Oprah: 17 People, Moments, and Things She Put on the Map

From Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, and Nate Berkus to Spanx and OWN, we trace the former daytime queen's pop culture legacy
By EW Staff
Updated May 25, 2016 at 01:59 PM EDT

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Suze Orman (The Money Lady)

Credit: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage for Time Inc.

Thanks to her exposure from The Oprah Show, Orman's worked to empower a whole host of women with financial know-how with her CNBC show and column in Oprah's magazine. (And along the way she's given Kristen Wiig one of her best characters.)

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Nate Berkus (Decorati)

Credit: Evan Agostini/AP

The charming fan-favorite designer scored his own talk show.

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Gayle King (Professional BFF)

Credit: Scott Gries / OWN

This friendship goes beyond those road-trip shows, with Oprah's best bud acting as editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine and host of her own show on OWN.

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Dr. Phil (Feelings Guy)

Credit: Evan Agostini/AP

She hired him to help on her beef trial, but the psychologist soon won over Oprah and then her viewers with his homespun direct approach.

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Dr. Mehmet Oz (Hot Doc)

Credit: George Burns/Harpo Productions/AP

With his scrubs, intimate knowledge of all those internal organs, and some truly gross show-and-tells, the cardiac surgeon became a go-to expert.

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Bob Greene (Fitness Guru)

Credit: Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star/AP

He helped Oprah train to run the 1994 Marine Corps Marathon, and now his Best Life Plan has started a moment.

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Spanx (November 2000)

Lets the American public in on the celeb secret that is Spanx.

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Garrett popcorn (November 2002)

Selects the Chicago cult favorite Garrett Popcorn as one of her ''Favorite Things.''

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Pontiac G6 (September 2004)

Credit: Harpo Productions/Bob Davis

Gives away 276 Pontiacs to her audience, who later find out they must pay taxes or pass on the car.

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Kirstie Alley in bikini (November 2006)

Kirstie Alley reveals her bikini body.

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James Frey on the couch with Oprah (January 2006)

Credit: George Burns/AP

After the scandal broke about the veracity of his memoir A Million Little Pieces, James Frey faced the Opes, who'd chosen it for her book club, for a moment of reckoning.

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Tom Cruise jumping on the couch (May 2005)

Credit: Harpo Productions

Tom Cruise jumps for Katie Holmes.

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Oprah and Michael in a golf cart (February 1993)

Credit: Reuters/Landov

Michael Jackson at Neverland.

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The Road (September 1996)

Launches her book club, featuring Cormac McCarthy and Maya Angelou.

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Oxygen (February 2000)

Credit: Evan Agostini/Getty Images

Oxygen, a network for women cofounded by Winfrey, premieres.

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O magazine (April 2000)

O magazine debuts on newsstands. Oprah appears on the first cover, and each one after.

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The New Oprah Winfrey Network, a.k.a. OWN, launches (January 2011)

Credit: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

Through a partnership with Discovery Communications (left to right, Christina Norman, CEO, OWN, Oprah Winfrey, chairman, OWN and David Zaslav, president and CEO), Winfrey takes her desire to ''entertain, inform, and inspire people to live their best lives'' to a new level.

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By EW Staff