Shannon Panagopoulos
Professor Madsen
DC 229 Character Paper
12 October 2012
Six Feet Under “Pilot”
Six Feet Under is a premium drama series aired on HBO, and is about an exceptionally
bizarre family that owns and operates a funeral home within their real home. In the present time,
the owner, Nathaniel, runs the business with one of his grown sons, David. Embalming, facial
reconstruction, and all other funeral-preparation tasks as far as preparing the body for a viewing
take place in their basement. The father and son together carry out all aspects of a funeral and the
services that are generally provided. The roughly 60 minute pilot episode appeared to have been
shot as a single-camera program, as there were so many different locations throughout the
episode, and certainly no appropriate times to insert a laugh-track. Considering how the pilot
episode played out, I would guess that Six Feet Under is a serial television series, since it seemed
to be the beginning of a story marked by a traumatic and dramatic event. In other words, this was
a premise pilot meant to set the story in motion, if you will.
Based on the fact that this is a family–based show, it is safe to say that Six Feet Under is
also an ensemble. Each of the characters involved, the family members in this case, all play an
important role in the show. There is the father, Nathaniel and his wife whose name I was never
able to catch, so I will refer to her as “The Misses”. Then, as I already mentioned they have one
son Dave, but they also have another son who lives in Seattle- Nate. Nate is thirty-five, and Dave
appears to be not too much younger, maybe 32. Lastly, Nathaniel and The Misses have a
daughter Claire who is in her late teens, probably out of high school, but this information was not
yet revealed.
The show started out with a commercial for a new fancy hearse, and then cut to a scene
with Nathaniel driving that brand new hearse. He was peacefully driving in California, smoking
a cigarette, when his wife called him. She questioned him of whether or not he had taken his
blood pressure medication. The sarcastic nature of his character is revealed when he responds
with something along the lines of “Yes, what do you want me to do, OD on it”. His wife is
obviously used to this sarcasm, as she proceeded to ask him to pick up his lactose supplement
from the store, where he gave another smartass response about “cutting milk with water because
what’s the difference”. She heard him drag his cigarette through the telephone, and scolded him
about how he should not be smoking in the new hearse out of respect for the deceased loved
