AND THESE ARE THE BEST MACAROONS SALMA HAYEK AND I HAD PUT IN OUR MOUTHS, EVER: Three Oprah episodes to go, and the NYT's Brian Stelter argues Wednesday "is the biggest such moment in television since Johnny Carson quit 'The Tonight Show' two decades ago."
As I said when she announced the impending end of her show, others can speak more competently about the impact of her show "in commerce, in literature, in spirituality and self-assessment, in reviving the talk show format in the post-Donahue era, in philanthropy, and so on," and all I can reiterate is this: most people who start in life where she was, and who are where she was at age 14, don't end up anywhere close to where Oprah Winfrey ended up. It is a remarkable, and fundamentally American story.
Okay, let's hear her scream some celebrity names.
Weirdly, I'm more or less totally untouched by Oprah. I've watched much more than my share of crap TV and talk show TV and interview TV and aimed-at-women TV; I've been home at the right times and watching TV at the right times and exactly the target market she was aiming for at times, and yet just totally never really cared, and still don't quite understand why and how and the extent and boundaries of her taste-makery and opinion-affectery, and probably minimize her impact on others because it's been so unavailing at making a dent on me.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, to some extent it's the Howard Stern thing again - go have fun being a bigger fish in a smaller pond, and I'm guessing that will pretty much totally reduce her presence in my life from minimal to epsilon until/unless she unretires from network or finally marries Stedman (or Gayle) and broadcasts the nuptials.
I'm going to take this overwhelming reaction to mean "we don't really care, Adam."
ReplyDeleteI have to agree. I think I have only watched her show once, because I was interested in the guest. But I got really tired of the 3 minutes talk 5 minutes commercial format and turned it off.
ReplyDeleteAnd I, too, am no stranger to crap TV.
We've been inundated by the run up to THE END OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY here in Chicago, and my reaction is a big 'ol "meh." I understand why people watch Oprah, but her show isn't my thing. I'm looking forward to all the hype being over.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness, her reign of being paid to promote anti-science fiddle-faddle junk is almost over.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the other camp.
ReplyDeleteMy mom watched Oprah every day and then we watched Channel 6 Action News. It's hard for me to remember a time when Oprah wasn't on at 4 PM.
When I first got a tivo, Oprah was probably the first season pass I set up. I watch it every day. I have subscribed to Oprah magazine since it began and am on auto-renew. I read it cover to cover. I spent summers in college reading Oprah recommended books.
There are certainly things about Oprah that I don't enjoy. But there are so many things I have learned from her show. I'll miss her being in my life every day.