Most people are afraid of death. For Mack MacKenzie, death felt like family.
For the last seven years, the New Brunswicker worked 60 to 80 hours a week as a funeral director.
His job required him to juggle many roles — including embalmer, counsellor, caterer and concierge. Sometimes he'd play the part of a priest, hearing confession from his grieving patrons.
MacKenzie loved his work, but the hours finally took their toll and he recently left the business.
"Like a former relationship or marriage, I miss it everyday," he says.
"I miss my bride. I pick up a paper and read an obituary and it's like seeing 'her' again."
Over the last three years, MacKenzie's "bride" has been more than a little unfaithful — many have grown to love his former line of work.
The funeral business has firmly embedded itself in pop culture through the critically acclaimed drama Six Feet Under, which returns Sunday night for a fourth season on The Movie Network/Movie Central.
"When I used to tell people I was an embalmer or funeral director, I'd receive endless questions," MacKenzie says. "But Six Feet Under kind of took the veil off the funeral business — it's a semi-accurate portrayal of things."
The show's narrative is built around life at the family-run Fisher & Diaz funeral home. Spearheaded by brothers Nate Fisher (Peter Krause) and David Fisher (Michael C. Hall), its main characters cope with the chaos of living while surrounded by the business of mourning.
According to Canadian Jeremy Podeswa, a director with the series since its 2001 debut, Six Feet Under resonates with people because its themes are universal.
"The new catch phrase of the series is, 'Every day above ground is a good one,'" Podeswa explains.
"It's about issues of mortality and the value of living a meaningful life. People watch year after year because those ideas are so compelling."
Six Feet Under's continuing success has garnered many admirers — not all of them content to remain only fans.
The A&E Television Network recently aired the reality-TV series Family Plots, which chronicled the unscripted exploits of a family-run mortuary in Poway, Calif.
North of the border, the CBC may also cater to viewers' newfound fetish for the morbid.
The pilot for Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, a sketch-comedy show situated at a Newfoundland funeral parlour/wedding planner, will be shot in July.
The brainchild of This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Mary Walsh, the show was inspired by her childhood home.
She says hybrid, family-run businesses are common in Newfoundland's small hamlets. Typically, one operation will handle weddings, funerals and the local ambulance service.
"One family often takes care of people from the sperm to the worm, from cradle to the grave," Walsh explains.
Unlike the dark drama of Six Feet Under, Walsh says Hatching will be more akin to the legendary Canadian sketch-comedy show SCTV.
"Our family will be captured at work in the same way that all of SCTV's characters were situated at the television station."
Walsh says she is confident the series pilot will be picked up by the CBC.
"The characters on our show believe their work is all part of the ongoing story of life ... birth, death, infinity and marriage," Walsh explains. "The vein of material is so profound."
Walsh says Hatching was floating around in her head long before Six Feet Under came along.
Six Feet Under has also changed directions since its inception, Walsh explains, noting the two shows' substantial differences.
"It seems like they were after more comedy in the beginning. Now it's all melodrama and everyone always seems grim," she says. "Sometimes it seems like an afternoon soap with a lot of death.
"There's funny-grim, there's grim-grim and then there's melodramatic-grim ... we'll be doing funny-grim."
Those associated with Six Feet Under are flattered by show's widespread influence, Podeswa says.
"Six Feet Under opened the door to so many arenas — it introduced serious subject matter to hour-long drama and dealt with controversial issues surrounding life, death and sexuality," he says.
"It opened the door to dealing with the death industry. [Family Plots] never would have existed without Six Feet Under. Clearly, it's having an impact on popular culture."
The fourth season of Six Feet Under is being billed as a return to its thematic roots.
The series began with its characters coming to terms with the accidental death of family patriarch Nathaniel Fisher. The death of Lisa Fisher (Nate Fisher's wife) at the end of the last season acts as the catalyst for new events.
Death has once again found its way from the business realm into the personal.
"With the loss of Lisa, we can see the immediate effect of death on the life of our protagonists again," says Six Feet Under director and producer Alan Poul.
He says the series has always walked a fine line between darkness, humour and drama.
"But people responded to the show because of its characters, not because of the death," he explains. "The subject of death and the funeral home simply offer an illuminating backdrop under which our characters are placed."
Even though he has left the funeral business behind him, MacKenzie continues to be an avid fan of the show — as are many of his former peers in the industry.
"Nate and David come across as plausible funeral directors ..... they do seem to care," MacKenzie says.
Perhaps the popularity of Six Feet Under and its kin are understandable. Death is an integral part of our lives, but remains the ultimate mystery.
"A funeral is a right of passage ..... like a baptism, a bar mitzvah, a funeral, a wedding," MacKenzie says. "We honour the dead and comfort the mourners — that's what we do."
Ironically, MacKenzie and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball unwittingly share a strange bond — both lost family members at a young age and developed an early understanding of death's impact.
MacKenzie lost his mother when he was 11 years old; Ball lost his sister in a car crash when he was 13.
"I'd complain about the hours sometimes and then feel guilty," MacKenzie says of his former trade. "I'd find myself burying an infant or a 35-year-old mother of three, and I was constantly reminded of how precious life is ... how each of us has a story to be told."
