The Bare Naked Ladies were evidently wrong. It hasn’t all been done. The redoubtable Entertainment Weekly reports that The Learning Channel (TLC) — the network behind Honey Boo Boo, “Cake Boss.” and “Extreme Couponing” — has dreamed upon another confection that could outshine all the others. The show’s name, “Best Funeral Ever,” tells all.
Well, almost all. The show, which is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 26, was sold to the network as a one-time special. That means that it needs to pull in a hefty portion of the marketing share in order to be picked up as a full-time series.
But how could a show on great send-offs do otherwise? It provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the day-to-day grind at Dallas’s Golden Gate Funeral Home, which advertises itself as a thing apart in the realm of mortuaries.
View slideshow: Best Funeral Ever
The home’s director, John Beckwith, seeks to make each funeral a sui generis experience. “We do not have generic funerals,” he explains. “Everybody’s experience has to be different.” Except, one guesses, for the departed.
Golden Gate’s funerals are expensive, as you might imagine, but they are memorable. One, for example, was barbecue-themed — featuring a sauce fountain — while another took place in a boxing ring. In still another, technicians arranged for the deceased to fulfill a last wish of slam dunking a basketball at his own funeral.
“We’re going to make these families extremely happy at the worst moments of their lives,” Beckwith told Eentertainment Weekly.
But will his shenanigans make TV viewers happy?
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