The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Oprah Winfrey Show

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The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Oprah Winfrey Show is a United States syndicated talk show, hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey, and is the highest-rated talk show in American television history.^[1] It is currently the longest-running daytime television talk show in the United States, having run since September 8, 1986, for over 22 seasons and 3,000 episodes (as of September 10, 2007). The show is renewed through 2011 but in a 2007 interview with Larry King, Oprah said that in 2011 she will not renew her contract, and thus end the show for good.

Oprah has been included in Time magazine's shortlist of the best television series of the twentieth century in 1998, and it made the top 50 of TV Guides countdown of the greatest American shows of all time^[2] in 2002. The show is highly influential, especially with women, and many of its topics penetrate into American pop-cultural consciousness. While early episodes of the show followed a Phil Donahue-style exploration of sensationalistic social issues, Oprah eventually transformed her series into a more positive, spiritually uplifting experience marked by book clubs, celebrity interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events. It has been announced that the show will be broadcast in high-definition beginning in Fall 2008.^[3]

Wildest Dreams
Interviews
Regular segments
Other famous moments
Ratings
Criticism
YouTube
Cultural References
See also
References
External links

Wildest Dreams

One of the show's features in recent years has been the "Wildest Dreams" tour, which fulfills the dreams of people reported to her by producers, found mostly from viewers who write in to the show, be the dream a new house, an encounter with a favorite performer, or a guest role on a popular TV show.

During her nineteenth season premiere (fall 2004), Oprah surprised her entire audience by giving them each a Pontiac G6. It was named as one of the greatest television moments in history by TV Guide. Although Oprah may be given credit for giving the cars away, they were donated to her by Pontiac as a publicity stunt. In 2005, Tina Turner guest starred, allowing Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman to fulfill her Wildest Dream of singing backup to Turner. Another included a man named David Caruso who lost 300 pounds after weighing 525 pounds. He came on the show in 2003 and told Oprah that one of his wishes was to sit in a Porsche. Minutes later, a white 2004 Porsche Boxster S (worth about $63,000) was given to him. Oprah named this one of her 20 favorite moments on a special DVD set.

Interviews

Winfrey on the first national broadcast of The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986.

Winfrey has interviewed a plethora of political and public figures during the past twenty years. In the earlier seasons of the show, rather than offering a simple publicity platform, a celebrity would often feature after a period of intense media scrutiny, such was the case when the model Naomi Campbell appeared after there were claims she had a substance abuse problem. She often interviews celebrities on issues that directly involve them in some way, such as cancer or charity work.

Winfrey claims her worst interviewing experience was with Elizabeth Taylor in the fourth season. The actress refused to talk about her marriages and current relationship, leading to a number of awkward silences. Taylor later apologized and returned in a better mood on Oprah's couch.

Oprah's interview with Tom Cruise, which was broadcast on May 23, 2005, has also gained notoriety. Cruise ? according to the The New York Times ? "jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell rapturously to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend, Katie Holmes." This scene quickly became part of American pop-cultural discourse and was heavily parodied in media as diverse as MADtv, Saturday Night Live, Family Guy, Hannah Montana and the film Scary Movie 4.

Non-celebrity guests are generally individuals who have been involved in an extraordinary situation. Examples of these include an episode in the fourth season which featured Truddi Chase, a woman with Multiple Personality Disorder who reported being violently and sexually abused beginning at the age of two. After introducing Chase, who was there to promote her book When Rabbit Howls, Oprah unexpectedly broke down in tears whilst reading the teleprompter, relating her own childhood molestation to that of the guest. Unable to control herself, Winfrey repeatedly asked producers to stop filming. Other non-celebrity appearances include guests who are chosen for being particularly un-fashionable and are given a fashion makeover by renowned style advisors Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine.

Regular segments

Oprah's Book Club

Originally featured a monthly book highlight, including author interviews. Its popularity caused featured books to shoot to the top of bestseller lists, often increasing sales by as many as a million copies at its peak. It was suspended in 2002 and returned in 2003, now featuring more classic works of literature, with reduced selections per season. The old format was reintroduced in September 2005, but her selection of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces became controversial due to accusations of falsification. January 2006 saw Elie Wiesel's Night selected; Oprah even traveled to Auschwitz with Mr. Wiesel. The most recent selection is A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

What's The Buzz

Oprah introduces up-and-coming public figures generating industry buzz but not otherwise widely known. In what several media commentators have labelled The Oprah Effect, people appearing on this segment such as Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx and singer James Blunt have benefited from the extra publicity the show brings. Blunt in particular saw album sales increase dramatically and a top two spot on the Billboard 200.

Remember Your Spirit

Premiering and most popular during the mid-1990s, recurring guest and self described spiritualist Iyanla Vanzant emphasized the importance of self-affirmation and intrinsic worth.

Oprah's Favorite Things

Usually airs during the holiday shopping season or at the beginning of spring. Items personally favored by Winfrey are given away to the audience. Certain episodes of this type feature select groups of people; in 2005's Christmas edition Hurricane Katrina volunteer workers appeared in the audience. In November 2006 she opted to hand out credit cards of one-thousand dollars and camcorders to members of her studio audience, who were then told to help others creatively using the money; Oprah has since called it favorite giveaway ever.

Tuesdays With Dr. Phil

In 1996 Oprah Winfrey hired "Relationship and Life Strategy Expert" Dr. Phil McGraw to prepare her for her trial in Amarillo, Texas in which she was accused of intentionally defaming the U.S. beef industry. Winfrey credited him for her victory in that case and soon after, he made weekly appearances on her show, tackling human issue topics such as weight loss, financial planning and errant children. One episode saw a grieving woman who could not overcome the death of her daughter and revealed that she had planned to kill herself after the show.

Dr. Phil's Tuesday slots, with running commentary from Oprah herself, quickly became a popular feature and in 2002 he was given his own syndicated daily TV show, produced by Winfrey's Harpo Studios and ending the segments.

Other famous moments

On December 25, 1986, a frail Liberace made his final public appearance on Oprah, dying six weeks later from AIDS.
In 1987, Oprah traveled to all-white Forsyth County, Georgia, which had gained a reputation as being a hotbed for racism. It turned out that a majority of the county actually supported racial integration.
The surviving members of the Little Rock Nine confront some former classmates who heckled them on their first day of high school.
A. J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys appeared in 2003 with his mother to openly discuss his drug addiction and rehabilitation. Oprah surprised him with the rest of the band coming out to give him support, marking this the first time they appeared together in two years.
The highest-rated single episode was "The Weight Wagon" airing on November 5, 1988, Oprah wheeled out a wagon containing fat, representing the weight she had lost.
Oprah was moved to tears by the sight of her fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Mary Duncan, in 1989. She appeared just when Oprah read her name on the teleprompter.
In 1993, Michael Jackson made a rare appearance on the show, during which he attempted to dispel many of the rumors surrounding him and told Oprah he suffered from the skin-pigment disorder known as vitiligo.

Ratings

The show averages about 8 million viewers per original airing and about 4.5 million for repeats.

Criticism

Some of Oprah's detractors accuse her show of having a liberal slant; she has championed such liberal causes as the living wage, and featured filmmaker Michael Moore multiple times on the show. A controversial episode, which aired in 2005 (though originally aired to little apparent notice in October 2003), saw guests discussing the sexual act of "rimming," igniting criticism. The FCC received a proliferation of complaints from angry parents whose children watched the show in an early-evening slot in many television markets. However, most FCC correspondents were prodded to write by Howard Stern, a noteworthy target of the agency, as well as Jimmy Kimmel, in an attempt to expose an FCC double standard.^[4]^[5]

YouTube

Oprah Winfrey has recently created a YouTube channel, at youtube.com/oprah that showcases some clips of her show and other relevant video features that are pertinent to a show's subject when aired.

Cultural References

On the teenNick show Drake and Josh Oprah is mentioned many times by Josh; he even has an autographed picture and a life-size cardboard cut out. In one episode, Josh accidentally hits Oprah with his car.
On the Nickelodeon show All That, Oprah and her talk show are lampooned on several occasions -- the program is known as Okrah! therein.
On The Simpsons, there is a talk show called Opal. However, the real Oprah once "interviewed" Marge Simpson in a specially animated segment.
On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith and his family attend a broadcasting on the show.
On Arthur, they have a spoof of The Oprah Winfrey Show that's called Hoping with Hoprah.
The Christian band Casting Crowns mentions Oprah in the song What if His people prayed.
In the beginning of the film Mrs. Doubtfire, when Robin Williams replaced the cartoon character's voice by saying smoking's a real killer, his boss Louie said that it's a cartoon, not the Oprah Winfrey special.
On the Disney show The Proud Family, Sugar Mama appears on Oprah because of her lemon bars.