Family Plots

Family Plots

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Family Plots

Family Plots was a reality television show that followed the ongoing events and the eccentric employees that work at the family-run Poway Bernardo Mortuary in Poway, California. It ran for two seasons on the A&E Network.

The show mainly focused on the relationships between the employees, for instance Chuck Wissmiller and his three daughters - all of whom were working at the mortuary during the show's run. At times it also focused on the deceased that passed through the mortuary. The deceased themselves were seen from time to time on the show, but care was taken by crew to ensure the privacy of the deceased. While the work done in the preparation room was shown, the more graphic portions of the work were not shown in order to keep a PG rating.

Family Plots was cancelled in late 2005. Fan sites and clubs reacted strongly to the cancellation and there had been indications that A&E executives were reconsidering the cancellation. Rumors also abounded of the show being shopped to other networks.

The show is aired on the Seven Network in Australia, in late time slots between 11pm and 1am.

After Cancellation
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After Cancellation

Since the cancellation of the series, a number of the staff members have left the mortuary. Chuck has retired and lives in San Diego. He is training young fighters, (as he has for the last 40 years) and is getting ready to turn some into Professional Boxers. And another little-known tidbit about him, his uncle Johnny Weissmuller was the original Tarzan in the movies. Shonna left in the summer of 2006 to retire and now spends Summers on Mackinac Island, Michigan and Winters in San Diego. John also left and is now working for another mortuary in the San Diego area. Emily left and is now Office Manager of several large San Francisco Bay Area Mortuaries, but lives in San Diego. Melissa left the Mortuary and has appeared in several television commercials and has had small parts in movies on the big screen, notably, "Ocean's Thirteen". She resides in Los Angeles and San Diego. Rick Sadler was fired in March of 2007 and has subsequently been forever stripped of all of his professional Funeral licenses because of individual professional illegal activity. David Moravee had also left the mortuary and was working at the El Camino Mortuary in San Diego, but has returned as the new general manager of Poway-Bernardo Mortuary since the departure of Rick Sadler.^[1]

In May 2007, mortuary owner Carl Comer confirmed that he had fired Sadler and was taking a more direct role in running the mortuary. The mortuary has recently had a number of legal troubles with the state of California, which Comer has stated were due to actions taken by Sadler during his time at the mortuary. The state had in April accused the mortuary of using an unlicensed person to perform embalming, and accused Sadler of ordering the staff to cover up that fact. Later the state cited the mortuary for allowing its worker's compensation policy to lapse. The mortuary has since purchased a new policy.^[2] Comer and the mortuary challenged the state's decision to revoke their licenses.^[3]

Both Sadler and Comer later each reached separate settlement agreements with the state of California, which took effect on November 26, 2007. Sadler agreed to surrender his funeral director and embalming licenses. Comer's settlement agreement resulted in the state of California allowing the mortuary to continue operating, with the business being placed on probation for a three year period. The state has acknowledged that while Comer was not directly involved in the illegal embalmings he was the owner of the business and as such had legal responsibility.^[4]