“I could not be more proud of our first show,” says Joe Buck of the premiere episode of “Joe Buck Live”, “from the moment I walked out on that stage till the moment I walked off.” Buck’s opinion doesn’t seem to be shared by HBO exec Seth Greenberg, who considers Buck’s intereactions with comedian Artie Lang a foray into “dangerous territory”. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Dan Caesar previews episode #2, thus sparing you the agony of watching or taping the program.
Tuesday’s “Joe Buck Live” is scheduled to include a discussion with standout former quarterbacks Terry Bradshaw, Dan Marino, John Elway and Joe Namath, a segment with two flamboyant sports-team owners from Dallas ” Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban ” as well as a conversation with outspoken former big-league pitcher Curt Schilling.
“That’s a pretty darn good guest list,” Buck said. “It’s got a lot of potential.”
But it’s far different from the opener.
“We want to get back to some bread-and-butter basics and let Joe shine where he’s comfortable,” Greenburg said. “The comedic elements didn’t necessarily work the way we wanted them to, and we feel this will put him in a real comfortable position.”
Buck, who said he was “100 percent comfortable out there” the last time, said the retooling was a mutual decision.
“We both came to the realization that in this format, under the heading of HBO Sports, I’m better off doing a show based that way and let my personality take it wherever it goes,” he said. “The stabs at comedy will be toned down, and the result will be, at least in the format, a more straightforward show.”