[Insidetv.EW] TLC is ready to put the "fun" back into funeral."And now, ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment pleasure, here's Episode One of 'Burying Grandmaw'!"
The network has ordered a special/backdoor pilot, Best Funeral Ever, that goes behind-the-scenes of a unconventional funeral parlor.
"As you can see, Barbara, we're embalming the old girl with bourbon..."
At the Golden Gate Funeral Home, Dallas-based funeral director John Beckwith, Jr. works with the families to create a central theme for a memorial and then throws a wild party.
Oh, when I die, bury me
In my high top Stetson hat;
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain
God'll know I died standin' pat.
Examples include a Christmas-inspired funeral complete with reindeer, elves and snow,
... as in "Jingle All the Way to the End"...
and a singer known for his famous rib sauce jingle remembered at a BBQ-themed funeral -- including live pigs, praise dancers, and a BBQ sauce fountain where loved ones dip a ceremonious rib to say goodbye.
I want six crap shooters for pall bearers.
Chorus girl to sing me a song.
Put a jazz band on my hearse wagon.
Raise Hell as I roll along.
"We're going to make these families extremely happy at the worst moments of their lives," Beckwith says.
"... and then extremely embarrassed for the rest of their lives..."
Roll out your rubber tired carriage,
Roll out your old time hat.
Twelve men going to the graveyard
And eleven coming back.