Driving Force, so...what did you think? (2 Viewers)

[Four Kalitta]

Anyone notice when they showed the Fiorelli Crash from Pomona and the Family got in the Tow vehicle. When they got to the end of the track to see How Ashley was; They were in Gainesville!

I think the show will have Great ratings, a great mix of family issues and the racing!

Also when they show Ashley & Fiorelli before they prestage, the shot of Fiorelli is a helmet shot of Doug Kalitta.

 

[brian]

I'm also NOT a fan of reality TV shows, and rarely watch any of them. That being said, I was looking forward to watching Driving Forces, but if the first two episodes are representative of the whole series, I don't think I can take much more of it. Hate to be critical of John, but he obviously swears alot even in home life (what little there is) as well as his racing life, and based on how many times he was bleeped, I found it embarrassing. My wife who is trying to support my drag racing habit, couldn't take more than 15 min. of the show, and then decided to leave the room to do something better with her time, and I began to wonder if I should do the same. Sure I know it was "made for TV" and all that, but I guess I just expected something with more appeal. If this type of show is what A & E and NHRA hope will attract people to the sport, I guess I missed the appeal. I kinda felt bad for John, especially the admission that he has to live in a separate home, and is only a guest for awhile in Laurie and the girls residence. Dysfunctional to a "T" is how it was presented.

Sorry to rain on the praise parade, but I was and still am hoping for better.

That is what makes it a "reality" show. John cusses like a sailor. And I don't think A&E thinks the show will attract people to the sport, all they are concerned with is that it will attract viewers to their show. And I think it will be a success....

 

[jpee]

they had a little "moment", he noticed the toe ring and went off, "What the **** do you need with a toe ring?!?!?"

I was waiting for her to reply..."But Dad. I'm Dating Shawn Carlson!"

Then you REALLY Would See John Go OFF

 

[d'kid]

D-day plus 21.5 hours....
Papa John... give me a break, Sadie Hawkins Dance? and you don't know wtf it is? One of the few times in high school I had a DATE to a dance. Normally, the 'gang' just all went together. I may have went to high school four years after you did in Garden Grove, my wife went to school in Bellflower, but we both had Sadie Hawkins dances. Even as much time as I spent with cars, I still had time for females.
more later

 

[Gordon]

Personally, I enjoyed the heck out of it. Not quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it. Having said that...

We've all heard the top end interviews, pre-race interviews & between race interviews and such when John has apologized for missing his girls growing up, wasn't there for Laurie, etc. - heck, we hear that from a lot of athletes in every walk of life, it's not new.

Still, I think "Driving Force" is one of, if not THE biggest risks John has ever taken & I admire his and his family's guts for putting it out there for the world to see. In addition to allowing his legions of fans into his personal life, what I think may be potentially more important is that the Force's might just open someone else's eyes to the risks of putting their career (whatever it may be) over family. In the end, the family is always more important and it's all you're going to have.

 

[Kelly]

I want to know what made Ashley cry. The editing was strange. There 's no way that happened as quickly as they made it look.

Dude! You will NEVER understand for 2 reasons. ....

1. You have never been a female
2. You have never been a 23 year old female.

 

[none]

I liked the show.Got to see a different side of John Force. And PLEASE I did not EVEN need to him in his tighty whiteys

 

[d'kid]

Dude! You will NEVER understand for 2 reasons. ....

1. You have never been a female
2. You have never been a 23 year old female.

Kelly, tears are blackmail
fathers fall apart when daughters cry
and all we can think is what the *? did I say now
and that's why Mouse and her girlfriends have me wrapped around their little fingers... ya'll don't fight fair...

Hush... big boys don't cry... big boys don't cry... big boys don't cry....
I'm not in love, so just forget it... it's just a silly phase I'm going through

 

[Don]

The cussing is no big deal, huh?
Considering this is 2006, and to watch A&E, you have to pay for it (cable, etc,), therefore the language and words will be more risqué over what you will hear on commercial (NBC, etc.) TV….and they were doing quite a bit of bleeping…sounded like my alarm clock…meaning that his words were on the other side of PG….Why is this a big deal? Seems to me, that a majority of the bleeps took place in the presence of, or to his daughters….the very ones that he said he is trying to get them to "love me(him)." Strange way to act to get your kids respect.

Quite sad slamming his own daughter when she said she wanted to be a teacher. I couldn’t believe it. Which is confusing considering how much he says he loves Gary Densham….who was a school teacher.

Great for NHRA?
I put it this way…..if I was chasing a new sponsor to get into the sport, I would have been praying that the company management HAD NOT seen the show.

Yeah, I think we all agree that a lot of this stuff is staged on these "reality" shows, but the only thing that I got out of the hour is that John comes across as a jerk, and I surly wouldn’t consider him a role model for anyone to aspire to be.

Just my opinion.

 

[2bmayhem]

We caught the 2nd episode... and it was great.

But note to self... When the girls travel down the road in an F-150, and the youngest is in the middle of the back seat, I see only one seat belt, and it's under the shoulder of the middle daughter's in the passenger seat.

Put em on.. camera's or no.

 

[5.0 Junkie]

The only things I didn't like were the ridiculous over dubs or sound effects. (i.e. the screeching tire sound when Ashley launched during the first episode and the wrong type of engine sound at the end of that run).

I thought I was watching the lead-in to OverHaulin' when I heard the tire screech.

Rinehart's voice-overs were pretty funny too. Especially the "Welcome race fans to final eliminations" or whatever it was.

No kidding on the stupid dubbed in sounds. Attention A&E sound engineers, an A/Fuel car does not rev up on the starting line. If you hit the throttle with the clutch in, your left leg would end up in the crowd somewhere.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good. A touch too much reality show goofiness, but not bad. The cat scene had me LOL.

 

[marlin]

I liked it although I started thinking this was

starting out like the Osbounes for a few minutes..You know , really found myself feeling sorry for John.I mean , no one was taking him seriously ( the girls) but I think the point here is the fact John has been doing his thing and his wife has been trying to raise the family as much as she could when he wasn't around.Now the two youngest are 17 and 19 and John is findiNg out things about them he didn't know...( the teaching thing etc.) It will be interesting to see the series unfold and where things go.I too , found it strange that we saw robert in one shot and that was it .Was his wife on either segment ? By the way my first post on the new site...AWESOME JERROD !

 

[Roger]

The cussing is no big deal, huh?
........Seems to me, that a majority of the bleeps took place in the presence of, or to his daughters….the very ones that he said he is trying to get them to "love me(him)." Strange way to act to get your kids respect.......

I agree with you, Don. Surprised no one up until you at least mentioned all the raunchy language that seems to be just another "crutch" word. Sad way to talk to anyone and for sure not to your own kids (or even wife). I am not a saint by any means, but I only remember my father saying the F word once and he just about choked on it when he realized what he said. For sure, he did use many other cuss words liberally, as some of us (yours truly included), but there are just some things that said in front of kids (yes, even 17 and above) that just don't garner respect.

If his kiddos play it right, they stand to have a real chunk of security ahead of them, even as a teacher or whatever they end up being.

 

[.]

Come on Vetteracer!
Everybody knows how you feel about the Boss. Maybe this would be a good thread to avoid? I've always liked you and looked forward to seeing you at Pomona twice a year. Don't give me reason to change that.

Hi Doc,
for the record, I do not personally know the Boss like you do and can only go off of what the media decides to show(whatever slant that may be), but I do like the guy.
John has given more $$$ and time to charitable causes than I could ever earn in several lifetimes.

For me personally, privately and as a fan, I don't happen to like
the smoking, the drinking, the cursing, the bullying, the multi-car concept, the out of control budgets, the squeezing out of the smaller F/C teams.....

You're right, maybe I should have kept out, I guess I just can't wrap my brain around 14 time champion multi-millionaires complaining and bickering about anything. For now, I'm going to stand by my opinion and hope we can just respectfully "agree to disagree" on that.

Anyways Doc, I enjoy meeting you at the mater meetings, and seeing you here on the board, I respect you and I hope we can respectfully shake hands like gentlemen for many more mater meetings to come.

back to regular programming

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Of course we can Paul, I'm way too old to change and I liked you before. See you at Pomona twice a year for about three more decades?

 

[Bob]

For me personally, privately and as a fan, I don't happen to like
the smoking, the drinking, the cursing, the bullying, the multi-car concept, the out of control budgets, the squeezing out of the smaller F/C teams.....

The only things Force smokes are Goodyear slicks.

While I've never been in a situation that I could proclaim "I'm gonna go get drunk by licking my butt", I certainly have no problems with people who drink beer.

The cursing....if the show had Force talking like Ned Flanders from the Simpsons (gosh darn iddly diddly oakly doakly), it wouldn't be a reality show, it'd be totally phony.

Bullying is often times a perception and not a fact. Expecting the same effort you give to any entity from your employees isn't bullying, although I could see how in some situations, when the boss is as intense as Force is, living up to those expectations might not be possible, even from very talented and devoted people. That said, I think the man has genuine appreciation for the efforts put forth by everyone in his organization, and yelling at people sometimes doesn't necessarily make one a bully. It works the same way with family, but that can be a bit more complex.

The "multi-car concept" has put more drivers into competitive cars than there would be with single car operations. ...many more.

Out of control budgets, and squeezing out smaller F/C teams? Whadda ya want, spending caps? Socialized drag racing wouldn't help anyone. If Force only had one car, why do you think sponsor dollars being sent in his direction would automatically go elsewhere? Most of them wouldn't. He'd just keep getting richer, and there'd be fewer cars racing. Same goes for the other multi-car teams.

 

[ProStockJunkie]

Yep, that was good one alright. I laughed hardest at the end of the 2nd episode when, after telling Britney (I think) that being a teacher was fine and he'd support it and they had a little "moment", he noticed the toe ring and went off, "What the **** do you need with a toe ring?!?!?"

I liked it when John first noticed the toe ring and she just uncrossed her legs and got up and left without saying a word, and he was asking that as she was walking away. There's a lot of little subtle things in this that I find very funny.

The girls & Laurie really play John too. Like when he's out cleaning the grill and talking to Laurie in the kitchen about wanting to talk to one of the girls about being on the phone all the time. Without missing a beat, she says something like, 'sorry, she's on the phone right now', when she was really standing right there next to her, not on the phone.

But I too tend to feel sympathy for JF. I have no doubt he has trouble connecting with his family. Not sure if a reality show is the way to start to fix that. He has built his empire and assumed the girls will take it over. Better start asking & listening to what they want to do with their lives.

If nothing more were accomplished with this show, I believe it will open the eyes of some of its viewers. They may be viewing themselves concerning what's going on in their own families. Perhaps an unintentioned consequence of this show. This can be a good thing.

 

[Larry]

Well guys/gals I finally saw the show last night and about an hour before my youngest daughter called me lamenting her education and job prospects! Me I listened and said I just want things to be going well with all my kids before I go.
I guess that's why they call it a Reality Show because I sat there and listened to our conversation repeated by another father and daughter on TV.
I'm sure that conversation goes on alot in real life cause as we get older that wish becomes more predominate on the mind.
I liked the show and I for sure empathise with John.
I'll watch it regularly.

 

[DLB]

I just hope that he doesn't start getting his fan's diagnosing his problems at races. That will be a problem I am sure.

"Hey John - can I get your autograph?...oh, and by the way, I saw your show, it's really great. I think what you need to do with Brittany wanting to get her nose pierced is just [proceed to give advice here] because not only would that solve the problem I think, but it would make for great TV. And hey, can you give me a shout out? My name is [insert name here]."

I am sure that would really get him focused on race day. Of course, for Capps sake,

 

[Toejam]

Last night I called a gal I've known for 30 years who is a Huge JF fan. I reminded her that the new JF reality show was on(Repeat), she said thanks and would call me back. She called me after a couple of commercial breaks and said "He's going to lose some fans I think, I didn't realize he could be such an Ass!" She called again after the second show and said she's willing to watch a few more episodes to make a Fair assumption. But still Maintained she never realized he was such a Hot-head! I bet a LOT of viewers had that opinion!