| Set in Miami's South Beach, this original series looks at the world of plastic surgery and the nature of patients seeking cosmetic enhancement. Starring: Julian McMahon, Dylan Walsh, Joely Richardson, and John Hensley. |
 |
| 'Nip/Tuck' makes the cut at FX Graphic drama about surgeons By RICHARD HUFF DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR Ryan Murphy was obsessed with how utterly stupid it seemed that men in the '90s were getting calf implants. So several years ago, as a journalist in search of a story, he got a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon to explain the process. "I was going to write a cheeky article about going to a plastic surgeon from start to finish," Murphy said. "I went to this guy, he was very kind, and I was struck: Within five minutes, I was convinced I not only needed calf implants, but five other things." Murphy, 35, never wrote the story. Eventually, he gave up journalism to become a screenwriter. Next month, his fascination with plastic surgery turns up on air in "Nip/Tuck," an edgy new FX Network drama built around two Miami-based surgeons. Like "The Shield," FX's other big original drama series, "Nip/Tuck" has violence, sex and strong language. But at its heart, it's a story about two friends and their clients, who are seeking a life change via the scalpel. "When I pitched it, I said, 'Don't buy this show if you want the happy ending, because that's not what it's going to be,'" said Murphy, who wrote pieces for the Daily News in the '90s. "We are living in a world that, if we could take care of one last imperfection, one inch off our waistline, one centimeter off our nose, everything would be all right," said FX President Peter Liguori. "['Nip/Tuck'] played on so many different levels." The drama stars Dylan Walsh as Dr. Sean McNamara, who has become disillusioned with the superficiality of his work, and Julian McMahon as Dr. Christian Troy, who picks up breast augmentation patients while bar hopping. Joely Richardson stars as McNamara's wife. The show joins a growing list of FX series whose content can be shocking by the standards of broadcast television. Murphy was given no parameters for shooting the pilot, so it's got more nudity and gore than will get on the air. For example, some surgery scenes - the show opens with doctors tugging on a patient's buttocks to jam in implants - will be trimmed so they're not so graphic, though without losing Murphy's goal of showing how brutal surgery can be for the patients. "We're really mindful of the audience and what we can do," Liguori said. "Our charter is to push the limits of creativity and not of taste. There are clearly established guidelines by what other networks have done in the past. We're going to color within those guidelines." This required Murphy to trim about seven seconds from the first episode - an uncut version viewed by The News included closeups of doctors making incisions and shots of bare breasts during a sex scene. So, having done the research for the earlier story and now this show, how does Murphy feel about cosmetic surgery? "I'm never, ever getting anything done," the writer says. Originally published on June 5, 2003 |
FX drama 'Nip-Tuck' slices into plastic surgery By Lynn Elber Associated Press [ FEATURED ADVERTISER ] Wanda's Hallmark ------------------------------------------------ LOS ANGELES - ''Nip-Tuck,'' FX's new drama about plastic surgeons, cuts deep in more ways than one. There are the scenes involving slicing and carving and one memorable liposuction gone wrong in which the fat hits the fan. Then there are the really big operations, the ones reserved for the hearts and souls of Drs. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and those close to them. McNamara and Troy are friends and partners who, in the first episode, begin to re-evaluate their work and their lives. McNamara's wife (Joely Richardson) is caught between the pair and in her own unhappiness. The cast includes Valerie Cruz, Roma Maffia, Ruth Williamson and John Hensley. Although wrapped in the gaudy ribbon of plastic surgery, ''Nip-Tuck'' is an astringent - and at times darkly comic - character study of two men in midlife crisis. Like another FX drama, ''The Shield,'' the new series (debuting 10 p.m. EDT Tuesday) traffics in imperfect, even corrupt figures and a bravura, in-your-face style. This is Grand Guignol with a surgical mask. It's also an indictment of the false perfection promised by plastic surgery and of the emphasis placed on looks, no matter how much they belie what's underneath. Viewers hoping for gratuitous shots of newly busty babes will be disappointed. Those after a summer shot of TV adrenaline, and with a tolerance for authentic-looking surgery, won't be. ''When I pitched it I said, 'This is not a show about happy. This is not a show where the bandages comes off and everything's fixed,''' said series creator Ryan Murphy. ''This is a show where the bandages come off and everything's worse than before.'' Murphy was inspired by a brush with plastic surgery while a newspaper reporter. He had visited a Beverly Hills doctor planning a ''snarky'' story about such odd developments as calf implants. But he found himself moved by the patients' stories and what they hoped for out of surgery - and taken aback when the doctor suggested remaking him. ''I was shocked at how gullible and sold I was that I could fix internal problems with external changes,'' said Murphy, who dropped the story idea. The incident stayed with him when he moved to his new career as a Hollywood writer. After working on the WB series ''Popular,'' a satire about teenage girls, Murphy wanted a change and a more muscular project. FX, which had already made its mark with the gritty, Emmy-winning police drama ''The Shield,'' was ready for another distinctive show that inhabits ''a bold world,'' said FX Networks President Peter Liguori. ''Clearly the world of plastic surgery is a bold one. It's fresh territory to mine great drama from, it's fresh territory for actors to explore,'' said Liguori. ''What we hope to do with all of our slate is keep pushing the envelope of creativity.'' Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin, who worked with Murphy on ''Popular,'' share executive producing duties with him on ''Nip-Tuck.'' The series' timing feels right, said co-star Walsh (''Brooklyn South,'' the films ''We Were Soldiers,'' ''Bloodwork,'' ''Nobody's Fool''). ''More and more, plastic surgery is on TV, it's in the vernacular,'' Walsh said. ''It's not just in Hollywood, it's all over. Ten or 15 years ago, it was the exercise craze. It's an extension of that: 'I want to look better. Why go to the gym when I can have it taken care of with a scalpel?''' He's pleased with the show's complexity, he said. ''All the main characters of the show are all compromised, constantly. They're all fallible, their morals are questionable at all times.'' McMahon (''Profiler,'' ''Charmed'') also embraced his character, who in the pilot has the corner on sleaze. But the actor was a little slower to warm to his surgical duties. ''Oy, oy, oy,'' was his reaction when he first sliced into a realistic-looking dummy. ''I'm really kind of queasy. I got nervous hearing the word 'doctor.' I went and saw a couple of surgeries being done, and I just tried to get myself attuned to it.'' Might the graphic scenes keep some viewers at bay? ''I hope it's not a premise that turns people off watching, because it's not the show,'' McMahon said. ''The show is about people and lives. It's about making choices and the consequences of the choices we make.'' Even Murphy wasn't prepared for how harsh plastic surgery would look on-screen, he said. (The show also ups the ante with a torture scene in the first episode involving badly misused injections of an anti-wrinkle drug.) When Murphy objected to how a medical consultant was staging one graphic operation, he was told, ''This is how violent these operations are. It's like surviving a car crash face-first at 50 mph.'' Now he's adamant about keeping it real. ''This is all about the pain that people go through on several levels - emotionally, psychically, physically - to change their lives, and it's important I show that.'' |
| Show Stars Valerie Cruz - Grace Santiago John Hensley - Matt McNamara Julian McMahon - Christian Troy Joely Richardson - Julia McNamara Dylan Walsh - Sean McNamara Show Crew Ryan Murphy - Executive Producer Greer Shephard - Executive Producer Mike Robin - Executive Producer Ryan Murphy - Creator |
 |
| Julian McMahon, left, and Dylan Walsh check on patient Kinsey Packard in this scene from FX's "Nip-Tuck," in this publicity photo. The new drama about plastic surgeons debuts Tuesday. |
| tuesdays 10pm E/P |