We've just over a week to go before the start of Nip/Tuck's fifth season.  Last week, we heard from the woman behind the series' set design, Ellen Brill.  The veteran set decorator spoke about the hefty changes she and her team have had to make for their location shift from Miami to Los Angeles.  And just who is to blame for the dramatic change in the first place?  None other than Nip/Tuck creator, Ryan Murphy, who claims he got bored of Miami.

Murphy admitted that he was responsible for the major and drastic changes we're all about to behold when Nip/Tuck's new season unfolds October 30.

"My contract was up, and I said, 'I'll come back, but you need to give me a lot of money to do [new] sets, and you need to let me set it in L.A.,'" Murphy said about the end of his tenure towards the close of the fourth season.

The network bigwigs didn't exactly bow to his demand for increased funding at first, so when they refused to give in, Murphy pressed on with his new vision.

“I'm bored,” he told them flatly. “I need to change it up.  I want something new.”

His persistence paid off and he got the money he needed to breathe new life into the Nip/Tuck series.  Since then, Murphy's lead actors have also reveled in the change of scenery for their franchise.  Dylan Walsh (Sean McNamara) and Julian McMahon (Christian Troy) aren't shy about expressing their own fed up sentiments towards their former Miami digs.

"They were pretty deplorable," McMahon remarked of their sets during Nip/Tuck's first four seasons.  "Everything was tiny.  Now you walk onto these enormous sets."

"And the sets dictate story lines,” Walsh chipped in.  “It was smart to anticipate things getting stale instead of waiting for it to get stale.  Now we can actually use this town, and we have more energy.”

Walsh was referring to the ironic fact that although their story was set in Miami for four years, the show was actually already being produced in Los Angeles.  As such, the city itself was hardly ever in the picture since practically all of the scenes took place indoors, in the doctors' offices.

"Every season has a villain," Murphy offered.  "This season, the villain is L.A.  It really is where dreams go to die."

And since the series is now officially set in the city of angels, they are finally able to take advantage of such famous Los Angeles landmarks as Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Chateau Marmont, Koreatown, the Hollywood Hills and Pink's hot dog stand.


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: USA Today
(Image Courtesy of USA Today)