'The Outdoorsman' From backyard BB gun to nearly three decades of TV hunting and fishing

Buck McNeely, producer, director and star of "The Outdoorsman with Buck McNeely," says he is "amazed every day" that his television show has lasted for so long.

"This has been my job for 29 years," said McNeely, 53. "Over the years I've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of shows launched with great fanfare and die a whimpering death. For whatever the reason, they couldn't put a formula of success together; for whatever the reason, we have."

Programs such as "The Outdoorsman" are truly in a niche market. Not everyone tunes in each week to follow McNeely as he hunts wild game in a domestic or international setting. Some may even be repulsed at the thought of hunting, much less seeing it happen before their eyes. But the basis for "The Outdoorsman" includes more than just repetitious tracking and killing of wild animals; it also offers a blend of travel, tourism and conservation issues in a family-oriented format along with the occasional celebrity guest.

Produced at his compound in rural Cape Girardeau County, "The Outdoorsman" is the largest syndicated outdoor-adventure series in the world, airing on more than 500 television stations in the U.S., McNeely said. The show has been broadcast as an outdoor program on ESPN, TNN, Fox Sports, the Family Channel and the Outdoor Channel and also has been distributed internationally. McNeely has filmed his show throughout the U.S. and Canada and in exotic locations that include Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Iceland and several African countries; his roster of celebrity guests have included a mixture of noted athletes and statesmen such as former St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner and former U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, and also actors such as Robert Conrad, Dan Haggerty of "Grizzly Adams" fame and the late Charles Napier.

"The show has captured the attention of the American people and has ensured us a long-running program," McNeely said. "What we try and do is tell a story with every episode. Something with a good, positive message that promotes the outdoor industry and entertains the folks and leaves them feeling amused at the end of the program."

Some of Buck McNeely's trophies inside his home office. (Laura Simon)

World traveler

The son of a U.S. Air Force officer, McNeely was born in Cape Girardeau and grew up in places such as Texas, Washington, D.C., and the Philippines. When his father left the Air Force, McNeely settled in San Bernardino, Calif., and developed a love for the outdoors that started with a BB gun he received for his 10th birthday.

"I started off hunting birds in the backyard," he said. "Then I started getting into rabbit hunting and what have you. I also fished in the rivers in the San Bernardino mountains. When we moved to Modesto [Calif.], there were lots of pheasants, ducks and geese. An important part of our growing-up process was leaning how to hunt and fish, shoot and enjoy the outdoors."

McNeely graduated from high school in Modesto in 1978 and attended junior college for two years before he gravitated to Los Angeles to work in the film industry. But he said he decided to finish his remaining two years of college by attending Southeast Missouri State University.

"I majored in mass communications," he said, "For two semesters I produced a TV show on the local cable-access channel called 'Dream Date,' which was a knockoff of 'The Dating Game.' It was a big hit in the area for a while."

Buck McNeely poses for a photo inside his home office, Monday, Dec. 23, 2013. (Laura Simon)

During McNeely's last semester at Southeast, his professor asked him what he we wanted to do for his last course. McNeely said he wanted to play with an outdoors concept that he had been kicking around. In January 1985, he produced the first four episodes of "The Outdoorsman," which ran on a cable-access channel. He said the show, while on a shoestring budget, received a strong response and by the summer of 1985 it was being aired on KBSI-Fox 23 in Cape Girardeau. A year later the show gained its first share of national exposure when it was run on Tempo, which at the time was a national cable network.

"I was able to combine my love of outdoors with my avocation plans of producing for television," McNeely said. "I had no idea that it would turn into a career. It's grown beyond my wildest expectations. It's a 'who'd have thunk it?' deal."

Developing his own outdoors show has also afforded McNeely the opportunity to meet one of his idols from the outdoor-adventure show "Wild Kingdom," a staple of his youth.

"'Wild Kingdom' was an inspiration to me growing up," he said. "Seeing Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler touring the world made me think that it would be pretty cool to have a career like that. I got to meet Jim Fowler at a programmers' convention, and I was tickled to meet him. I told him that he and Marlin were an inspiration to my generation. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Buck, now it's your turn to inspire the next generation.' He verbally passed the torch on to me. I thought that was a special moment."

The ability to reach out to the celebrity guests who have appeared on his show is another reason for the success of "The Outdoorsman." Former St. Louis Cardinals quarterback Jim Hart was McNeely's first celebrity guest.

"We did a pheasant hunt with Jim in Southern Illinois," McNeely said. "And as I achieved a certain amount of visibility nationwide, I would be invited to celebrity events where I would meet guys like Conrad, Napier and Haggerty. I'd get to know them and I'd ask if they would like to do a shoot in Mexico with me. With very few exceptions, they wanted to join me."

Working against him

However, McNeely's life as an outdoorsman has also earned him scorn and the ultimate in ill will from animal-rights activists.

"I have received death threats from these far-left anti-hunters, and so have members of my family," he said. There's been lots of nasty vinegar spewed in my direction. They have no logical thought process because in their mind, a human life is less valuable than an animal's. I hope to God it never happens, but if any of them confront me with evil intentions, let's just say a quick death by lead poisoning will be in their future."

McNeely also acknowledged shooting an outdoors show on location is fraught with danger and that he has had some "close calls" with snakes, wild boars and Cape buffaloes.

"When you're out in the bush, you're part of the food chain at that point," he said. "If you make a mistake, you can and will be killed. There are no guarantees when you go into the bush. Sometimes you get lucky and things unfold in front of the camera and it's magic time. Other times, if the geese don't fly, the fish don't bite and it rains all day, you've got nothing to show for it. But for me, an adrenaline rush comes with being in the bush with dangerous animals that can and will kill you, like grizzly bears, elephants, leopards and lions. There's a certain exhilaration that just isn't there when you're hunting rabbits or deer.

In addition to "The Outdoorsman," McNeely said, he is also branching out into the home-and-garden genre.

"I'm producing a new series called 'Burned Out,' he said. "We had a house fire two years ago, and as a lark I decided to film the immediate aftermath of the fire. That evolved into the idea of filming the entire teardown and rebuilding of the new house. We shot over 100 hours of raw footage, and we're planning to have 'Burned Out' in distribution in 2014."

McNeely's 30th anniversary season will be in 2015, and he said it is likely there will be an anniversary special to mark the occasion. But in the meantime, the main thing will be continuing to build the show's distribution base and creating a program that has an effect on its viewers.

"I give thanks to the good Lord above every day for the opportunities I've been presented. I've done things I never thought I would and I've gone places that I never thought I would go. I consider myself to be a very blessed and fortunate individual."

"The Outdoorsman with Buck McNeely" airs locally at 11:30 p.m. Sunday on WPSD-TV Channel 6. For more information or to contact McNeely, visit outdoorsmanint.com or email buck@outdoorsmanint.com.