Lunch Break: Farewell to Oprah
by LauraLoo
After reaching a 25-year television milestone, today marks the final Oprah Winfrey show. The show was taped yesterday, and here are some comments from those who attended.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8oDwbyfP6E[/youtube]
Where there is Oprah, there are those who love her, as well as the mumblers and the grumblers. Which side are you on? I heard a comment this morning: ”Good riddance to Oprah – the ‘relationship expert’ who has never been married and who never has had children.”
Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.
[HT: Oprah]
I’m glad she’s gone. Perhaps her followers will find the true God and no longer worship her.
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Seems to me “the Cult of Oprah” developed somewhere along the way. I see her as an above-average host and talker, but nothing like what the adulation she’s received would suggest. Maybe it’s a “guy thing,” but I just never got into it. Not that all women like her; rather it’s just that I don’t know any guys that do.
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In enjoyed watching the show for the first few years.
Then she started delving into New Age belief systems and that’s where I permanently turned it off.
That’s not to say she didn’t perform amazing acts of charity, because she did.
I just wouldn’t trust her with my soul.
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“I heard a comment this morning: ”Good riddance to Oprah – the “relationship expert” who has never been married and who never has had children.”
This is the exact same argument used to advocate against celibacy for Western-rite Catholic priests, so I don’t buy it. She may not be married with children but sometimes an outsider can have a more objective experience than one who is carrying emotional baggage.
That being said, I’m not an Oprah fan because of her tireless support for abortion and then her weird New Age beliefs, as carder mentioned. She won’t have her own show but she’ll still be in the public eye, so my reaction to her show ending is basically, “Meh.”
My guess? She’s going to get into politics and eventually try for the White House.
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Actually, she has had a child. She miscarried when she was a teenager.
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JoAnna, I agree with you to a point. It makes sense to me that she is going to get more involved in politics. But I would say she has already been in politics. I feel she had a significant impact on the last presidential election. But I would be surprised to see her make a run at the white house herself. I would guess she is more of a behind the scenes person or a local politician like maybe Chicago mayor (after Rahm finishes his turn).
And for what it is worth, she is someone I truly believe has been trying to do good in her life. And I think in many instances she has done great good. But I can not stomach her New Age tendency, and I think she has contributed to the deception of many a person because of it.
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Doug,
I agree with you. Must be a guy thing that we didn’t connect with her. For the shows I watched, I never saw any serious, substantive conversation. Her weight loss programming and affirmation of women has been a bright spot. Otherwise, it was mostly boilerplate. She also began her show in the genre of “morality by consensus.” If 80% of the audience FEELS (as opposed to THINKS) that something is right, then it is permissible. Pure tabloid, and not much depth beyond that.
I wish her well. She has succeeded where many have failed, and though I personally disliked much of her content/method, she is a smart and savvy businesswoman who has helped raise the stature of African Americans in our culture. It is nothing short of transformational that a black woman could have earned the adulation of tens of millions of whites so soon after the caustic civil rights era. That’s a great accomplishment, and may well be her best-earned and enduring legacy.
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YAWN…….who cares? There’s better stuff on television than her. I take my DVDs of Season 1 and 2 of Lois and Clark over Oprah anyday.
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I don’t like Oprah b/c I blame her for mainstreaming this belief that we all need to emote our way to happiness and be governed by nothing more than our feelings and whims (The Eat Pray Love phenomenon pretty much sums up all the reasons I can’t tolerate her show/followers). Oh and Dr. Phil – who could ever forgive that?
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She isn’t actually, gone, lamentably. She’s launched her own TV channel (OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network), and will host a show called Oprah’s Next Chapter. She’s also committed to appearing in no fewer than 70 hours per year on that network.
She’s not gone. She’s just leveling up.
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She is smart. She has talent. She was a great interviewer imo and knew how to manage her product (herself) very well. She was extremely charitable and I admire that. I also started to dislike her when she delved into new age belief systems and this “we are all our own god” nonsense. She just seems like a lost and searching soul to me. I pray for her.
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It’s my opinion that Oprah has been a dangerous voice-a false prophet-in our time. I will be glad to see her show gone, but don’t expect her to disappear from the public image. She is intelligent, soft-spoken, and an all-around pleasant face for a campaign that flies directly in the face of Christ. I pray for a heart for conversion for Oprah and for those who follow ‘the religion of Oprah’.
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I was never crazy about some of the flaky new-age self-help type stuff that she tended to air. However, in an age where most talk shows (Maury, Springer, etc) seemed to have people screaming at one another, throwing chairs and cursing, she was a welcome relief from all that sensationalism. So I’m sorry to see her go because I’m in dread of what kind of schlock might take her place. The reason I gravitate towards older shows and British sitcoms is because current American television really isn’t all that good anymore.
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JS, I heard Rosie O’Donnell is going to move into the Harpo studios and help save the careers of many people. We’ll have to wait and see if that materializes. LL
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Although she has donated millions to charity which is commendable, I think she has done more to promote “the gospel according to Oprah”, New Age style beliefs than anyone else, as she has made up her own religious belief system and still calls herself a Christian. She has promoted a philosophy/theology that ”as long as you feel good about yourself, believe in something and do good deeds it’s all good and equivalent”. WRONG!
I also think she has done more to devalue the sanctity of marriage and to promote and make it culturally acceptable to “shack up” than anyone else in this country by flaunting her lifestyle with comments like “I don’t want to be married and I don’t need to be married” and capping it off this year with “Stedman and I agree if we would have gotten married we would be divorced by now, that would not have worked for us”.
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Not every single person is ‘shacking up’–I’m certainly not. At this point in my life, I’m philosophical about marriage. If I meet the right man and it happens, that’s good. But if it doesn’t happen for me I still have family, friends, and a rich life that makes me happy. I’ll be good either way. I would like to be married–I would like to have a family. But I won’t be destroyed if it never happens.
Yes I know this has nothing to do with Oprah, but I just felt it needed to be said.
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Jennifer Starr, Prolifer didn’t say everyone who’s single is shacking up. Where did you get that?
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I remember first seeing Oprah on a “Regis and Kelly” type of show out of Baltimore. It was back in the antenna days, when a humid night could bring a channel way up past Philadelphia. (It was an early-morning rebroadcast)
Soon after she got her national show. I’ll never forget her show with Randall Terry. He said how sure he was that Martin Luther King would agree with the pro-life side. Oprah said they had agreed beforehand that he wouldn’t bring up King. She was near tears, tucking the mike under her chin, head down, as he went on to the next statement.
I wonder if she ever had Dr. Alveda King on the show?
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Bye Oprah. Thanks for making a mockery of marriage since 1985! Hope the door doesn’t hit you in your big head on your way out.
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I have not ever been a fan of Oprah and her weird view of Christianity, however I did watch the last hour yesterday. I was shocked to hear what seemed to be a very profoundly prolife theme and she was referring to God and Jesus numerous times. I feel that there is a ray of hope for her, we need to pray. If there is a way to see her transcripts from yesterday, I would be interested in what others have to say about this. At the end, she raised her hands and said “To God be the Glory”. My heart truly softened after watching her yesterday.
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