Courtesy St. Louis Post Dispatch

(June 19, 2009) Joe Buck has taken the heat this week, first from foul-mouthed, venom-spewing comedian Artie Lange on Monday that mangled the debut of Buck's HBO show — then from critics who thought the show was lame otherwise.

But the bottom line is that the viewership numbers were high.

Sports Business Journal reported that "Joe Buck Live'' pulled 381,000 viewers to outdraw the initial airing of the final three episodes of the show his predecessor, Bob Costas, had last year (189,000 viewers on average). It also outpaced the first showing of "Real Sports" in the 2008-09 season (271,000 viewers).

Buck, who long has talked about branching out from sports play-by-play to an entertainment platform, has been the center of attention for days after some prophetic words last week about doing live TV.

"It makes everything more intense and you get things you normally wouldn't get with a safety net,'' he said then, in what turned out to be an epic understatement. "It's kind of a high-wire act and I'm not planning on falling off."

But Lange was like a hurricane blowing in with Buck on that thin wire and his reputation took a hit in many corners, some of which took issue with his taking the high moral ground when criticizing Minnesota receiver Randy Moss for acting as if he was mooning Green Bay fans in 2005 then being part of a raunch-fest on HBO.

Although Buck wasn't spewing obscenities, a couple of his comments on the Internet broadcast that followed the TV show weren't exactly intended to play at the local garden club.

Buck's primary job is being the lead football and baseball play-by-play announcer for Fox and Dan Bell, vice president and spokesman for that network's sports division, said the incident doesn't tarnish his image there.

"Absolutely not,'' he said. "Not only is he one of the premier broadcast talents in America, he's one of the classiest professionals in the entire business."

FIRING LINE

The reactions were wide and pointed.

"Let's put it this way: If it wasn't Buck's own show, I am sure he would be outraged,'' Dan Shanoff wrote at Sportingnews.com. "It was certainly more tasteless than a Randy Moss end-zone pantomime of a mooning.

"I actually respect him more for it, but ... the biggest result was that Buck lost his high-horse to espouse his brand of cranky morality in sports."

Deadspin.com rang in: "Things couldn't have gone worse.''

Josh Levin on Slate.com panned the show, saying it was "ceaseless wretchedness,'' but said he ended up feeling sorry for Buck.

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon bantered about it Tuesday on their "Pardon the Interruption'' show on ESPN.

"If you're Joe Buck I think you wake up this morning, you pull the covers over your head," Kornheiser said.

"Why?'' Wilbon asked. "People are talking about your show if you're Joe Buck."

Locally, D'Marco Farr said on WXOS (101.1 FM) that he wished Buck would have been more proactive in dealing with Lange.

"The one disappointment is that Joe Buck didn't have enough to fire back. ... I wish Joe would have put him in his place or kicked him off. Get up and punch him in the eye.''

Said Jimmy Shapiro at sportsradiointerviews.com: "I thought he handled the situation terribly. ... Buck basically got in the fetal position and watched the train wreck with the rest of us.''

But Buck said there was little he could do because he didn't want to take the chance of being perceived as lowering himself to Lange's level.

And on the Internet portion of the proceedings, after Lange made what probably was his most vulgar comment of the night, Buck did say, "Can he be removed? Is this possible?''

ALL BY HIMSELF

It's hard to imagine a more randy situation for someone to deal with on their first day in a new role. Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and even Costas certainly had nothing like this in their hosting debut.

The bottom line is that HBO execs deserve a ton of blame or praise, depending on how you look at it, for booking such a guest. If they were seeking a smooth debut, they get an 'F.' But if they were looking to create a deafening buzz, the grade is 'A+'. The feeling here is they wanted something in the middle, as evidenced by them ending the Internet nonsense about halfway through its scheduled run and then their comments blasting Lange.

There were other potholes. The TV portion lacked a clear identity before the fiasco. The majority of those interested in featured guest Brett Favre probably had little interest in Lange or the other entertainers who aren't exactly on the A-list. And those tuning in for the entertainers probably aren't the target demographic for those watching sports figures who were on earlier.

Plus a skit with David Koechner impersonating the NFL's Morten Andersen advising kids to act in a tawdry manner fell woefully flat. It looked like a cheap knockoff of Peyton Manning's hilarious spoof last year on "Saturday Night Live'' when he acted as if he was setting a rotten example for a bunch of kids.

But the Lange-Buck incident stole the show and the New York Times' Richard Sandomir summed things up.

"To unleash Lange live against a host without the skill set of a Letterman or a Conan O'Brien was too risky,'' he wrote, adding, "HBO has a makeover job before Buck's next show. It will have to define Buck. Is he a comic? A brilliant interviewer? A sharp essayist? As yet, he is none of these. He is a play-by-play announcer with some wit, unlike Bob Costas ... (who) came to the cable network as a fully formed host.''

At least Buck and HBO have plenty of time to work on Episode 2. It doesn't air until Sept. 22.