Towers’ first docusoap airs on Ch. 5 Labor Day “Plastic Royalty” reality show a pilot for proposed series
August 31st 2010
Earlier this year, Towers Productions was looking for unique Chicago women for a proposed reality TV series. In the process, they met Leslie Forrester, who embodied the qualities they sought – but for a different show, as it turned out.
That show, “Plastic Royalty,” with registered nurse Forrester and her famous cosmetic surgeon father, Dr. Leon Forrester Tcheupdjian, bows Sept. 5 on NBC/Ch. 5.
Meeting Forrester, says Becky Cattie, Towers’ reality show casting director, “led to exploring the doctor’s world of plastic surgery and finding it had all the elements of a good show.”
Those elements, she says, “are the glitzy, fun world of Chicago’s Gold Coast, where the Tcheupdjians’ family business is located, where they live a few blocks from each other and where their after-hours upscale socializing takes place.
The title derives from Dr. Tcheupdjian self-proclaimed title of “King of Lipo” and Forrester’s renown as “Queen of Lips.” She jokes that she’s injected more faces in a month than some doctors twice her age do in a lifetime.
“I think a lot of people have the wrong impression about who our patients are,” says Forrester. “Our typical clients are soccer moms, working people, your friend down the street. Cosmetic surgery is for everybody, and we want to show that you don’t have to be rich to feel good about yourself.”
The half-hour series will follow a surgical and a non-surgical patient. In the pilot, a young woman in the appearance-competitive food and beverage industry undergoes breast augmentation and a tummy tuck. The other, older patient and first-time mother has non-surgical facial enhancements.
“Plastic Royalty” is currently being shopped among NBC affiliates, making it somewhat of a departure for Towers’ documentary-like programming that has been a staple on cable outlets like A&E, Lifetime, National Geographic and Discovery Channel.
Cattie arrived at Towers last year, after six years in L.A., to help with Towers’ new reality/docusoap programming push. ABC’s “Extreme Makeover,” “America’s Got Talent” and “The Simple Life” were some of the shows she cast.
“Plastic Royalty” was filmed at Dr. Tcheupdjians Near North Liposuction & Cosmetic Surgery Institute, one of four institutes he operates in the Chicago area.
Forrester provides the narration.
Producer/directors were Kristen Simony and Erin Lutterbach Murphy; Murphy and Jonathan Towers were executive producers. Associate producers, Jessie Rogowski and Erin Arbaugh; camera: Doug Clevenger, Jim Pappas, Bryan Willman and Adam Weltler; editors Evan Spence and Karla Svatos; original music by Jim Gaynor. Managing Director, Mike Schmiedeler.
The show airs at 12:30 a.m., 11:05 p.m. and Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. See www.facebook.com/plasticroyalty. —Ruth L Ratny
