Chicago's top cosmetic surgery team is ready for its closeup.
"Plastic Royalty," a reality show created by local company Towers Productions, features the team behind the Gold Coast's Liposuction and Cosmetic Surgery Institute. The premier episode airs this weekend on NBC5.
The two main stars are Dr. Leon Forrester Tcheupdjian -- otherwise known as the "King of Lipo -- and his daughter, Leslie, aka the "Queen of Lips," as they consult with patients seeking facelifts, tummy tucks, breast augmentations, botox injections and more.
"We're making the patients the stars, not us. We're just showing what the patients go through when they come to our office," Tcheupdjian said.
But the patients aren't the A-list Hollywood types who people often associate with plastic surgery patients. The opening episode featured a suburban housewife seeking to remove age lines from her face and a 32-year-old bartender looking for liposuction.
"We are the real mainstream America with common problems, so we show ordinary people who want a change and how they go about doing it," Tcheupdjian said.
Three staff members -- a receptionist, an assistant and a patient consultant -- also play major parts in the series, but if the pilot episode is any indication, Leslie will be getting a lot of camera time. Towers casting directors first discovered her while interviewing cast mates for a potential housewives-style reality series based in Chicago.
"She's such a dynamic business woman, but she's also a staple on the Chicago social circuit and not afraid to allow us to glimpse into her personal life," executive producer Erin Murphy said.
Along with following the before and after process with two patients, the pilot episode also covers Leslie's breakup with her fiance. But despite the detours into their personal lives, Leslie insists they will be keeping it classy.
"We weren't looking for that drama, cat-fighting kind of thing. We just wanted to showcase Chicago and what we do offer something that you could walk away from feeling good about. Not a girls beating up girls kind of show," she said.
Towers Productions is hoping the show will get picked up and distributed in other markets. They also have several other Chicago-based shows in development they're hoping to produce.
"Plastic Royalty" airs Sunday Sept. 5 at 12:30 a.m. and 11:05 p.m., and Tuesday Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. on NBC 5. Watch an interview with the cast on the NBC 5 Morning News at 6:20 a.m. Saturday.
