diff --git a/etc/rc.conf.in b/etc/rc.conf.in
index 7fcdfe87..69a5cf24 100644
--- a/etc/rc.conf.in
+++ b/etc/rc.conf.in
@@ -111,12 +111,6 @@
 # file, those characters should be replaced with underscores in the
 # variable names as shown below.
 
-# Set rc_supervisor to use a program to monitor your daemons and restart
-# them when they crash.
-# Leaving this undefined uses start-stop-daemon, which is OpenRC's
-# default.
-#rc_supervisor=""
-
 # Some daemons are started and stopped via start-stop-daemon.
 # We can set some things on a per service basis, like the nicelevel.
 #SSD_NICELEVEL="-19"
diff --git a/sh/openrc-run.sh.in b/sh/openrc-run.sh.in
index 4d286b2a..67e47b75 100644
--- a/sh/openrc-run.sh.in
+++ b/sh/openrc-run.sh.in
@@ -125,6 +125,42 @@ _status()
 	fi
 }
 
+# Template start / stop / status functions
+# These functions select the appropriate function to call from the
+# supervisor modules
+start()
+{
+	local func=ssd_start
+	case "$supervisor" in
+		?*)
+			ewarn "Invalid supervisor, \"$supervisor\", using start-stop-daemon"
+			;;
+	esac
+	$func
+}
+
+stop()
+{
+	local func=ssd_stop
+	case "$supervisor" in
+		?*)
+			ewarn "Invalid supervisor, \"$supervisor\", using start-stop-daemon"
+			;;
+	esac
+	$func
+}
+
+status()
+{
+	local func=ssd_status
+	case "$supervisor" in
+		?*)
+			ewarn "Invalid supervisor, \"$supervisor\", using start-stop-daemon"
+			;;
+	esac
+	$func
+}
+
 yesno $RC_DEBUG && set -x
 
 _conf_d=${RC_SERVICE%/*}/../conf.d
@@ -146,14 +182,8 @@ unset _conf_d
 # Load any system overrides
 sourcex -e "@SYSCONFDIR@/rc.conf"
 
-# load a service supervisor
+# load service supervisor functions
 sourcex "@LIBEXECDIR@/sh/start-stop-daemon.sh"
-if [ -n "$rc_supervisor" ]; then
-	if ! sourcex -e "@LIBEXECDIR@/sh/${rc_supervisor}.sh"; then
-		ewarn "$rc_supervisor is an invalid value for rc_supervisor"
-		ewarn "Using the default."
-	fi
-fi
 
 # Set verbose mode
 if yesno "${rc_verbose:-$RC_VERBOSE}"; then
diff --git a/sh/start-stop-daemon.sh b/sh/start-stop-daemon.sh
index aae67920..6a3e2050 100644
--- a/sh/start-stop-daemon.sh
+++ b/sh/start-stop-daemon.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-# Default start / stop / status functions
+# start / stop / status functions for start-stop-daemon
 # Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Roy Marples <roy@marples.name>
 # Released under the 2-clause BSD license.
 
-start()
+ssd_start()
 {
 	[ -n "$command" ] || return 0
 
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ start()
 	return 1
 }
 
-stop()
+ssd_stop()
 {
 	local startcommand="$(service_get_value "command")"
 	local startpidfile="$(service_get_value "pidfile")"
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ stop()
 	eend $? "Failed to stop $RC_SVCNAME"
 }
 
-status()
+ssd_status()
 {
 	_status
 }