‘Pimp My Ride’ producer held in wife’s death drove Cadillac hearse in high school

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Every scandal needs a creepy factoid or two, and here’s one from the file of reality TV producer Bruce Beresford-Redman: Back in high school, he tooled around town in a Cadillac hearse.

Beresford-Redman, who’s been detained by Mexican police in connection with his wife’s death at a luxury resort in Cancun, is hardly a household name, but he did become a key figure in the reality TV world. He co-created MTV’s hit ‘Pimp My Ride’ and also worked as a supervising producer on CBS’ ‘Survivor.’ He and longtime business partner Rick Hurvitz also developed a stunt-driving show called ‘Crash Course,’ which briefly aired on ABC last summer.

Before the two found their fortunes in TV, however, they were car-loving classmates at a New Jersey high school, where, according to a 2005 New York Times piece, Beresford-Redman drove a Cadillac hearse and Hurvitz had a Oldsmobile Delta 88. ‘As far as we know, everybody appreciated the irony,’ Beresford-Redman was quoted as saying.

Now colleagues are saying little about Beresford-Redman. The office of ‘Survivor’ executive producer Mark Burnett referred calls to CBS, which declined comment. MTV also declined to comment.

-- Scott Collins