The 1.8 million viewers A&E registered for the first two episodes of "Driving Force" on July 17 was the best audience for a debut on their network since 2004 when "Dog The Bounty Hunter" came on (and still has plenty of staying power). (Those first two episodes replay today at noon and 12:30 p.m., and then at 6 and 6:30 p.m.)

The forceful John Force (left) was reading all that info off the A&E press release that someone gave him the other day while he was on his cellphone, leaving his office to go home to get some of his medication (Lipitor, baby asprin and vitamins, he admitted).

"That's pretty exciting," he said of the rating, then went off in his usual all-over-the-place thought process about the series. "The cameras are all over us, and I'm trying to run four corporations, but the show said we'd never really see the cameras. But I mean, this morning I'm doing voice-overs and if a train goes by they want me to do it over aain, and it can be an overload. I mean, I've got 'Charlies Angels' in firesuits here, and in the first episode, they've got me in my underwear. No one wants to see my saggy ass and beer belly, but you agree to it and hope it's not detremental to my sponsors.
"But that's the real me. I got hammered by one of my best friends who saw the first show. 'We know they're representing you as a mean father ... get out of it.' I thought about it, and I called back and said, 'Patty, the truth is, what you see is what you get. When they piss me off, I react. I've tried to learn so much to master myself and get in control. I do look like a guy on drugs. But I love those girls and want to educate them. This is how we fight to win, and sometimes I can't do it with these little girls.
"And I'll be honest, the first three weeks of filming at Pomona and stuff was fun, but now it's a headache. The People Magazine stories and the billboards and everyone thought it was cool. Well, we got addicted to the cameras. They laugh at us. They tell me, 'You could be throwing up and still go on camera.' I'm learning finally how to say no."

Brent Travers, the show's executive producer and babysitter to Force and his girls -- 23-year-old Ashley, 19-year-old Brittany and 17-year-old Courtney (pictured above), says in the two new episodes, "you'll see a side of John poeple wound never think exists. You see him in this trailer park where he was raised in this Airstream with five brothers and sisters. It's real. He came from complete abject poverty.'

Travers, who was hooked up with Force by the Williams Morris agency and not so hot on doing a documentary series on him in the first place, now embraces the family because of the way they reflect so many other American households, no matter what the cost of fame and fortunes have brought.

We're calling it "The Osbournes" without the pop culture references and mumbling British accents.

"I loved 'the Osbournes' because the guy was crazy and half the show was trying to understand him," said Travers. "But with John, he's trying to instill values and show what life is like to these girls. There's a lot of room to go with this. Ashley is now testing in her dad's Funny car. She'll progress and Brittany and Courtney can move up, and then we'll see if John can fight his way back into his own house."

For more interactive elements of the show, including videos of interviews that didn't make it on TV, check out A&E's "Driving Force" website, the NHRA's blog on the show, and another webblog on drag racing fans' thoughts on the first shows.