Nip/Tuck

Nip/Tuck
Title card
Format	Medical drama Psychological thriller
Created by	Ryan Murphy
Starring	Dylan Walsh Julian McMahon Joely Richardson John Hensley Roma Maffia Kelly Carlson Jessalyn Gilsig Bruno Campos Valerie Cruz
Opening theme	"A Perfect Lie" by The Engine Room
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6[1]
No. of episodes	100 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	Miami, Florida (seasons 1–4) Hollywood, California (seasons 5–6)[2]
Running time	42–65 minutes per episode (season premieres sometimes longer)
Broadcast
Original channel	FX
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Original run	July 22, 2003 (2003-07-22) – March 3, 2010 (2010-03-03)
External links
Official website

Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy. Each episode typically involves the cosmetic procedures of one or more patients, and also features the personal and professional lives of its main cast.

The show began in 2003, and the sixth and final season started airing October 14, 2009, and concluded the series on March 3, 2010, with the 100th episode.^[1] While the show was initially set in Miami, at the end of the fourth season the practice was relocated to Los Angeles and many of the characters have followed. The show had 45 award nominations, winning a Golden Globe and an Emmy.^[3] Critical praise and controversy often surrounded the frank depictions of themes such as violence, sexuality, recreational drug use, and surgical procedures. The third season finale became the most watched scripted program in the history of FX. Series creator Ryan Murphy has said that the medical cases on the show are "90 percent based on fact".^[4]

Overview

This drama is set in a South Florida plastic surgery center, McNamara/Troy, centering around the two doctors who own it. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) is having problems at home, trying to keep his family together, trying to patch up the rocky road he and his wife Julia (Joely Richardson) are experiencing. On the other hand, sex-craving Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) uses his charm to bring in potential female candidates and conducts shady business deals, often for the love of money. While Sean takes his job seriously, he often has to fix Christian's mistakes. During the first season, a Colombian drug lord forced the two to do free surgery whenever he wanted them to. Sean's marriage with Julia began to wear thin, and Sean had an affair with a patient named Megan O'Hara. Julia went back to school, but it was interrupted by Julia's miscarriage. Christian learned he is the father of a baby with a woman named Gina, who he met at Sexaholics Anonymous. When the baby was born, we learn that the baby is African-American, and therefore not his.

The second season begins with Sean and Christian both turning 40, and Christian playing father for Wilbur, whom Gina is letting him take care of, until Wilbur's real father fights him for custody. Sean and Julia are quite happy together again until Christian's loneliness after Wilbur is taken away from him causes her to reveal that Matt is really his son. The secret ripples and eventually Sean finds out, causing a separation between Sean and Julia. He and Christian find a way to stay friends. A serial rapist named the Carver has been raping victims around Miami, and slices their face, and Sean makes a commitment to fixing their faces. Ava, a life coach for Sean and Julia, forms a sexual relationship with Matt, which is doomed from the beginning due to a wide age gap and Ava's troubled son Adrian.^[5]

Production

In its debut season, Nip/Tuck was the highest-rated new series on American basic cable, and the highest rated basic cable series of all time for the 18–49 and 25–54 age demographics. The fifth season premiered on October 30, 2007,^[6] though production was affected by the 2007 Writers Strike. Accordingly, the second half of the fifth season was not screened until January 6, 2009 in the U.S. Another 19 episodes were picked up by FX, which began airing on October 14, 2009. After a 3-week hiatus for the Christmas holidays, the show resumed in January 2010 and concluded on March 3, 2010 with its 100th episode.^[7][8][9] Ryan Murphy will remain as a showrunner throughout the final episodes. Nip/Tuck finished filming its 100th and final episode on June 12, 2009, without the attendance of creator Ryan Murphy,^[10] who at the time was in India scouting locations for his film version of the memoir Eat, Pray, Love.

The show inspired the creation of the plastic surgery reality show Dr. 90210.^[11]

Characters and cast

Main cast

Major supporting characters

Major recurring characters

Seasons and episodes

Main crew

• Michael M. Robin
• Elodie Keene (10 episodes, 2003–2007)
• Ryan Murphy (8 episodes, 2003–2006)
• Charles Haid (8 episodes, 2006–2008)
• Craig Zisk (6 episodes, 2003–2008)
• Nelson McCormick (4 episodes, 2003–2006)
• Richard Levine (4 episodes, 2006–2009)
• Jamie Babbit (3 episodes, 2003–2004)
• Greer Shephard (3 episodes, 2004–2005)
• Sean Jablonski (3 episodes, 2006–2008)
• Brad Falchuk (3 episodes, 2007–2009)
• Scott Brazil (2 episodes, 2003–2004)
• Jeremy Podeswa (2 episodes, 2005)
• Dirk Craft (2 episodes, 2008–2009)
• Jennifer Salt (15 episodes, 2003–2009)
• Sean Jablonski (13 episodes, 2003–2008)
• Lynnie Greene (3 episodes, 2006–2009)
• Hank Chilton

Controversy

The Parents Television Council (PTC) has criticized the show.^[12] The show is shown at a late hour with multiple 'Viewer Discretion Advised' warnings between every commercial break. A particular scene involving a foursome pushed the PTC into starting a campaign to get the show taken off the air by writing to the sponsors of the show and threatening to boycott their products.^[13][14] Another scene the PTC criticized depicted a funeral home worker removing and assembling body parts from dead women, including his sister's head, then sewing them together to make "the ideal woman." The PTC President described it in a decency hearing as "incestuous necrophilia."^[15] More recently, the PTC took issue with an episode featuring a woman, whose mother and sister died of breast cancer, performing a mastectomy on herself using an electric turkey carving knife in the middle of the McNamara/Troy lobby.

Awards and nominations

• Emmy Awards (2010):
  • Nominated - Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special

• Emmy Awards (2009):
  • Nominated – Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special
  • Nominated – Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic).

• Emmy Awards (2008):
  • Nominated – Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (Sharon Gless)
  • Nominated – Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Oliver Platt)

• Emmy Awards (2007):
  • Nominated – Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special

• Emmy Awards (2006):
  • Nominated – Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series
  • Nominated – Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special
  • Nominated – Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic).

• Golden Globe Awards (2005):
  • Won – Best Television Series – Drama.
  • Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama (Julian McMahon)
  • Nominated – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama (Joely Richardson).

• Emmy Awards (2005):
  • Nominated – Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series
  • Nominated – Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (Jill Clayburgh)
  • Nominated – Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special
  • Nominated – Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic).

• Golden Globe Awards (2004):
  • Nominated – Best Television Series – Drama
  • Nominated – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama (Joely Richardson).

• Emmy Awards (2004):
  • Won – Outstanding Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Prosthetic).
  • Nominated – Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
  • Nominated – Outstanding Main Title Design
  • Nominated – Outstanding Main Title Theme Music
  • Nominated – Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-Prosthetic).

U.S. television ratings

Viewer numbers (based on average total viewers per episode) of Nip/Tuck on FX.

Nip/Tuck became an instant basic cable hit from its 2003 series premiere.

For its third season, FX aired Nip/Tuck solely in the fall of 2005, instead of during the summer season like the two years prior. John Landgraf, president of FX, stated that such a move was a "huge risk" since it stacked up "against the full barrage of fall network competition."^[18] Despite some critical backlash on its third season, like the grade of D+ from Entertainment Weekly,^[27] the story arc involving The Carver attracted an audience to the series larger than any season before, culminating in a December 20, 2005 two-hour season finale, entitled Cherry Peck / Quentin Costa, which became the most-watched scripted program in the history of the FX network.

Including Cherry Peck / Quentin Costa, three episodes of Nip/Tuck rank as the three most-watched scripted programs ever on FX. The second season finale, entitled Joan Rivers, which aired on October 5, 2004, drew 5.2 million viewers. It was then eclipsed on September 20, 2005 when the third season premiere, entitled Momma Boone, drew roughly 5.3 million viewers. Exactly three months later on December 20, 2005, the aforementioned third season finale, entitled Cherry Peck / Quentin Costa, drew 5.7 million viewers. Of those 5.7 million viewers, 3.9 million viewers were in the 18–49 age group demographic, "making the finale the No. 1 episode among the key advertising demographic of any cable series in 2005. It's also the largest demographic number for any single telecast in the network's history,"^[18] according to Zap2It.

According to the September 8, 2006 Mediaweek column The Programming Insider, "the fourth season-premiere on Tuesday, September 5, 2006, averaged a stellar 4.8 million total viewers and 3.4 million adults 18–49, building over its season three average by 25 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Nip/Tuck's performance among adults 18–49 ranks as basic cable’s top-rated season-premiere in the demo for 2006, as of September 8, 2006."^[19]

Syndication

The Logo network has acquired the show for syndication in the United States. The show will premiere on the network in October 2010.^[28]

References

External links

• Official website
• Nip/Tuck at the Internet Movie Database
• Nip/Tuck at TV.com
• Warner Video: Nip/Tuck Official website
• TVGuide: TVGuide's Nip/Tuck Page
• CTV.ca Nip/Tuck CTV.ca website