Winfrey was 32 years old, it was September 8, 1986 --38 years ago this month -- and the host was embarking on the syndicated program that would eventually make her the most beloved and successful talk show personality of all time, a powerful agenda-setter, and the world’s first Black female billionaire.
Oprah’s life story is extraordinary. She was born in Mississippi to a poor unwed mother and abused as a child. By the time she became a national TV star, she was already an Oscar-nominated actress == for a supporting role in 1985’s The Color Purple. (She lost to Anjelica Huston.) Today, she has ended the show, but she remains a mogul: the chairwoman and CEO of OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network; the driving force behind Oprah Daily, the digital version of what was O, The Oprah Magazine, and features like Oprah’s Book Club, which has lived on past the end of her show; and still capable of conducting major, news-making interviews, like her famous 2021 conversation with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle.
And she remains a cultural force. Last month, she headlined a night of the Democratic National Convention.
In 1975, Oprah dropped out of college one credit short of her degree to take a TV job. (She’d later go back to finish and graduate.) In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to host a TV show called People Are Talking. She made it a success, and after eight years the producers of a low-rated Chicago talk show, A.M. Chicago, recruited her to the Windy City to work her magic there.
And she did, quickly. Within a year she brought the show to No. 1 in the ratings, besting even Phil Donahue, her major competitor. The show expanded from a half-hour to an hour and renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. Another year later, it went national -- at the urging of the Chicago-based film critic Roger Ebert, who over a date with Winfrey sketched out on a napkin just how much money she could make with a nationally syndicated show.
For the first show she wanted a celebrity, and she tried to recruit Don Johnson, then at the peak of his Miami Vice fame. As part of her lobbying effort, she sent him a pair of trendy and expensive rhinestone sunglasses. Years later, when he appeared on the first episode of Oprah’s final season, he returned the shades - and explained that Miami Vice producers wouldn’t let him take time away from busy shooting days. Instead, Oprah went celeb-free on her premiere, with a show called “How to Marry the Man of Your Choice.”
That set the template for what was to come. As welcoming as Oprah was to celebrities -- remember Tom Cruise on that couch, or her visit to Michael Jackson’s Neverland, the highest-rated TV interview of all time -- her show was also a place for regular people and, especially, for personal growth. Oprah talked about romantic troubles and her weight battles. She touched on hot-button social issues with compassion. “Our shows are hourlong life lessons,” she once said.
Oprah ended the show in 2011, after 25 seasons, as the top-rated talk show in American history. The Oprah Winfrey Show won 47 Daytime Emmy Awards -- before she stopped submitting the show for consideration in 2000. In 2010, she won the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 2018, the Golden Globes presented Oprah with its Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
The night before that premiere episode, she wrote in her journal and perhaps foresaw the success she would have. “I keep wondering how much my life will change, if it will change, what this all means. Why have I been so blessed? Maybe going national was to help me realize that I have important work, or that this work is important.”
For 25 years on syndicated television, she did work that was important to millions of people. And even after ending The Oprah Winfrey Show,she still does.
Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friends.
The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.