MiddletownJournal.com

FAIRFIELD — While no one's exactly making a movie of Bob Webster's book, his ruminations on the funeral industry have attracted the attention of documentarians from the Showtime network.

A crew is in Fairfield this week taking an inside look at Webster Funeral Home on Homeward Way for an upcoming Showtime series about significant life events.

"They said they were looking for a family-owned funeral home and are going to be shadowing us for five days," Webster said.

Webster's book, "Does This Mean You'll See Me Naked?" details his 30-plus years as a licensed embalmer and funeral director. He opened Webster Funeral Home in 2001 with his sons Michael, also a licensed professional, and Ben, who is in the apprenticeship phase of his career.

After the book was self-published through Author House in October 2006, Webster said he received calls from newspapers all over the country, and the response has been so great that mainstream publishing company Random House has picked it up and will release it nationwide later this month.

He gave the book its provocative title because as he was preparing the manuscript, two people asked him the same question, one that he hadn't heard before.

He said he wrote the book as a way to unshroud the mysteries of the funeral home industry, as well as share anecdotal stories about the odd behavior of funeral home guests.

Producer Aaron Yampolski, who was nominated for a 2005 Emmy award for his work on "Penn & Teller: BS!," confirmed that his production crew will be taping the Websters for Showtime, but would not discuss details of the series because it is still in development.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.