How do you refresh a show in its fifth season? On "nip/tuck" this fall, creator Ryan Murphy told TV critics today, the plastic surgeons played by Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh [in FX photo above] "go from being big fish in a small pond to exactly the opposite" as they move their practice from Miami to Beverly Hills/Hollywood.
It's where "people come to sort of reinvent themselves and go after their dreams," says Murphy, who claims that's what he did coming out here from Indianapolis and first creating the WB cult fave "Popular" before his current FX hit. He'd originally wanted to set "nip/tuck" in Beverly Hills, "but it seemed a little bit too on-the-nose" as public awareness of showbiz plastic surgery surged, "and I was interested in doing something darker."
Now "nip/tuck" lightens up a bit. A big subplot in this first Hollywood season has the surgeons "get a job as medical consultants on a 'nip/tuck'-like plastic surgery show," Murphy said. "It's called 'Hearts & Scalpels,' and it's kind of the worst medical show that's ever been made. It's run by Oliver Platt, who plays me. In a weird way, it's almost to satirize ourself."
Rosie O'Donnell comes back, too, as uncouth lottery winner (and unlikely lover) Dawn Budge. "She returns in episode 4, and she's doing several episodes this year," Murphy said. A rumored spinoff series with the guest character remains "an ongoing discussion."
But not all happenings are light in Hollyweirdland. Murphy wonders about this sunny playground, "Can you retain your soul when you're surrounded by all these great temptations? From a moral point of view, it's been very interesting to write to."