The family members running a Memphis funeral home are stars of Netflix series 'Buried by the Bernards'

The family needed a commercial for its new company, an affordable funeral home that offered drive-thru viewing services, and Debbie Bernard had just the idea. 

"So me and Debbie are sitting up one morning and Debbie said, 'Kevin, we're gonna do a commercial,'" Kevin Miller remembers. "I said, 'Ah, that'll be great. What are we gonna do?' She said, 'You're gonna jump out the casket.'"

Miller said no, he wasn't going to do that. But Debbie is Debbie, and so he obliged. 

They shot the commercial, it aired, and then it went viral. And then it went viral again. And then, the family behind R. Bernard Funeral Services was asked to appear on Steve Harvey's television show, and they were featured on HBO, and by the New York Post. 

And now, the Memphis family has its own reality television show, to premiere on Netflix Feb. 12. "Buried by the Bernards" follows the family for eight episodes between January and March of 2020, just before business began to boom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To be in a morbid business, the Bernards are a lively bunch. As Debbie has put it before, it's sort of a necessity. She prides herself on being able to change the topic of conversation when a family comes in for services or to the funeral. With Debbie's craftsmanship, the person may not even realize they've stopped talking about something so sad.

Put in regular conversation with her son, Ryan Bernard, the owner and main operator of the funeral home, her granddaughter Deja Bernard and Miller, Ryan's uncle, Debbie becomes a bit of a spokesperson, though she described herself as shy. (Her second granddaughter, Raegan Barnard, was attending class at the time of the interview.) 

"Everybody was saying the same thing," Ryan said. "Your mom is crazy. She is so funny. We could put you all on TV." 

The family didn't go for it at first, but by the time they were hearing from a persistent producer, they figured there might be something to it. 

"We were like, 'Wow, we must probably really have something here, you know,'" Ryan said. "I guess people were seeing stuff that we couldn't see."

Opening a drive-thru funeral home  

Service, professionalism and cost are important to a family during their time of bereavement, says Memphis radio host Thaddeus Matthews in the beginning of a commercial. If cost is important, go to R. Bernard, where a full funeral package begins at $1,895, Matthews says, as the camera pans toward an open casket on the right side of the frame. 

Apparently a dead body, Miller shoots up in the casket, exclaiming, "$1,895! My family spent $5,000! I told y'all don't come down here and we shoulda went to R. Bernard Funeral Services. Get my stuff and let's get up outta here. I mean let's go!" Miller lays back in the casket, but not before telling Matthews, who assures him everything will be alright, "I hope so!"  

Ryan opened the funeral home in 2017, inspired to run a more personalized business than the experience he had when his aunt died. He wanted people to be able to celebrate their loved ones without paying a huge price for it. The Lamar Avenue building he chose was an old bank, which already had a window. The drive-thru viewing, which Ryan first saw in California, allows family members who might be on a tight schedule or who might have mobility issues, to still pay their respects. During COVID-19, the window has become a way for family members to safely celebrate their loved ones.

More:1 day. 17 Memphians. 6 months of COVID-19

The novelty of the business, paired with that viral commercial, sent many people calling the Bernard's funeral home, with their own interview questions and requests. One man, a producer named Warren D. Robinson, called "a thousand times," Debbie remembers. So they finally called him back.

Robinson had been paying attention to the funeral home down in Memphis, Tennessee, from his headquarters in Indiana, Debbie said. And he wanted to know if they'd entertain the idea of doing a television show. 

"So, of course, we thought he was lying, right?" Debbie said. 

He ended up shooting a sizzle reel, a mini-version of what the show could be, and then came back later in 2018 with other producers from the company he worked with, 13 Brains.

Creating the show

Cameras started rolling at the funeral home in January 2020, and wrapped in March 2020, save for just a couple of scenes that had to be shot with COVID-19 protocols later that spring. 

"I didn't know how he could take a funeral home and even make a show out of it," Ryan said of Robinson, the producer, who stuck around for most of the filming process. "Because you know, most reality shows are based around drama...We're not a family full of drama or anything, so he said he wasn't going to make it about that, he was going to make it into a comedy, and we couldn't see how he would do that either."

As it turned out, the filming would become something like a second job, Ryan said, requiring the business to hire some additional workers early in the year. The family was balancing running their business with early morning call times and three, four and five wardrobe changes each day.

While the family said they can't disclose too much about the show before its premier in February, they described the gist as just a lot of what happens during a regular work day. 

"It was a lot of...what we do everyday around the funeral home, us nagging each other getting on each other's nerves, you know, bickering back and forth," Ryan said. The filmmakers shot scenes of the Bernards helping out families and showcasing their own family dynamics.

"We were hearing that Netflix thought that we were hired actors and actresses," said Ryan, which tickled Debbie to remember. "They didn't believe we were a real family." 

Putting spotlight on Memphis

The Bernard family hasn't watched the series yet, but they have seen a trailer for the season. 

"Cause you know, everybody wants to see how they look," Debbie said. "How you all look on camera? You know you look good every day, but let me just see myself on that camera."

There's still some shock that producers would be looking for a family in and from Memphis, they said. When producers arrived from out of town, they taught them Memphis history and showed them where to eat, keeping the show runners intrigued, even with their distinctly Memphis accents. 

"They'd be like, 'Wow, say that again.' 'Wow, say that again.' 'What'd you say right there?'" Debbie said.

"Memphis is not what you all think it is," she added. 

It was important, Ryan, said, that they also showed their professionalism in the show.  

"Although we want to put out a good product and do a good show, we still wanted to be taken a serious as a funeral service, you know...So you know, it was kind of it was kind of a balancing act," Ryan said. 

"And we genuinely care about the families that we serve," added Deja, "and don't want to take away from it. This was a huge blessing and a big opportunity for us. But we were also still able to be a helping hand and love on the families and their family members that came here" while the show was filming.

The Bernards aren't sure how they might react to their newfound fame, with people potentially seeking out a trip to the Memphis funeral home with its distinctive lobby of silver and gold and distinctive drive-thru window. They're also expecting a Super Bowl commercial to include the new show, they said. 

While they may be unsure of the fame, most of them felt comfortable about the filming the show and "going to Hollywood." 

Debbie might be the only one with some reluctance, Ryan said. 

"There's a million funeral homes around here," Debbie said. "We never thought it would be us."

"Buried by the Bernards" arrives on Netflix Feb. 12.

Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino