Ozzy and Ozzie: TV family guys, one tattooed

Yet, Mr. Graden adds, there is a similarity between the two families. "Still, there's [that same] undercurrent of love and affection among the family members."

The appeal is simple, says Osbourne's manager and wife of 20 years, Sharon. "Our marriage has had its ups and downs. But, you know, we love each other. We have a great family that bonds us together."

Osbourne himself says audiences love the idea that celebrities have to take out the trash and deal with troublesome teens, just like everyone else. In fact, say some observers, it's so Ozzy to rebel by doing the most unexpected thing possible Â- being normal.

"Every [other star] I've seen do a thing about themselves, it's always like, 'Julian, fetch me my drink,' " Osbourne says. "You know, this rock star fantasy world. We are real people.... What you see on that program is what went down."

None of the show was scripted or reshot, he adds.

"That's reality. I didn't want to tidy up the stuff for the show. People say to me, 'Are you sure you want people to see this?' Well, that's the way we are."

The idea for the series came from the family's participation in another MTV show, "Cribs," which provides tours of stars' homes. The series began as an extension of the house tour, but takes it a step further. "I just thought America needed to see what a normal family is really like," Sharon Osbourne says.

Some viewers may not consider a family normal whose moving boxes are labeled "devil heads" and "dead things," or who routinely swears at one another without batting an eye. But Ozzy says the show is designed to confront notions of normalcy.

"I've been around this country and England and around the world. Family values, functional family: What is a functional family?" he says. "I know I'm dysfunctional by a long shot, but what guidelines do we have to go by? 'The Waltons?' What I'm trying to say is, what is the family we should all take our inspiration from?The show, he says, depicts "the good, the bad and the ugly."

"The Osbournes" may rely on the familiar sitcom theme of a family wrestling with daily life, but it manages to push the genre in a new, if slightly skewed, direction.

That's not to say even a rock entrepreneur with the marketing savvy of Sharon Osbourne can't miscalculate. The popularity of the show has put the Osbourne homestead on the Hollywood tour bus schedule, and it is now besieged 20 times daily by tourists. If more episodes are ever shown (only a dozen or so episodes are planned for this season), the family might want to take yet another page from "Ozzie and Harriet." That show was filmed in a replica of the Nelson home Â- safely tucked away from tourists on a studio backlot.

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