VIDEO TLC’s Best Funeral Ever returns with breakfast, bowling, wedding and Olympics funerals

TLC made headlines back in January when it aired a backdoor pilot episode of Best Funeral Ever showcasing the barbeque-themed service of Willie McCoy, who is famous for singing the Chili’s baby back ribs song. In the episode McCoy was laid to rest in a smoker-shaped casket carried by pall bearers singing his famous “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back…” jingle as live pigs watched on and a pastor wearing a chef’s hat led the service.

Apparently the episode was successful enough to merit the return of TLC cameras to the Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas, Texas to bring viewers more over-the-top themed funeral services as part of a seven-episode run of Best Funeral Ever. The series premieres tonight at 10/9c with two back-to-back half-hour episodes with four total funerals, beginning with a bowling-themed service and a wedding-themed service.

In the bowling funeral the casket travels down a bowling alley on a gurney of sorts pushed by family members. In front of the casket is a rolling bowling ball that crashes into ten pins which spell out “RIP JUDY.” As you might have guessed, Judy was an avid bowler, and according to her family, the bowling alley was where she was happiest.

In the wedding-themed funeral service from the premiere two urns containing a deceased couple are decked out in wedding attire acting out a wedding ceremony, including the bridal urn (in a wedding dress) walking down the aisle and a harpist with a halo adorned in white feathers.

In the second episode we are invited to the funeral of Olympic Gold Medalist Ronnie Ray Smith, for which the Golden Gate Funeral Home staff have to figure out how to have Ronnie’s coffin run the 100-meter dash.

Also in the second episode is the funeral of breakfast-loving Quinton Beasley, who eschewed lunch and dinner in favor of breakfast three times a day. So of course his family opted for a breakfast-themed funeral service that included a milk carton lectern, people dressed in pancake, bacon and egg costumes, a fruit-adorned casket, cereal boxes and more with Quinton’s likeness, a choir singing a custom breakfast hymn, and pancakes, eggs and bacon for everyone cooked on the spot. After all, breakfast is a meal meant for mourning, right?

Here’s a preview clip:

I have to admit, that funeral service looks Grrrrrrrrrrrreat!

TLC’s Best Funeral Ever premieres tonight at 10/9c and airs Monday nights at the same time. ere are some descriptions future episodes airing this season:

• Rafael Valenzuela becomes a part of football history when his family sends the super fan off with one last field goal kick.

• Welterweight champion Tyrone “Showboat” Cotton gets one more round in the ring as his friends and family cheer him on to heaven.

• The community remembers a man who loved candy so much that his casket is dipped in chocolate for the whole town to eat.

• The Golden Gate crew faces challenges as they try to produce a Game Show themed home going, including spinning the deceased on a “wheel of funeral.”