Oprah winfreyHer emotional ad-libs won her a Chicago morning talk show in 1984, which beat rival Phil Donahue for the top spot locally within a month and was syndicated nationally in 1986. She also acted in the 1985 hit film The Colour Purple.The Oprah Winfrey Show remained the top-rated talk show of all time and was estimated to reach 40-million United States viewers a week.When I have watched, I’ve found myself grumbling or sighing as often as I’ve found myself rapt. And yet, I was often rapt, welcomed in by the comforting drum-beat of her interview style, the exclamations and intonations that are instantly recognizable as Oprah’s. I could tune in if I wanted: This has been a simple fact of my existence since I was 11 years old.
That doesn’t mean that all women watch her or like her, or that many men don’t. It just means that if I mention the name “Gayle” to most American women of a certain age, you’ll elicit an affectionate grin, perhaps a joke or theory about how we all should have a best friend who accompanies us on road trips and is a partner/bonus spouse. Anytime there’s an Oprah thing -– a Tom Cruise couch-jumping joke, a great Maya Rudolph sketch on "Saturday Night Live" –- we smile, with exasperated warmth. She’s like a relative who sometimes embarrasses us but for whom we feel an immense amount of affection.
My daughter will know who she was, like how I know who Ed Sullivan was, and how my grandfather wouldn’t let my mom watch Elvis. But she won’t know what it is to come home and plop in front of the television on any ordinary Thursday and maybe catch Billy Crystal being interviewed or Dr. Oz telling you about your excrement or Oprah rolling out a wheelbarrow meant to represent her own body fat. And she won’t know what it is to call a friend and say
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