It’s Wausau’s moment in TV (and zombie) history

There are many splendid things about Wausau, Wisconsin.
It’s had baseball teams, football stars (including the only Crazylegs and the only double-zero) and a 150-year-old insurance company. But it has not, to my knowledge, had zombies.
Until now.
“Revival” (shown here) — debuting at 10 p.m. Thursday (June 12) on Syfy and USA — offers a fresh take on the living dead. Other shows have great hordes of unpleasant ones, sweeping (well, shuffling) across the land. This one has a modest number of mostly benign ones, confined to the greater Wausau area.
This is, as I understand it, fiction. Still, it’s chosen a fine location.
The only time I was actually in Wausau was for a wedding that turned out to be the quintessential Wisconsin experience: The groomsmen wore Packers sashes, the opening toast was with milk and by the end of the night the best man had been arrested for drunken driving.
Otherwise, I’ve mostly heard about it and read about it. For a town of just under 40,000, it’s been busy.
For more than a half-century, Wausau had minor-league baseball teams. It was an early stop for Hall-of-Famer Edgar Martinez, power hitter Ray Boone (whose grandson manages the Yankees) and both a Cookie (Rojas) and a Mookie (Wilson). Its stadium, which peaked at 3,850 seats, now has a summertime college team.
And its high school football stars went on to the Hall of Fame. One was Jim Otto, whose name brought that rare “00” jersey number. The other was Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch, the pass receiver (Rams), athletic director (University of Wisconsin) and actor.
(In a Wisconsin movie theater, I saw “Crazylegs,” with Hirsch, then 30, portraying himself, including as a teen. I wouldn’t recommend it.)
The area also has a rich history of insurance companies. One, Mututal of Wausau, celebrates its 150th anniversary on Aug. 21.
But it’s had no zombie history, until now.
Tim Seeley, who created the “Revival” comic books, grew up in Ringle, a small town (about 1,700 people), 15 miles from Wausau. It’s logical that he would propel his nearby town toward fictional fame.
The series itself is shot in New Brunswick, Canada, and its one well-known actor is David James Elliott, a Canadian who starred in “JAG.”
He plays the police chief, with family problems. His older daughter (shwn here), a cop, has landed a job in a big city; his younger daughter sometimes disappears for days or weeks.
Into his same-old/same-old world comes something new: One day, some Wausau people rise from the dead.
They are mostly good-spirited. (Zombies rarely are.) The living people are mostly tolerant and welcoming. (Wisconsin people usually are.)
But then come the complications — including what may be my favorite closing line from a series opener.
Some moments here are dramatic, some are gory, some are quite funny. Wisconsin is like that, too.