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the TV queen's career
By Kati Johnston
Special to MSN Entertainment
Photo Gallery: Memorable Oprah Moments
It seems as if Oprah Winfrey has always been with us -- and this wouldn't
be the same country without her, sort of like not having the Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbor. But as we drink in the current swirling around Oprah's
taking on of the publishing industry over James Frey's tattered memoir, it's
worth pausing to remember that she's had many golden moments over the
past 20 years -- moments that you can now relive through her anniversary
DVD collection. Here are a few of our favorites since her first broadcast in
1986:
From "The Oprah Winfrey
Show"
Mega-weight Loss (1988): After four months of
eating virtually nothing, Oprah enters her studio wearing slim designer jeans
and pulling a wagon onto the stage filled with 67 pounds of &
fat.
First Great Car Giveaway (2005): First, Oprah calls
11 women to the stage and tells them they're getting brand-new cars (wildly
promoted Pontiacs). Then, everyone in the audience receives a gift box, only one
of which (supposedly) contains a key to a 12th car. But it turns out every box
contains a key. Special highlight: Oprah screaming over and over again,
"Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!" Hey, what about
me?
Cruise Unglued (2005): Oprah's been criticized for
being tough on nobodies while practically fawning over celebs, and unfortunately
the infamous Tom Cruise episode only underscored that perception. After
railing about psychiatry, Cruise starts shouting about his love for girlfriend
Katie Holmes (you can't quite make out what he's saying, but
it sounds like, "Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!"), then leaps up
onto Oprah's couch doing the Snoopy dance and trying to play Twister with Oprah,
who looks stunned but sort of adoring. Cruise's antics spawned one of the Web's
best anarchic creative films. Special highlight: the "surprise" of bringing
Holmes onstage, wearing that set-jaw grin and hopelessly
caught-in-the-headlights look.
Video: Cruise Gone Wild
Video: Cruise Kills Oprah spoof
James Frey
(2006): Fool me once, shame on you. Fool Oprah once, kiss your
sorry-ass career goodbye. The author of "A Million Little Pieces" gets outed for
embellishing and fabricating much of his memoir, after having it picked as an
Oprah Book Club selection, which resulted in millions of sales. First Oprah
defends him, but as the tide begins to turn, she does an about-face, calling
Frey and publishing maven Nan Talese on the carpet. Special highlight: Oprah:
"Well, James, what was it? One root canal, or two? I mean, that should be an
easy enough question to answer." Frey goes grey-faced and looks a lot like
Richard Nixon on the day he resigned.
Video: Oprah Confronts Frey
Video: More Oprah vs. Frey
Oprah at
Large
David Letterman
(1995-2005): Letterman will never live down his performance hosting the
Oscars in 1995, almost as painful as James Frey's root canals. Vamping to fill
time, he makes fun of attendees Uma Thurman and Oprah by pretending to introduce
them, over and over and over again: "Uma, Oprah. Oprah, Uma." Hilarity did not
ensue, and the incident fueled the feud between Oprah and Letterman (not
helping: Letterman's ongoing, hilarious ridiculing of Dr. Phil, Oprah's
protégé). They finally make kissy face in late 2005, when Oprah goes on
Letterman's show to promote her new Broadway musical version of "The Color Purple." Special highlight: Oprah presents
Letterman with an autographed photograph of ... Uma,
Oprah.
Hermès Hoo-ha (2005): Oprah gets in a snit when
the Paris luxury boutique won't open for her entourage for some after-hours
shopping, which Oprah claims is due to racial reasons. Though many people think
Oprah's arrogance showed in her expectations (can't you call ahead if you're a
celebrity who wants to do a little after-hours shopping?), the retailer gets
lightheaded thinking of the bad publicity and apologizes anyway. Special
highlight: Oprah tries to portray a Paris shopkeeper as rude.
Zut!
Not a Zulu (2006): PBS's riveting Black History
Month series "African-American Lives" explores DNA testing to trace the ancestry
of famous black Americans, including Quincy Jones and Chris Tucker. Oprah learns to her great consternation that
her long-held belief that she was descended from Zulu warriors -- and hey,
they conquered everyone, and so has she, so it's a mistake anyone could
make -- isn't true. The look on her normally poised face is so affronted
and real, it's priceless.
Oprah, Inc.: Yes, yes, we all
know, she's one of the richest humans on the planet, with an estimated worth in
2005 of $1.3 billion (Hey, Oprah, everybody gets a car! Don't we?). In addition
to the Oxygen TV network, books, DVDs, that "Live Your Best Life" magazine and
the TV show that can't be stopped, she recently inked a deal with XM Satellite
Radio to co-host a weekly "reality radio" show with longtime pal Gayle King, to
debut in September 2006. Guess that makes her, if she already wasn't, Queen of
All Media.
Faux Oprah (Fauxprah?)
"Saturday
Night Live" Skits: You know you're an icon when "SNL" makes you a
recurring character over the years. Our two favorites: Tim Meadows as Oprah in 1977 (interviewing Chris Kattan as Anne Heche), in which he appeared with minions
carrying him like a goddess and was referred to as "The Oprah." And in 1998 Maya
Rudolph (one of the best comedians on TV, in our humble opinion), skewered
Oprah's two modes: serious concern for the downtrodden and fawning over celebs,
by bringing onto her show a woman who'd lost everything in a fire. Oprah then
says, "Well, Jane, this is your lucky day," and poor Jane, thinking Oprah's
going to rebuild her house or at least give her a dang Pontiac, looks hopeful --
until her "surprise" appears: a visit from John Travolta, which makes the audience shriek in
delight and Oprah suddenly becomes Celeb-Worshipper Oprah and utterly ignores
the poor wretch sitting between them.
Kathy Griffin's Stand-up
Shows: Griffin's shows on Bravo are endlessly quotable for the zingers
she flings at celebrities. One riff that's priceless: describing Oprah's visit
to the PBS series "Colonial House," in which she starts out as "cultured" Oprah,
pontificating about how valuable public television is, and then as it dawns on
her what the status of a black woman would actually be in colonial times,
switching to "ghetto Oprah" and getting in the face of the show's producers.
Wicked funny.
Dave Chappelle: If you had
any doubts that he's one of the funniest dudes out there, wonder no more.
Chappelle aired an extensive skit in which Oprah calls to tell him she's
pregnant, and he instantly sees his life transformed. He quits his job, flames
his employers and moves to Chicago to start burning through the Oprah fortune.
His actual interactions with Oprah are few, but he does lovingly -- and
territorially -- call her "my baby's momma" to whomever's handy, be it personal
martial-arts teacher, masseuse, Diddy or, in an especially priceless bit, Steadman
Graham.
Kati Johnston is a freelance writer who specializes in entertainment.
E-mail her at kati.johnston@comcast.net.
