, habitual drinker Ken Titus, goes on the wagon, and his relatives find his sober behavior so insufferable that within two weeks they have an intervention to urge him to start drinking again.

** Played straight when Titus' business closes he starts drinking again. Five minutes into the next episode he sobers up for a total of 10 minutes of him being a drunk.

* ''[[True Blood]]'', Detective Andy Bellefleur

* ''[[Rescue Me]]'' plays with this quite a bit in Tommy Gavin's case. After spending most of Season 1 in various stages of drunkenness, he goes on the wagon in Season 2. The audience is occasionally shown a scene of Tommy descending into drunkenness after something particularly tragic happens to him, only for it to be revealed that it was just in his head and he's still sober, albeit miserable.

* In ''[[Leverage]]'' "The Bottle Job" Nathan falls off the wagon. And stays off.

* Mac from ''[[JAG]]'', after her ex dies in her arms. She's also being stalked.

* In the [[Gag Dub]] ''[[Soupy Norman]]'', the titular Soupy is regularly mentioned as having been a former drink and drug addict, but has now been sober for over a year ( [[Memetic Mutation|that's nearly 12 months!]] ). However, every time he appears in the show he is so drunk that he can barely stand up or speak coherently, and regularly tries to start fights with the character Jack, who answers the door. What makes this funnier is that Jack makes the comments about Soupy being sober for so long just AFTER he's kicked Soupy out for being drunk. Of course, Jack's whole character is based around the fact he never remembers anything, even if it happened a few seconds before.

* [[Warehouse 13]] has a interesting case when the six-year sober Pete goes through a un-itentional [[Freaky Friday Flip]] with his female partner Myka... who was at her High School Reunion and had just downed three vodka martinis. Oops.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* This happens all the time with professional wrestlers, particularly older veterans working the independent circuit. [[Scott Hall]] and [[Jake Roberts|Jake "The Snake" Roberts]] are amongst the more notorious examples of this, but far from the only ones.

* The most famous example is [[Jake Roberts]]' appearance at a 1999 pay per view titled Heroes of Wrestling. Prior to his match with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Jake cut a slurred, rambling, incoherent promo. When he came to the ring, he was so drunk he couldn't even stand up straight, engaged in lewd behavior with some fans at ringside, then got in the ring, held his snake up to his crotch and started stroking it. Needless to say the match didn't last long.

* Sadly many wrestlers never recover from substance abuse problems, leading to a shockingly long list of those who have died of unnatural causes before the age of 50 including [[Curt Hennig|Mr. Perfect]] (Accute Cocaine intoxication), [[Eddie Guerrero]] (Heart attack caused by years of steroid and perscription drug abuse), The British Bulldog (Same thing), Crash Holly (Choked on alcohol induced vomit), Miss Elizabeth (Drug overdose), Bam Bam Bigelow (Drug overdose), the list goes on and on.

 

== Theatre ==

* Doc Delaney, in William Inge's ''Come Back, Little Sheba''.

 

== Video Games ==

* Played for laughs in ''Fable II''. After completing a quest for an npc, said npc's wife tells him to get back on the wagon. He instantly responds, "Wagon? Where? Kids, look out for the wagon!!"

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Misfile]]'' Rumisiel spends more time off the wagon than on it, he is getting better though.

 

== Western Animation ==

** In a later episode, Pickles goes dry after a drunken international incident involving a flying drum kit. Later on, he has to get drunk to save the band with the exact same stunt.

** Earlier, Pickles' old band Snakes and Barrels went clean after breaking up, but shortly before their reunion concert they were convinced to take a hit of experimental drug Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquid Snake. This comes back to bite them later (in the same episode when Dr. Rockso falls off the wagon) while they're trying to put on a show as a new straight-edge band.

** In "Deep Space Homer", Barney goes on the wagon for astronaut training and aces all his tests. However, he degenerates back into his town drunkard persona after celebrating with a toast of ''non-alcoholic'' champagne.

*** More than that, Barney keeps getting on and off the wagon to the point where his current status as an alcoholic changes from episode to episode.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Is Your Index On Drugs]]

[[Category:Food Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Plots]]