Local Funeral Director Takes Exception To New Reality Show
By Michelle Durham
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- TLC has a new reality series on the air "Best Funeral Ever" which shows African American "Home Going" funerals and ceremonies produced by a Texas-based funeral home. The series is drawing the ire of a local funeral home operator.
"Funerals should be sacred and dignified," says Gregory Burrell, President of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association and owner of the Terry Funeral Home in West Philadelphia, "and anytime the focus is off the body or the person who is deceased -- that is problem."
And Burrell objects to depictions of funerals where pigs and a barbecue sauce fountain are featured as part of the festivities, two features depicted on a recent show.
"We know there is the huge push for customization of funerals and personalization within a certain realm," he says. "Having squealing pigs at a funeral is not within that realm."
TLC declined a request for comment.
