KILLER COMEDY WHEN HBO SAYS ITS NEW SITCOM 'SIX FEET UNDER' HAS A PLOT, IT REALLY HAS A PLOT.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Alan Ball's orders from his new bosses were clear: HBO's response to his pilot script for ``Six Feet Under,'' about life surrounded by death at a family-run funeral parlor was, as he recalls: ``We like it, but it feels kind of safe. It feels kind of network.' The actual language they gave me was, 'Could it be a little more ----ed up?' ''

Adds Ball, who put in time in the network sitcom trenches (``Oh, Grow Up,'' ``Cybill,'' ``Grace Under Fire'') before winning an Oscar for his screenplay for ``American Beauty,'' ``The most negative thing you can get from HBO is, 'That's network,' and I understand exactly what they're saying.''

``Six Feet Under,'' the latest provocation from HBO, makes ``The Sopranos'' look almost as glossy as ``C.S.I.'' Ball has created a meticulous and contemplative series about a family business far different from the mob but no less lethal.

Peter Krause stars as Nate, the mellow yet spiritually adrift son who had escaped Fisher & Sons Funeral Home for a slacker's life in Seattle, only to get sucked back in when his father (Richard Jenkins, who turns up a lot for a dead guy) is killed driving his new hearse. Michael C. Hall plays Nate's brother, David, who's tightly wound thanks to his bitterness over inheriting such a downer of a career and his decision to conceal his homosexuality from his family and his fellow worshippers at the church where he is picked to serve as a deacon.

Lauren Ambrose plays Claire, the misunderstood, rebellious younger daughter; Frances Conroy portrays family matriarch, Ruth; Freddy Rodriguez is Federico, the artful young mortician who's a whiz at reconstructing badly disfigured corpses. Oscar nominee Rachel Griffiths essays the role of Brenda, with whom Nate is sharing a dalliance when he learns of his father's death and who, with each episode, is revealed to have a past more troubled than he could have ever guessed. And everyone has a plethora of surprising, uh, skeletons in their closets. (The HBO Web site says the series is set in Pasadena, but Ball only says its in the L.A. area.)

Ball, Krause, Rodriguez and Ambrose have gathered at the show's production office to discuss their new project. Headshots of the cast members are pinned to a bulletin board; Ball recalls that Griffiths didn't have a photo and instead faxed him a blow-up of her driver's license. ``That's so Rachel,'' someone says, laughing.

The series' premise is a deceptively simple one, according to Ball. ``These people live in the presence of death every day - how does that affect your outlook on life?'' he says. ``My gut instinct is that it would put everything in sort of stark relief - you just sort of look at things more sharply, value things a little more, have less patience for the b.s.''

Ball was most inspired by the books of Thomas Lynch (American Book Award winner ``The Undertaking,'' ``Bodies in Motion and at Rest''), philosophical treatises on his career as a funeral director. ``His books were the ones I read where I thought, 'OK, I get it. I get what it's like to be in this business as much as I can without being in it.'

``He writes about death in such an unbelievably unsentimental and yet still poetic and spiritual way - not any traditional dogmatic way. He seems to have a real appreciation for life and small moments. That for me is what I want to convey. I can understand these characters, as opposed to the Jessica Mitford book ('The American Way of Death Revisited'), which is really shrill and a blatant condemnation of this industry - 'Omigod, look at this awful industry - can you believe that they actually raise prices?' They get crucified for doing exactly what every other industry in this country does.''

``Six Feet Under'' feels authentic in textural elements of the job beyond the procedures of preparing bodies for viewing - ads for funeral home products are as slick as those for Budweiser or BMW; the brothers must contend with the phantom corporatization of the industry (large companies make each of their outlets appear to be family-run, even if they're not).

``At the beginning of the season, a technical adviser walked us through the whole process, told us what happened, passed around a textbook,'' Ball says. ``We spent a day doing that and a day saying, 'OK, what's some of the weird stuff that happens?' and he told us those things. We wanted to be realistic about what happens, but at the same time, we didn't want to dwell on it. The first response people have to a show like this is, 'Oh, that's so gruesome.' We actually don't show much of what happens.''

``The family business isn't necessarily the heart of the show,'' adds Krause. ``For me, the heart of the show is the relationships between the family members, and Federico is like the disgruntled stepson who saves the day frequently. The children have very different emotional lives, as is true with any family. Because of that, the quality of the mortuary stuff doesn't take center stage. It doesn't weigh it down.''

Krause lauds Ball's depiction of Nate and Brenda's complicated relationship. ``The psychology behind that relationship - Alan's either consciously or unconsciously very brilliant,'' he says. (``Consciously,'' Ball says with a smile.) ``Nate talks about his father being very restrictive and manipulative, and it's interesting to me - she's trying manage him. It's exactly the same sort of relationship.''

Of her own character, Ambrose offers, ``She doesn't fit into the family business model. Everybody on the show seems to not know exactly who they are, but she kind of embraces that. She also seems to embrace her freakishness. She's 17 - her whole life, she's been called Morticia, and she's embraced that; she even drives a lime-green hearse. She craves a family - she senses that she kind of missed the family's heyday. She's always on the verge of doing the right thing but then something happens.''

Of Federico, the enthusiastic mortician, Rodriguez says, ``he was sort of a prodigy when he was young. As you can see throughout the episodes, he's very enthusiastic about his work because it's art to him. So he applies himself that way. As opposed to being sad, he's very into his work.''

Ball adds, ``The easy way to go would've been to make the mortician a creepy, ghoulish guy. So let's reinvent him. I saw a documentary where this kid saw someone he knew shredded, then saw him reconstructed at the funeral and thought, 'OK, that's what I want to do.' It wasn't, 'I'm a freak.' One of the things I want to do is demystify the whole idea of death and its presence in our culture. We tend to want to make it secret and sweep it under the carpet. But it's just a job.''

All concerned agree ``Six Feet Under'' represents the pinnacle of their work in television.

``I've repressed my memories of working with the networks,'' says Krause with a laugh. ``Those relationships were like totalitarian nightmares - they really are, you know? I look back and I sold myself on those jobs - 'This is funny, this is good.' And then I'd go through suicidal boredom.''

Ball has a laundry list of horror stories, including when ABC ran part two of a two-part episode first and told him, ``It doesn't matter.'' He also remembers meetings where executives would tell him, `` 'Let's just imagine for a moment that I'm the stupidest person in America - am I going to get this moment? Am I going to get that the reason he was rude to her is that he secretly likes her?' And I'd want to say, 'No, probably not, but frankly, if you're the stupidest person in America, I don't care if you get it.' ''

In addition to its other provocative narrative gambits, ``Six Feet Under'' tweaks stereotypes by having its gay characters also the show's most devoutly religious, even though many faiths would blindly condemn them. ``I'm gay, and one of the things I've dealt with is my ideas of religion; I grew up believing that stuff,'' he says. ``You have to reach a point where you think, 'You know what? You people don't get to tell me what's what. You don't have the right to deny me my spirituality. Bang your Bible, but I'm not going to give you that power.'

``The show does have a spiritual edge,'' Ball says. ``There's a line I love in episode seven where a priest says Jesus was a revolutionary and he was assassinated for his beliefs, and that we're doing exactly the same thing today.''

The room becomes silent, almost sheepishly so, in response to how serious the conversation has become, but also at the realization that few TV shows could ever inspire such conversation. Ball - clearly happy to have his superficial sitcom days behind him - breaks the silence with a joke. ``I wrote a 'Jesus was a revolutionary' scene for 'Grace Under Fire,' too.''

``SIX FEET UNDER''

What: Dark comedy (created by ``American Beauty'' writer Alan Ball) about a dysfunctional family that runs an independent funeral home.

The stars: Peter Krause, Lauren Ambrose, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Freddy Rodriguez, Rachel Griffiths and Richard Jenkins.

Where: HBO.

When: 10 p.m. Sunday, repeated at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

CAPTION(S):

8 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Creator Alan Ball, left, with cast members Lauren Ambrose, Freddy Rodriguez and Peter Krause.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(2) Richard Jenkins plays a dead guy who shows up a lot on HBO's ``Six Feet Under.''

(3) ALAN BALL

(4) LAUREN AMBROSE

(5) RACHEL GRIFFITHS

(6) FREDDY RODRIGUEZ

(7) FRANCES CONROYL(8) Michael C. Hall, left, and Peter Krause play brothers saddled with a family-run funeral home.