In the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Winfrey dared not tell her loyal audience goodbye. Instead, she offered, “Until we meet again.” And with that, the queen of talk stepped down from her throne and brought to a close 25 years
In the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Winfrey dared not tell her loyal audience goodbye. Instead, she offered, “Until we meet again.” And with that, the queen of talk stepped down from her throne and brought to a close 25 years of the show known simply as Oprah.
But before she rolled the camera for the last time, some A-list entertainers joined with over 13,000 “ultimate fans” at the United Center for the May 17 taping of the next-to-last shows. The shows, featuring a galaxy of Hollywood and music superstars, aired May 23 and 24.
Dressed in a floor-length plum colored dress with black sparkling embellishments at the waist and around the neckline and sleeves, Winfrey could be seen dabbing tears, pumping her arm in the air and standing with her mouth wide open as the likes of singers Beyonce, Patti LaBelle, Josh Groban, Stevie Wonder, Usher and Aretha Franklin performed in a show that actor – and program host – Tom Hanks said was all about “love.”
The stadium, filled to capacity for a show of its kind, was brimming with emotions, applause and awe as the show’s agenda showcased Winfrey’s impact on her audience and what some said also included the world.
There was hardly a dry eye in the stadium as 300 young men from Morehouse College, an all-male Historically Black College and University in Atlanta, took to the stage to thank Winfrey for her financial support of some of the students at the school. Television newswoman Diane Sawyer announced that in Winfrey’s honor 25,000 trees would be planted around the nation, including in front of 25 school libraries that retailer Target committed to making over in homage to Winfrey.
The night was all about Winfrey, who was born into what she has described as abject poverty in Kosciusko, Miss., having been raised briefly by her grandmother. Her family’s education was so limited that in their desire to give her the biblical name “Orpah,” it was misspelled and she became “Oprah.”
“Oprah, Oprah,” renowned poet Maya Angelou said during the program in reciting the poem she wrote for Winfrey on the occasion of the talk show maven calling it curtains on her award-winning show.
The two-show taping, which took over three hours to do, closed with a surprise that struck the audience as much as it did Winfrey. After longtime beau Stedman Graham saluted Winfrey, he introduced the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin. She sang Amazing Grace, which segued into Usher’s show-closing rendition of Oh Happy Day. The confetti fell from the rafters and the audience never sat back down.
But on the last show that Winfrey would air before moving on to her new endeavors on her Oprah Winfrey Network, there was no fanfare and she didn’t share the stage with any big name celebrity. The last day of The Oprah Winfrey Show was her “love letter” to her fans and viewers.
“You and this show have been the great love of my life,” Winfrey said, looking directly into the camera.
She was talking about the love affair that began in the early 80s when Winfrey heeded a call to come to Chicago.
Her journey down what she called the “yellow brick road of blessings” began with her arrival in the city in the dead of winter. When Winfrey arrived here in 1983 with her “jheri curl and bad fur (coat),” she had no stylist, no publicist, no idea of how the ratings-ailing A.M. Chicago show she was here to take over would go, and no idea of the international cultural icon she would become.
She made her way here from a Baltimore television station where she had been anchoring the news. She wasn’t charged with beating The Phil Donahue Show, the leading talk show at that time, but within months she did. Then in 1986, A.M. Chicago was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and was broadcast nationally.
Her talk show presence would continue to soar and guests on her show included self-proclaimed racists, and domestic violence and sexual abuse victims. Winfrey revealed much of her personal life on her show, telling of her own sexual abuse as a youth, her promiscuity as a teenager, rejection of her physical image as a young adult and her ongoing battle with weight.
It was those poignant self-revelations and other fearless topics that endeared viewers to her show and laid a foundation for Winfrey to capture the title of queen of daytime talk.
By the 1990s, Winfrey refocused her show to include more celebrity interviews, more self-help promotion and spirituality, and more focus on paying it forward and giving back. Her Angel Network, funded by donations viewers and supporters, helped with global philanthropy. Her generosity on the show through episodes of her Favorite Things, made headlines everywhere.
Then at the beginning of the 25th season of her show, Winfrey announced that it would be the last one. On her final show last week, she said there was nothing bitter about the sweet embrace her viewers kept her in down through the years. Winfrey said it is time to move on and the validation and love she sought all her life had finally been realized in her millions of viewers and fans.
Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
About Post Author
