Oprah to Leave Her Talk Show

[ken123]

She will make the announcement Friday.

[movieman1957]

How will the world survive?

[jdb1]

I just don't know what to think about this, and without Oprah to tell me what to think, I'll be all at sea! Who's going to replace her as the new control-freak demagoguette --- Kate Gosselin?

[mrsl]

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You knocked me off my seat on that one Judith - Kate Gosselin indeed!!!!!

What burns me is that was the opening item on the 4:30 Chicago news tonight.

[Lzcutter]

Oprah will still have a talk show. It will just be on her own network, the OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network, coming to your cable/satellite provider very soon.

It will originate out of Los Angeles instead of Chicago.

And all of this was at Oprah's doing.

[stuart.uk]

Ricky Lake while in the UK said she was bringing back her talk show. Opera was only shown here briefly in the 80s, I assume because of finacial reasons, whereas the Ricky Lake Show and others are re-run on digital tv. Could a more mature Ricky be seen as a replacement for Opera.

[jdb1]

Oprah will still have a talk show. It will just be on her own network, the OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network, coming to your cable/satellite provider very soon.

It will originate out of Los Angeles instead of Chicago.

And all of this was at Oprah's doing.

I swear, the first sentence above reads like the synopsis of one of the Brain's plots to take over the world on Pinky and the Brain. Why not her own cable provider (OprahCast)? Why not her own manufacture of television sets (OprahHD), which can receive only the OWN network (that name is ever so evocative, isn't it?)?

Then we can all sit in our living rooms and dens, furnished with OprahHome decor (in the OprahPointeHeights property development), wearing our OprahStyle fashions, eating OprahYum frozen meals, and sticking pins in OprahPlayTime third-word manufactured Martha Stewart dolls.

This woman continues to scare the **** out of me.

[mrsl]

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Judith:

On one hand I agree with you, but on the other hand you have to look at the good she has done. Beyond the fact that she's richer than God, she has helped every member of her family that has come out of the woodwork. Built schools, hospitals, libraries, etc. mainly in Africa, but she was the second on scene in New Orleans while Katrina was finally dying down. Her Angel Network has built homes for people all over the U.S.A. She's gotten people interested in reading books again, and I could go on and on. She has nobody to leave her money to, so she just keeps making more from a sense of boredom I think. The one thing I can't understand is leaving Chicago. For some crazy reason she loves Chicago, and I don't see why she would change her headquarters, but maybe L.A. is more adaptable to her future as a TV network magnate.
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[knitwit45]

I swear, the first sentence above reads like the synopsis of one of the Brain's plots to take over the world on Pinky and the Brain. Why not her own cable provider (OprahCast)? Why not her own manufacture of television sets (OprahHD), which can receive only the OWN network (that name is ever so evocative, isn't it?)?

Then we can all sit in our living rooms and dens, furnished with OprahHome decor (in the OprahPointeHeights property development), wearing our OprahStyle fashions, eating OprahYum frozen meals, and sticking pins in OprahPlayTime third-word manufactured Martha Stewart dolls.

This woman continues to scare the **** out of me.

I agree!

Anne said:

What burns me is that was the opening item on the 4:30 Chicago news tonight.

Anne, it was the "big" story of the 10:00 pm news (and used as news flashes all evening) BEFORE the "big announcement" of Friday.

[srowley75]

I'm sure after 25 years it's gotten tiresome for her. I know I'd be exhausted.

My complaint with Oprah is that it just seems like she strikes the same chord constantly. Even the books in her book club all seem to tread the same path: pathetic, disenfranchised person goes through lifetime of misery and abuse and comes out on the other side with some form of fulfillment. Given the lady's background, I understand why those stories draw her attention, and I admit that I also tend to feel camaraderie with life's rejects, but in a book club/talk show you should broaden your horizons. I really liked the idea she had some time ago of forming a classic book club (I'd even heard she considered doing the same with film), but unfortunately didn't seem to get off the ground.

-Stephen

[jdb1]

.
Judith:

On one hand I agree with you, but on the other hand you have to look at the good she has done. Beyond the fact that she's richer than God, she has helped every member of her family that has come out of the woodwork. Built schools, hospitals, libraries, etc. mainly in Africa, but she was the second on scene in New Orleans while Katrina was finally dying down. Her Angel Network has built homes for people all over the U.S.A. She's gotten people interested in reading books again, and I could go on and on. She has nobody to leave her money to, so she just keeps making more from a sense of boredom I think. The one thing I can't understand is leaving Chicago. For some crazy reason she loves Chicago, and I don't see why she would change her headquarters, but maybe L.A. is more adaptable to her future as a TV network magnate.
.

Anne, I question the motives of someone whose every good deed is accompanied by a press junket. Maybe we'll never know if her largesse is prompted by true generosity or merely by a desire to grab all the attention for herself. From what I've observed of her, every gesture is calculated for effect, and PR is more important to her than simple kindness. Maybe when she started out she had ideals, but I think ego has overtaken any she may have had. Like we say in Brooklyn -- "She thinks who she is" (that is to say - she thinks she's better than the rest of us).
Well, no one can say she isn't richer, more ambitious, and probably more ruthless than the rest of us, but that's hardly the same thing.

I stand by my assessment: demagoguery.

[srowley75]

I'll admit there is an aspect to her whole personality that makes me think of Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd. I'm sure in real life she's not the same person she is on the talk show. She's a product, and she's plugged herself into just the right niche. And she's very wise to what she needs to do to keep the same audience coming back. She came along at just the right time, as the kinder, gentler contrast to the controversial and brash Phil Donahue. She temporarily seemed to lose her way and drift into Sally Jessy Raphael/Maury Povich territory - I've always thought she owed a debt to Jerry Springer for motivating her to fine tune her image and set herself apart from the rest of the talk show dregs. For a time during the early 1990s, her topics had little redeeming value (anybody besides me remember the episodes when she brought on new agers who hypnotized people so they could find out who they were in their past lives?) But about the mid-1990s when she fully became Miss Inspirational, complete with book club, Angel Network, and Maya Angelou, she really had it made.

And when it comes to her money, at least she's no Nick Cage. Whatever the reasons behind her generosity, there are people besides herself benefiting from her wealth.

[ken123]

I do not dislike Opray,and I almost never watch her show, an exception being last weeks interview with Ms Palin, after about 15 minutes I bailed out.I have never been able to figure what either lady's appeal is, I said on another thread today that I must have gotten out of the wrong side of the bed.

[jdb1]

Perhaps my intense dislike of the woman stems not so much from her self-love fests, which are certainly not unusual presentations on television, but from what those unashamed worship services engender: the unquestioningly adoring reactions of far too many people, who seem to see far too much in her.

[srowley75]

Here are two clips that Oprah would probably like to bury: She's at a WWF wrestling event in Chicago in the 1980s.

Near the end of the second clip, she climbs in the ring. Enjoy.