Beers, whose own gravelly voice has narrated many of his macho-man series, pioneered the dirty-and-dangerous-job genre (he calls it “testostereality”) that has now exploded across the reality television landscape.

Deadliest Catch for Discovery and Ice Road Truckers for History are branddefining hits for both networks. Black Gold recently wrapped its best season ever on truTV, ranking among cable’s top five among men 18 to 49 for its Wednesday night timeslot. AndStorage Wars and spinoff Storage Wars: Texas — about container-raiding teams of fortune hunters — are currently the top two unscripted series on A&E.

“To me, it’s not just about the job, it’s finding a culture where there are rules and codes, heroes and villains,” says Beers. “That’s what’s fascinating to me.” Today, the 54-year-old married father of a teenage son (his wife, Leslie D. Beers, is the president of Amygdala Music, which supplies music for Original Productions) has 14 series on seven different networks. The first of Beers’ manly man reality offerings — Monster Garage, which premiered in 2002 on Discovery — sprang from his own interest in cars and motorcycles.

He has several cars — he’s almost finished restoring a 1940 Ford panel truck that he picked up at a junkyard in Oklahoma — and nearly a dozen motorcycles including two Harleys and a Royal Enfield chopper.