No matter the guest, no matter the theme, the topic is always Oprah. Watching Oprah today is spending an hour with a self-obsessed gossip who tells and re-tells the same stories over and over. Friday's show featured Oprah yet again trotting out a menial job she once held where she was not allowed to speak. She asked the studio audience if they could imagine her keeping a job where she wasn't allowed to talk? Her following gets more and more wide-eyed each year so she had to repeat it for them to get the joke but, honestly, we're sure many Americans wish she had kept that job. What might have seemed unthinkable a decade ago is now a collective wish.
But there have been a lot of changes. For instance, when the show went national, she was billed as a host and an actress. She'd done a turn in the film adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. It wasn't a lead role or even one of the bigger supporting parts. She was called "Sofia" but any reader of the book would have to wonder why that was? In the book Sofia starts out strong and independent and is beaten down by racism and the 'law.' In the film, Sofia starts out defeated in what is one of the most offensive stereotypes to make it to the big screen in the eighties -- no small 'accomplishment'. Oprah mainly shuffled around and sometime spoke in a voice that had all the humanity of E.T. She managed to nab an Academy Award nomination but her follow up performance (Native Son, left off of most of the QVs) demonstrated she was no actress. After that one-two flop, others really weren't interested in casting non-actress Oprah.
At the time, when she was going up against Phil Donahue and assorted others, the "actress" and "movie star" billing gave her an extra boost and the show became a hit. But could she do anything else? When ABC was having problems with Barbara Walters, they toyed with the idea of Oprah as an interviewer in prime time. She infamously interviewed Michael Jackson and, in another attempt, less famously interviewed a group of celebrities (including actress Goldie Hawn). The results were so-so and there was no more talk that she could be groomed to fill Walters' heels.
All she has is "Oprah." She's managed to build an empire around herself. And she's modified herself and attempted to update over the years. During the tabloid TV days, she decided to bring up her rape on air and that was seen as brave. In the nineties, when there were rumors of a book about her past drug use, she decided to sort-of admit to that onscreen and that was considered less brave. She's been fat, she's been thin. She's been tired, she's been sparkling. She once even wore her own hair on camera. The woman whose head TV Guide once put on Ann-Margaret's body for a cover has been many things and at one point even used Ashford & Simpson's "I'm Every Woman" as her show's theme song. Those days are long gone and would be met with a laugh if she attempted to push that notion today.
She moved beyond trash TV, denounced it, went for life-affirming, then for the power of the positive and these days . . . Oprah's decision to endorse Barack Obama in the Democratic Presidential primary and to campaign for him is said to have hurt her. Just this weekend, TMZ was airing an interview with her about just that topic. They stumbled upon her in a small black car and, as she rolled down the window, a familiar face was at her side in the back seat. For those not up on The World Of Oprah, TMZ helpfully scrawled "Gayle King" across the screen. Oprah was pledging her support for Barack, announcing she was still ready to go anywhere and campaign door to door for him.
Still?
Oprah's ratings took a bit of hit after her endorsement. As usual, this was seen as a racist reaction: African-American Oprah had endorsed a bi-racial candidate and it had reminded America (largely White) that she was a person of color. It was a cute little theory and one not grounded in reality. To believe it, you'd have to think (a) people watching were unaware of Oprah's race and (b) Oprah never mingled with people of color, certainly not in front of the cameras. Whether it's Tina Turner, Kanye West, Diana Ross or whomever, Oprah has never presented all White guests to her audience. So something more was going on.
Another theory was that Oprah had talked up the sisterhood so much that her endorsing Barack over a female candidate (Hillary Clinton) had shocked her largely female audience. That theory is worth exploring (and if you doubt that, just notice how little exploration it received) but the reality is more likely less interesting.
Oprah endorsing a political candidate -- any political candidate -- went against "Oprah." "Oprah" is a TV character that imprisons the woman Oprah today. It wasn't enough to draw a line between herself and the likes of Jerry Springer. It wasn't enough to become 'responsible,' followed by life-affirming, followed by an ever more esoteric outlook. Today she is a female Peter Pan exulting her largely female audience daily. It's not a belief in politics she asks of her audience. (Possibly having featured War Hawks like Judith Miller on her show to promote the Iraq War before it started, Oprah's feeling a little burned by reality.) It's not even a belief that the personal is political. It's just a belief in the power of the personal with herself offered up as the end goal.
On Friday's show, along with mixing in tired tidbits about her past, Oprah was speaking with Rhonda Byrne (among others). Byrne was on to break down The Laws Of Attraction. As we remember it, that's the Pedro Almdovar film (The Laws of Desire) where Antonio Banderas bottoms in what is probably his most in depth sex scene (and, yes, we have seen Never Talk To Strangers). But Rhonda's not a film historian, she's a huckster. And her Laws of Attraction are the basis for the mumbo-jumbo of The Secret (book and film!) which offers up pseudo-insight-babble passed off both as "wisdom" and as "theory." Is it hokum or just more hope-ium from "Oprah"?
The Secret (and The Laws of Attraction) claims to be an ancient method and cites Plato, Buddha, Albert Einstein and just about everyone short of Suzanne Sommers as a past practitioner and teacher. It's 'uplifting' as a counter-conspiracy to all the talk of Masonic influence, possibly; however, it's not science and it's not factual.
It's a sign of how far the "Oprah" character has come that Oprah can today cite the same tired tales and insist that they demonstrate the truth in Byrne's work. For instance, the tale of not being able to speak at a job was brought up (yet again). Oprah offered that as an example of how she practiced the method. She could've complained, she revealed, but she didn't. (What has recounting that tale of a brief, decades ago job non-stop over the years been but complaining?) Instead, it was a "moment" where she realized that, for her life to be different, she would have to switch jobs. Since the entry-level job offered no chance of advancement, we'd argue her 'realization' should have come when she was applying for it.
But The Laws and The Secret insist that your life will improve if you send out positive vibrations. In the past, during a better phase of "Oprah," she used the too-often-told tale to urge her viewers to change what they didn't like about their lives, to get off their asses and do something. Friday she tried to make it over into 'I was positive and positive vibrations followed me!' Did it make sense? Not a bit. And that may also be why she had to repeat her joke twice to the dazed audience before getting (a tiny) reaction from them.
Therein lies the reason for the backlash to her Barack endorsement. Oprah has gone from 'you have the power,' to 'the knowledge is inside you,' to, finally, 'a smile can change the world.' It's certainly changed her world, she revealed, because she now, when passing herself in the mirror, always take a moment to offer a greeting.
Out on a limb? She's floating in the clouds. Orbiting the earth from way on high. And "Oprah" offering all of that cannot also be telling people, "The answer is your vote!" She's stripped away a larger world and context and reduced it all to personal responsibilities and those have been even further reduced to did you think 'nice thoughts'? If you didn't, according to "Oprah," that explains your current misery. Today's "Oprah" could've gotten away with telling her legion to "smile" and Barack would be elected but to ask that they actually do something like show up to vote? It goes against everything she sells.
With her various life coaches, dietitians, stylists and tours of her homes, "Oprah" insists daily to viewers that they can have what she has. And all it's going to take is some "happy thoughts" and some "smiles." "The laws" insist that if you give out positive, positive comes back and "Oprah" insists that if you're unhappy, you're responsible for that.
If 2008 "Oprah" were to meet 1986 "Oprah," we think the latter would laugh her ass off. We think the 1986 "Oprah" would immediately ask, "So when you were raped at nine-years-old, you brought that on yourself by giving out negative vibrations? Come on!" We're not sure what 2008 "Oprah" would respond or even if she'd respond. But that's really been the de-evolution of "Oprah." She's become as much a joke as the on screen Katharine Hepburn -- though it should be noted that that there were nearly fifty years between her acting debut and her embarrassment in On Golden Pond. 'Achiever' Oprah reached her own nadir so much quicker.
The TV character "Oprah" is a brand (Brand Oprah!) and it's one that's trickier than other brands. For example, Martha Stewart can try to be many things to many people but real life events (such as the conviction) round out the personality's image. Stewart's magazine is little more than a catalogue but it does encourage some action. There is no action in the Oprah Brand, only self-adulation. (If that's not readily apparent, just consider the fact that Oprah has appeared -- and only Oprah -- on sixty-three covers of O, The Oprah Magazine.) With a love life that she'd prefer you not ask about left off limits, all that can be covered is how 'divine' it is being Oprah. She is no longer merely the tour guide, she is now also the destination, the end-point.
The thing that's scared her the most recently was the quick cancellation of Oprah's Big Give (aka The Big Give) and it's huge (and immediate) failure. The show aired for two months on ABC. The Sunday night 'reality' show featured ten 'average people' (if models and singers strike you as 'average people') engaged in giving away money with the hopes of being declared a winner. They traveled to areas such as Los Angeles, Denver, Miami and NYC during the eight weeks the show lasted.
Harpo Productions (Oprah's company) sought out contestants with this come on: "Are you America's greatest unknown philanthropist? Are you the type of person who makes thing happen and will do what ever it takes? Do you have a big personality and lots of charisma? Are you ready to pay it forward?" We think the last of those annoying questions was the biggest indicator of the failure in store. Pay It Forward bombed at the movies in 2000. But they weren't done, "This show is all about inspiring people around the country to do good for others." As a general rule, people don't turn on their televisions Sunday night to 'inspired.'
And as a general rule contestants need to know what prize they're competing for. (They would find out in the final episode -- a million dollars for the winner who could keep half and had to give away half.) Another general rule, when you're dealing with money, audiences want to know where it's coming from and the show was really bad about going into the details on that unless they had a product or company to hawk. What it played out like was "You Can Be A Mini-Robber Baron For A Day!" We thought Three Wishes was embarrassingly simplistic, but Oprah's Big Give made it seem positively complex by comparison. You never understood how the contestants raised the money and there was no sense to the giving or the recipients. A man with a medical degree (a plastic surgeon) hardly seemed a 'charity case,' for example. While Grant's cloying show (which tried to put a happy face on predatory lending) had a million faults, they didn't pull back from the drama (if anything, they overdid the drama). Oprah's Big Give didn't want to build to the drama. In that regard it was like Justice which thought it could turn a highlights reel into an hour long episode. "Clip, clip, clip, get to the high note quickly!" seemed to be the 'thought' behind it as if Oprah was afraid prime time audiences wouldn't put up with all the asides and long drawn out moments of her daily talk show.
It was pure "Oprah" and it's failure said a great deal about Brand Oprah because if Oprah giving away things (via contestant proxies) can't attract a wide audience, if Oprah The Bountiful isn't going to do the trick, what does it say about "Oprah" and her future? The daytime show has to run through 2011. Oprah's making noises that after that she's done (but she's made those noises several times before). How do they complete the contract?
Like Hepburn in her last film roles, "Oprah" is now so reduced that her 'inspirational' talk sounds a lot like nagging. And the general consensus is that once the show goes off the air, the magazine's 'readers' bail. That's because it's not really a magazine. It's a fan club bulletin. Which brings up the scariest thought for many in Oprah World (we're referring to those on the payroll), if an "Oprah" smiles when no cameras are around, did it really smile?
For over twenty years, she's made herself a national name. But in those same years she's damaged herself to the point that she's turned herself into a trophy cup. Worse yet, she's damaging her audience because the woman whose spouse beats her, the woman who's raped, the woman who's struggling to keep her head above water economically, really doesn't need to be sold a lot of hogwash about "positive vibrations." In her key moment (which she bungled) in the film The Color Purple, her character advises Celie to "bash Mister's head open and think about heaven later." That's the sort of common sense advice "Oprah" could dispense instead of all the sop about 'positive vibrations.' In her final stages, the "Oprah" character has become the man on the street insisting a woman "Smile!"