LIVE! with Uncle Remus

“The night should be so dark!”

~ Oscar Wilde on Uncle Remus

LIVE! with Uncle Remus and the Tar Baby is a popular day time talk show featuring topical subjects of an important nature and stuff. Lovable ol' uncle Remus started this show with the audience of two or four children and some brer patch critters. The Tar Baby was the glue that held the show together. After protracted contract disputes under the guise of "wanting to focus on his family" the producers decided to let the Tar Baby go. His replacement was Eleanor Mondale. The show was renamed LIVE! With Uncle Remus and Eleanor.

Uncle Remus hides his desire to kill the birds under a smile.

Key Segments

• Dancing, before each show, the tar baby would find some excuse to get the audience dancing.
• Bottom Ten Lists
• Audience giveaways. Most often the Audiences were given away to the Carolyn Rea Show.
• Each day was started with Remus regaling the audience with his stories of the antebellum south
• Syrup Lady Celebrity Death Match, featuring long time winner Aunt Jemima and perennial good sport, Mrs. Butterworth.
• Real Wild Cream of Wheat Mystery Call In Segment, where a caller was invited to guess which part of the wheat can hold the most cream, with a lucky audience member/partner pouring heavy cream over the bushels of wheat laid out in various Mitchell South Dakota style designs.

Key Audience Demographics

Civil war reenactors and other nineteenth century throwbacks: 18-45 Years of age

Air Dates

• 1812, featured in flight entertainment during the battle of New Orleans
• 1948, Diznee's feature film version of the "True Hollywood Song"
• 1949-1987 Except during the Arab Oil Embargo. The Tar Baby's Emaciated state caused him to cancel all live appearances. During the Embargo, episodes of "Classic Remus Rebus Hour" were aired.

Classic Remus Rebus Hour

This was a mid-oil-embargo replacement series, that had little do do with Rebusai. The play on words and alliteration was lost on the core audience. Uncle Remus hosted this show alone, which was an amalgam of a Soul Train dance party and the David Susskind Show.

LIVE! With Uncle Remus and Eleanor

The unsuccessful successor to the hugely popular LIVE! with Uncle Remus and the Tar Baby. When the original co-host, TB decided to leave, Uncle Remus auditioned millions and millions of potential co-hosts. Through a call in voting via 900 numbers, it was finally settled that Eleanor Mondale from TV's E!, CBS and QVC would do the honors. AA&T reports unusual call volume from the northern outpost of Minnesnowta.

Key Segments

• Eleanor's morning perkiness and diatribes against morning commutes did not sit well with the show's core audience.
• Eleanor's dancing cue was always the cry "Everybody Dance Now!" from the tired 1980s dance club hit.
• Endless reminiscing about the Tar Baby by Uncle Remus, often provoking tearful hugs from audience members. This too proved to be a downer.
• Syrup Lady Celebrity Death match was a segment owned outright by the Tar Baby. A reworked version featuring "Ketchup" and "Catsup" failed to generate audience enthusiasm. This seemed to suspend the reality of the fight beyond that of pro wrestling, and the segment was dropped quickly.
• Audience giveaways proved unsuccessful, as not even the Carolyn Rea show would accept the replacement audience.
• Real Wild Cream of Wheat Guy - Quaker Oat Guy, Celebrity "Pennsyltucky Hold'em Challenge" was a failure due to the Quaker's avowed abstinence from gambling and the devils picture book aka Cards. Uncle Ben lent his considerable expertise to the proceedings before he and the Cream of Wheat guy double teamed, and beat the crap out of the Pilgrim for being such a panty waist milquetoast.

Fun Facts

• The show's audition period for the new co-host was longer than the revamped show lasted.
• The roles of "Ketchup" and "Catsup" were played by Aunt Jemima and Mrs. MMM-MMM Butterworth. This served to suspend reality for the hard core fight fans.
• The revised rules for Pennsyltucky Hold'em were copyrighted and released into the public domain by the Daughters of the American Red States.
• The show's producer cites the bad rendition of before monologue dancing as the chief reason for steep decline in ratings.

Air dates

1 April 1988 - 30 March 1987 After a few airings, time was reversed to before it even started.