“Tell me what you don’t like about yourself.” When “Nip/Tuck” opened with that line in the summer of 2003, the television universe had no idea what it was in for. Alternatively emotional, outlandish, sexual, graphic, tongue-in-cheek and gothic, the story of two handsome Miami plastic surgeons (Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon) “sucking the champagne and caviar out of life” was a breakout hit, and not just in terms of its own fledgling network, FX. With its cultural statement about society’s obsession with youth and its underlying message that “beauty is a curse on the world,” “Nip/Tuck” resonated with aging baby boomers and younger viewers. It was the No. 1 basic cable series in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic for five straight seasons, tying with FX’s “The Shield” the first year. Its audience grew each of its first four seasons, peaking at 3.9 million in the fourth. TV critics embraced it, celebrity and entertainment magazines fixated on its cast, and actors lined up for guest-star spots. In its freshman year, the show won the Golden Globe for best drama. Because all things must end, a theme explored often in the Ryan Murphy series, the story of Sean McNamara and Christian Troy (Walsh and McMahon) signs off Wednesday night, after seven seasons and, notably, 100 episodes. Its series finale signals the end of the era, when basic cable networks proved they could compete with HBO in original programming — FX with “The Shield” and “Nip/Tuck,” and USA with “Monk.” “It’s the end of the first generation of cable originals that really made in-roads in television programming,” said Brad Adgate, director of research for Horizon Media. “There are very few shows that have helped identify a network and that strike a chord on a lot of different fronts. ‘Nip/Tuck’ really hit the zeitgeist because it was so topical. It has a very secure place as one of the most impactful shows of the past decade of television” … “That period of time from 2004 to 2007, I always look at as really materialistic and luxury-driven — that time before everything crumbled, before the real estate market crumbled and the financial market crumbled,” Murphy said. ” ‘Nip/Tuck’ perfectly mirrored the time we were in. What’s interesting for me as a writer is that I wasn’t trying to make a commentary about social mores in the country. I always thought the show was a satire about the country.” For much of its run, the show’s audience saw eye-to-eye with Murphy and his writers. But as “Nip/Tuck” aged and its bizarre elements escalated — how many times did McNamara almost die at the hands of nutty women? — TV critics turned on it and viewers dropped out. Although it remained a steady and strong performer for FX, “Nip/Tuck” lost its pop culture appeal in its fifth season, dropping to 2.7 million in the 18-to-49 demographic, as other new series launched and succeeded, USA’s “Burn Notice” and AMC’s “Mad Men,” among them … Nearly seven years later, Murphy doesn’t think he could sell “Nip/Tuck” today. “Too much has changed and there’s too much of a crackdown,” he said. “The content for the first four seasons was so brazen and boundary-pushing. There’s no way you’d get those scenes on the air today. For the good or the bad, those scenes launched a dialogue about what should or should not be on cable TV.” Wednesday night, when you hear Sean and Christian’s trademark consultation icebreaker, “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself,” and the doors to their surgical offices close for the last time, fans might be shocked by the ending’s subtlety. But that’s a good thing. “If you think about ‘Nip/Tuck,’ it had plastic surgery on child-molesting drug dealers, and alligators eating dead bodies, and John Hensley’s character performing an auto circumcision,” Landgraf said. “But it also had this really tender material. I think as Ryan sought to hold onto his audience and give his audience what he thought they wanted, the show got bigger and bigger over time. But I’m really glad he returned to the smaller and more tender side of the show’s roots, because I think it was the only way to create a satisfying finale.”

While I wholeheartedly agree that Nip/Tuck was once a very groundbreaking show, I also agree that the show lost its luster during season 5 and, IMHO, prolly should’ve ended then. Instead, the show gave us 2 more seasons of really terrible programming. This final season, in its muted form, has been painful to suffer thru. Because it was the last season and I had already invested so much into the series overall, I have been watching from week to week … I can’t even tell you what my favorite eps were. They’re all the same … boring. It’s a bit sad to see such a great show die out in such a wimpy way. But … death comes, at last, for Nip/Tuck. I’ll deffo remember the great seasons but those seasons have been gone to us for some time now. Peace the Spork Out, Nip/Tuck!

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“Nip/Tuck” will start cutting again in mid-October … That news comes courtesy of the FX executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday (Aug. 7). “Nip/Tuck” will open its sixth season on Wednesday, Oct. 14 and run for 10 episodes, which will take the show into December; the final nine episodes will likely air sometime next year.

I suppose technically the show is still dunzo because this upcoming 6th season is supposedly the last. But, at least we won’t have to wait until 2010 or 2011 to say our farewells. After the jump, check out a short promo vid for the upcoming 6th season of Nip/Tuck which looks very cool — despite the soundtrack by Timbaland …

When “Nip/Tuck” made its debut in 2003, it broke cable-viewing records and instantly distinguished itself with its stylized look, tongue-in-cheek tone, gorgeous stars and fresh take on America’s obsession with beauty and youth. Those qualities earned it a Golden Globe for best drama, critical acclaim and water-cooler buzz that lasted for most of its first four seasons. But when one of FX’s signature series quietly wrapped last week on the Paramount lot, it did so without the usual fanfare associated with the end of a noteworthy show. In part, the silent send-off was because TV viewers won’t see the “Nip/Tuck” finale, which finished shooting on June 12, for a long time, probably as late as 2011, making it tricky to publicize. Behind the scenes too, during the last week of production, there was an awkward sense that the end had already happened, since much of the crew had already moved to creator Ryan Murphy’s new Fox musical, “Glee,” last year, and Murphy himself was out of the country location-scouting for an upcoming movie. “It’s sad because it feels incomplete,” said script supervisor Diana Valentine, who asked the cast to sign her finale script in between takes of shooting the show’s last family dinner scene, which included almost every major character. Valentine, who joined the series in its second season, worked on “Beverly Hills, 90210″ for its entire run. “It’s not the same feeling I had when I was wrapping on ‘90210′. It feels incomplete, kind of separate. It’s very hard.” In truth, the cast of the series that TV Guide asserted during its second season was the “coolest show on television” has been ready to move on for some time. “Nip/Tuck’s” series finale will be the show’s 100th episode, a rare marker in cable television (the only popular cable series that came close was “Sex and the City” with 94 episodes) that FX wanted to reach with its top-rated show. But if the actors had had their way, the show would have ended in the fourth season when it was still the No. 1 cable series among 18- to 49-year-olds, a ranking it held for its first four years, and the critics were still in its corner. Though its overall viewership has been steady and strong over the years — Season 5 drew an average of 3.4 million viewers — it is now less popular in the 18-to-49 demographic than both USA’s “Burn Notice” and TNT’s “The Closer.” “I feel we’ve reached a creative impasse with regards to what we can do with this story,” said John Hensley, who played Matt, one of the most self-destructive characters ever created for TV. “I feel like it was, quite frankly, told a long time ago. I say that trying to be right-sized about this because I am very grateful for this opportunity. I just feel that we were a show that was very good and innovative at one point and we’ve gone the way of so many shows before us. Our moment has passed” … If there is a surprise to the way “Nip/Tuck” ends, it’s in its restrained quality, which several of the actors said they appreciated after seasons of shocking and preposterous story lines. “I’ve always thought the show should have been simpler than it was so, for me, it was nice to have a little less than what we’ve been expanding upon for the last number of years,” McMahon said. “I think you’ll have an emotionally justifiable episode in the end.” In separate interviews, Walsh and McMahon both said that what they’d miss the most about working on the show was each other. “I’ll miss every day sitting in one trailer or another, talking about everything going on with the show and our lives,” Walsh said. “We are what Ryan wanted the show to be. I love him. That’s the best thing I got out of the show — it was him.”

It seemed clear to me, months before the word Glee was ever uttered, that Ryan Murphy’s heart was no longer in making Nip/Tuck a great show. I’ve stayed loyal to the series even tho the quality hasn’t been there for some time … it’s just sad because I keep hoping it will get better. I was really unimpressed with the last season and, from what I gather, the coming season ain’t all that great either. I guess all good things must eventually come to an end … it’s just a shame that Nip/Tuck has to go out like this.

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My shirtless photo-shoot days are behind me,” Mario Lopez tells PEOPLE in a bitter blow to beefcake. Not that the buff new Extra host has anything to hide. “Obviously, being healthy and staying fit are important to me,” says the 34-year-old, who in the past seemed like the only serious rival to Matthew McConaughey in the bare-chest sweepstakes … “My TV projects are my main priority,” he says. “And no, you will never see me host Extra without a shirt.” Still, to every rule there’s an exception – in this case, Nip/Tuck. Lopez says he is “thrilled” to be reprising the role of Dr. Mike Hamoui on the cable series, with Dr. Mike moving to Los Angeles – where he can once again gain the attention of the ab-admiring Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) in the locker room. “A small spoiler,” says Lopez. “Dr. Mike might not be taking anymore showers at the gym with Christian, but he will lose his shirt.”

Yes, indeed … he does lose his shirt. After the jump, check out a few more pics of Mario along with his Nip/Tuck co-stars Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh on the beachy set of of the show in Long Beach, CA yesterday afternoon …

It looks like fun. I am a big fan of Nip/Tuck so I’m happy to see that production on the new season has already gotten underway. While I’m bummed that Mr. Lopez will be shying away from showering on the series from here on out, I guess I can’t be too upset since there is bound to be more booty (from other folks) showcased on the series. And, we have these hawt shirtless scenes to look forward to. Woot!

[Photo credit: X17; Source]