The End of an Oprah Era

Truth Thursday

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm weeping. I worked at home yesterday, mainly because I had a meeting up in the suburbs and it's always easier to work at home when I do. But when I realized that it was the day of the final Oprah show, well, I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do at 4:00 pm.

Oprah has aired over 5,000 shows. I have probably watched a total of four in their totality, and pieces of probably another 20 or 25. So I am clearly not a fanatic Oprah watcher. But those shows that I have watched have usually stayed with me. Whether it was learning how to divorce my hairdresser or brides who spend the first year of their married lives watching their wedding videos every day and weeping because it's all over (these were the dark and early Oprah years), or listening to the brilliance of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, or to Oprah's finding and uniting with her half sister after not knowing she existed until this year, or simply the joy of watching the full cast from "The Sound of Music" reunite, I have enjoyed and learned from and cried along with Oprah.

My daughter, when she heard that I was planning to watch the final show, noted "You always sob when you watch that show."

And she's right. Oprah is truly a marvel. All that fame, all that sensitivity. All that being the best you you can be. And yet, despite the enormous potential for mawkishness, she pulls it off, and usually in such an emotionally pitch perfect way that yes, I am crying by the end.

In many ways, I feel that I have grown up and become an adult in the shadow of the Oprah phenomenon. I was 23 years old when her show went national. I even watched some of her early Chicago-based shows on WGN which, somehow, miraculously, we received on our old dial channel television in my apartment in college.

I vaguely remember the tawdry early days, when she was one of several talk show hosts discovering  sensationalized tv for the first time, but what I really remember is noting the fact that she was an African American woman who wasn't a skinny Hollywood starlet, and yet, people were watching. She was challenging Phil Donahue, who was a great talk show host and as sensitive a man as they come in his day, but she was doing it from a woman's perspective. She was a real woman, talking to real women. This was news.

Oprah's combination of intelligence, street smarts and her brand of "this is my life" spirituality, create a universal appeal. There's something for everyone. While I rarely actually watch the show, I am a devoted reader of "O" Magazine, and especially appreciate both the intelligent book and movie reviews, as well as the tastefully done sections on being fitted properly for both bras and bathing suits.

I wasn't particularly interested in the final three days of the show – all those guest stars coming out to pay homage to Oprah in a big group hug that I wasn't a part of felt a little over the top. But I was curious about the final day – the content of which was kept secret until it aired. Who would join her on stage? Who could blow us away more than any of the previous guests?

As it turned out, it was Oprah herself. The queen of daytime talk decided that she was the most interesting, inspiring and revelatory guest she could have. She wanted to use her final show as a love letter to her fans, and as a final opportunity to be the teacher that she has always wanted to be. She wanted to leave us with her words of her hard-won advice and wisdom.

So I settled in and listened with half an ear. I actually was finding the whole thing rather boring, and more than a little self-indulgent. I was remembering with great fondness the final night of Johnny Carson, with the great Bette Midler singing "One for My Baby" and Johnny simply wiping away a tear and saying good night. That was class.

But as Oprah will do, she eventually reeled me in. After she ran through all her pearls of advice about being the best we could be, she started to talk about what it meant for her to leave. She claimed that it was all sweet, none of it bitter. How could it be, when we, her loving fans, had been along for this incredible 25 year ride?  She thinks of it as a "yellow brick road of blessings." 

But what really pulled me in was the most Oprahesque of Oprah moments in the show. It was when she talked about how, 20+ years ago, being in the loving presence of her audience enabled her to finally reveal the terrible sexual abuse she faced as a child. And then, all these years, later, she aired an episode in which media star Tyler Perry revealed his own history of sexual abuse, and after he spoke she brought together 200 men of all ages, colors and backgrounds, to join them in the audience, each holding a picture of themselves as a boy the age at which their own abuse began.  

You could mop the floor with me after that.

So I wound up ending Oprah's run right alongside her. And in fact feeling rather weepy as she made her exit, wishing I was there, able to high five her or fist bump her and send her off on her next journey. After all, as one of probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of Oprah fans, I am one of Oprah's closest friends. That is her magic, and that will be missed.

 

 Photo by Alan Light via Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Lyn]

I find Oprah fascinating and "O" is one of the few girlie magazines I actually subscribe to (there's a pile by the tub - I'm behind about 18 months worth of issues, but still..).

However, I have terribly mixed feelings about her overall impact due in part to the anti-science quackery she's been known to espouse. Dr. Jen Gunter posted a quick summary here: http://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/oprah-signs-off-and-doctors-everywhere-rejoice/

[elliptical reviews]

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