WWW- RECOVERING alcoholic David Hasselhoff admits there are some Baywatch episodes he doesn’t even remember filming.

The actor, who celebrated his 55th birthday last week, has battled drink for years and his teenage daughter even filmed him drunkenly lying on the floor eating a burger.

One sixth of the world’s population has allegedly watched Baywatch and according to Guinness World Records, it is the most watched television show in the world, with more than 1.1billion viewers.

David spent 11 years playing Mitch Buchannon from 1989 to 2000, starring in an incredible 220 episodes and the Guinness World Records also lists him as The Most Watched TV Star in the World.

But at his birthday party last week, he admitted: “I have seen episodes of Baywatch that I have no recollection of making.”

He went on to admit that while he doesn’t watch Baywatch repeats, he’s still a big fan of his other huge television show Knight Rider.

David, known affectionately as The Hoff, has had a long and difficult struggle with alcohol. He checked himself in to the Betty Ford clinic for alcoholism in July 2002 but he’d already been to rehab in 2001 and he went again in 2004. Two years later, he was arrested for drink driving.

Last year he was reportedly banned from aflight at London’s Heathrow Airport because authorities believed he was too intoxicated to fly.

He told staff he was upset about his divorce from his wife, Pamela Bach, the mother of his daughters Taylor Ann and Hayley Amber, after 16 years together.

Reports claimed he was mumbling incoherently to himself and pictures from the airport showed a large wet patch down his jeans. However, later his press officer claimed he was ill and merely feeling the effects of antibiotics.

Then in September, while promoting his film Click, viewers of GMTV’s Entertainment Today complained he was drunk during an interview with Jenni Falconer.

He slurred his words, at times looked like he was going to fall asleep and made suggestive comments to the Scots presenter.

However David’s final fall from grace was in May this year when he was filmed by his 16-year old daughter Taylor Ann, drunkenly lying on the floor, eating a burger in Las Vegas.

The film was posted on the internet and Taylor could be heard begging the actor, bare chested and wearing jeans, not to drink, claiming he would lose his job in the Las Vegas production of The Producers.

But last month David’s year-long battle for his kids and messy divorce, in which his wife accused him of violent behaviour, looked to be over when he was granted full legal custody of his children.

He celebrated his 55th birthday last Tuesday with his daughters in Malibu and is back on prime time television as a judge on America’s Got Talent.

He spent his birthday surfing with his daughters and holds no grudges about the film showing him drunk, claiming the shock and furore after it was “nonsense”.

David insisted: “My family has always been close. I guess that is a good word for it – nonsense.

“It really was nonsensical and none of that needed to happen. But in the end, you know, I tried to find a reason for it all and I found that reason.

“And that reason was that everything had to come to some sort of closure to move on. That has helped.

“It hasn’t been easy for me or my children, or my ex, but it is what life is about.

“And as far as I am concerned, where I am right now is a really nice place, and that is to be the good, positive, role model father that I have been to my kids.

“My kids and I are incredibly close. So I said ‘Let’s take two months’ and I did nothing but hang out with them.”

David admits he’s been having a “fantastic summer” with his children and he even cancelled a big showbiz party to concentrate on being a good dad.

He even switched off all the phones except the new iPhone he got from his dad. David laughed: “I’m walking down the beach thinking ‘God this is great.’

“I love my iPhone. I told my dad it is one-stop shopping and I can see everything that is good and bad about me in my hand.

“I can watch You Tube, celebrity gossip website TMZ, make a phone call and listen to my music.

“But it is great, I really am concentrating on just having fun this summer.

“I was doing The Producers for three or four months in Las Vegas and I was really missing my kids. Now they are with me and I am sorting out stuff like college for one daughter and school for another. And it gives me time to do what I want to do.”

Looking happy and relaxed David admits he’s dating, but claims he’s doing it “secretly”, refusing to reveal her name.

As well as being a judge alongside Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan on America’s Got Talent, which was created by Simon Cowell, David is working on a new album.

His musical career took off in 1989 after he recorded Looking for Freedom at the end of the Cold War. The song became an anthem for the newly united German people and remained at the top of their charts for eight weeks. Last year he had a number three single in the UK with Jump In My Car.

He said: “I am working on a new album with Frank Wildhorn. It’s called The Romantics – really big songs, big ballads, very similar to Il Devo in the Josh Groban vain.

“And I am also actually working on producing my daughters because both of them can sing.

“I said I was going to wait until they’re ready. Now my dreams have all come true, and I am going to help them.”

So whatever happened to David Hasselhoff – The Musical?

“It is there,” he added. “It is ready to go. But then Mel Brooks called for The Producers and what was I going to say?”

Worth a reported £50million, David has been a huge television star twice over and has gone from the top to the gutter and is slowly climbing back.

Back in the Seventies David still remembers his first job after he’d moved from Baltimore to Los Angeles like so many others to become a star.

Before his first major role starring in The Young and the Restless, he worked as a waiter. But he thought he could make more money selling smoke alarms.

David said: “I had to go into people’s homes and make them feel guilty that if they didn’t buy a fire alarm or smoke alarm, their children could burn. It was a horrible job.

“I think it lasted about two weeks until I called my dad and said ‘Dad, can you send me an American Express card?’ and I went back to being a waiter.”

Standing on the beach in Malibu, David thinks wistfully back 35 years to when he was ayoung man.

He said: “I had just come out to Los Angeles. That was in 1972. I started out here and lived on the beach in a commune.

“In fact, the little beach house is still there. It’s worth about £4million now. I wish I’d bought it.”

‘I really am concentrating on just having fun this summer with my kids’