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  3. The biggest moments from The Oprah Winfrey Show

The biggest moments from The Oprah Winfrey Show

You get a car!
By Kate Ward and Mary Sollosi September 08, 2016 at 05:59 PM EDT
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Oprah’s Signature Moments

Oprah’s Signature Moments
Credit: George Burns/Harpo Productions

It’s hard to imagine a world without Oprah Winfrey, talk show icon and pop culture institution — but it once existed. Thankfully, on Sept. 8, 1986, The Oprah Winfrey Show aired its premiere episode, and the world we live in now was born. In the decades since Oprah began her takeover of daytime TV, her cultural influence has only grown — in large part thanks to some legendary episodes of the talk show that made her famous. In celebration of the anniversary of The Oprah Winfrey Show, here are some of the program’s biggest moments.

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The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye
Credit: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Images

May 23 and 24, 2011

Hollywood came to Chicago's United Center for a blowout celebration that would air over two days, and was full of surprises for the woman of honor. A long list of A-listers turned out to pay homage: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Beyoncé, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jerry Seinfeld, Jamie Foxx, Simon Cowell, Halle Berry, Queen Latifah, Rosie O?Donnell, Diane Sawyer, Patti LaBelle, Josh Groban, Tyler Perry, Dakota Fanning, Usher, and, yes, Michael Jordan. Beyoncé performed ''Run the World (Girls)'' and Maya Angelou read a piece she'd written about Oprah's life while Alicia Keys accompanied, playing an instrumental ''Superwoman.'' Stevie Wonder sang a song he said he had originally composed for his mother but never finished. Oprah seemed particularly moved when Stedman Graham, Oprah's longtime companion, spoke sweet words of thanks to her, and Aretha Franklin gave one stellar performance of ''Amazing Grace.''

 

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Welcome, Mr. President

Welcome, Mr. President
Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP

May 2, 2011

For the first time in the show's history a sitting president and first lady appeared together on The Oprah Show. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama took a jaunt to their old hometown for a landmark interview with the daytime queen.

 

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First “Oprah’s Favorite Things”

First “Oprah’s Favorite Things”
Credit: Harpo Productions

2002 

The show’s trademark segment “Oprah’s Favorite Things,” during which Oprah gave away items that she liked to all of the audience members, debuted in 2002 and quickly became one of the most popular events of the series.

 

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Whitney Houston Tells All

Whitney Houston Tells All
Credit: George Burns/Harpo Productions

Sept. 14 and 15, 2009

These episodes offered the first lengthy, detailed comments by Houston about her drug use (''I was lacing marijuana...with rock cocaine''), her tumultuous marriage and divorce from Bobby Brown (''he was emotionally abusive''; ''the lowest point? he spat on me''), and the reasons she returned to recording with the album I Look To You. —Ken Tucker

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All-White Forsyth County Discusses Racism

All-White Forsyth County Discusses Racism

Feb. 9, 1987

A poignant, racially charged episode took Oprah to an all-white community in Georgia, where the host confronted its racist, homophobic, N-word-dropping inhabitants.

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Oprah Meets Mattie Stepanek

Oprah Meets Mattie Stepanek
Credit: Harpo Productions

2001 

Oprah was deeply moved when she met Mattie Stepanek, an 11-year-old with a rare form of muscular dystrophy who idolized President Jimmy Carter. He shared his poetry — which he called “Heartsongs” and which was later published into several bestselling collections — on the show three years before he died in 2004.

 

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Oprah Interviews Elizabeth Taylor

Oprah Interviews Elizabeth Taylor

Feb. 1, 1988

Oprah experienced one of her worst interviews when a tight-lipped Elizabeth Taylor appeared on her show (Oprah has admitted, ''It's still painful to watch''). Certainly, the tragic hairstyles didn't help.

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Wheeling Out the Fat Wagon

Wheeling Out the Fat Wagon

Nov. 15, 1988

Oprah pulls out a wagon with 67 pounds of fat to represent her weight loss. In turn, she helps viewers begin their diets by drastically reducing the appeal of bacon.

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Oprah Interviews Michael Jackson

Oprah interviews Michael Jackson at Neverland Ranch (Feb. 1993)
Credit: Harpo Productions/ Courtesy Everett Collection

Feb. 10, 1993 

The famously private King of Pop invited Oprah to Neverland Ranch for an uncharacteristically open interview, during which he spoke about his relationship with his father and revealed that he had the skin condition vitiligo. It was the most-watched interview in television history.

 

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Oprah's First Book Club

Oprah's First Book Club
Credit: Harpo Productions

Sept. 17, 1996 

While The Oprah Winfrey Show was on, getting picked for Oprah’s book club was a golden ticket to the top of the bestseller list. She kicked off the literary phenomenon in 1996, choosing Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean for her first pick.

 

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Oprah Champions Hot Alaskan Love

Oprah Champions Hot Alaskan Love

Feb. 17, 1989

If only Oprah had pitched this idea to Mike Fleiss (think Who Wants to Marry a Hot Cold Man?): A slew of Alaskan men hardly received a chilly reception from female Oprah fans, who flocked to the airport in droves to greet the host's single-and-looking guests.

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Ellen DeGeneres Comes Out

Ellen DeGeneres Comes Out
Credit: Harpo Productions

1997 

Soon after announcing in Time magazine that she was gay, Ellen Degeneres appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss her coming out. Soon after, Oprah, in turn, appeared on DeGeneres’ sitcom Ellen, playing the therapist to whom the title character came out.

 

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Oprah Breaks Down

Oprah Breaks Down

May 21, 1990

Before Ellen had Iggy, Oprah had Truddi Chase. When the author of When Rabbit Howls made a guest appearance on Oprah's show to talk about her tragic childhood — Chase was continually raped by her stepfather — the host broke down in tears during her introduction and had to ask her cameraman to stop filming.

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Enter Dr. Phil

Enter Dr. Phil
Credit: Evan Agostini/AP

1998 

The Oprah Winfrey Show launched the television career of Phil McGraw when Oprah first invited “Dr. Phil” to be on her show in 1998. He got a weekly segment on the series and eventually moved on to host his own talk show.

 

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Oprah Slams Beef

Oprah Slams Beef

1998

When beef sales plummeted after O said that mad-cow disease ''stopped me cold from eating another burger,'' a group of Texas cattle ranchers sued the talk show titan — and lost. What, are you surprised?

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Liberace's Last TV Appearance

Liberace's Last TV Appearance
Credit: Harpo Productions

1986 

The flamboyant pianist, who appeared on an episode in the first season and played a medley of Christmas songs, was one of Oprah’s biggest early guests. It would be his last television interview; he died six weeks later.

 

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Everybody Gets a Car!

Everybody Gets a Car!

Sept. 13, 2004

Oprah jump-starts season 19 by giving a Pontiac G6 to every member of her convulsing audience, some of whom literally climb on the vehicles in ecstasy.

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Dr. Oz Talks BMs

Dr. Oz Talks BMs

May 3, 2005

As if Oprah's fat wagon wasn't too much information, the host welcomed Dr. Mehmet Oz on her program to discuss the appearance and sound of — prepare yourself — healthy poop (hint: the doc references an Acapulco cliff diver as an analogy).

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Oprah Discusses the AIDS Crisis

Oprah Discusses the AIDS Crisis
Credit: Harpo Productions

July, 1987 

In the midst of the AIDS epidemic, Oprah went to Williamson, West Virginia, where a huge controversy erupted when Mike Sisco, an openly gay man with AIDS, went swimming in a public pool. "They kind of ran like in those science fiction movies where Godzilla walks into the street,” Sisco said of the people in the town, many of whom expressed their homophobia to Oprah on the show. 

 

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Oprah Dances with Tina Turner

Oprah Dances with Tina Turner
Credit: Harpo Productions

1997

When Tina Turner was on her “Wildest Dreams” tour, Oprah took her show on the road and followed the icon on tour, then fulfilled one of her own wildest dreams by dancing onstage with Turner.

 

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Tom Goes Crazylove on Oprah's Couch

Tom Cruise jumping on the couch (May 2005)
Credit: Harpo Productions

May 23, 2005

Tom Cruise shakes Oprah like a rattle and jumps on her couch to declare his love for Katie Holmes. Comedians and gossip bloggers worldwide extend their gratitude.

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Oprah Chooses William Faulkner

Oprah Chooses William Faulkner

June 3, 2005

Oprah's audience got the most difficult reading assignment of their lives — this isn't Eat Pray Love, folks! — when the host chose a trio of novels by the notoriously difficult-to-read Faulkner for her book club. No wonder the book only stayed on the Publishers Weekly best-seller chart for a mere three weeks.

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Terry McMillan Confronts Her Gay Ex-Husband

Terry McMillan Confronts Her Gay Ex-Husband

Nov. 9, 2005

Talk about squirm-inducing television. The author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back used an episode of Oprah's show to spar with her ex-husband, who admitted to being gay after six years of marriage.

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Oprah Fries James Frey

Oprah Fries James Frey
Credit: George Burns/AP

Jan. 6, 2006

After sections of his memoir — an Oprah's Book Club pick — were proved to be fabricated, Oprah breaks writer James Frey into a million little pieces on live TV.

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Oprah Reunites with Her 4th Grade Teacher

Oprah Reunites with Her 4th Grade Teacher
Credit: Harpo Productions

1989 

Oprah started crying when she was reunited with her favorite childhood teacher, Mrs. Duncan, whom Oprah said she loved from the first day of 4th grade, and who inspired Oprah at that age to become a teacher herself. “So was I your favorite that year?” she asked her beloved teacher. “Oh, of course,” Mrs. Duncan replied warmly, “but I couldn’t let anybody know!”

 

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The Black Eyed Peas Flashmob

The Black Eyed Peas Flashmob
Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Sept. 8, 2009 

Oprah is famous for surprising her audience, but this time she was the one who didn’t see something coming. The season 24 premiere began with a Black Eyed Peas concert in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, for which the producers organized a flash mob to dance to “I Gotta Feeling.”

 

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    Everything in This Slideshow

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    1 of 27 Oprah’s Signature Moments
    2 of 27 The Long Goodbye
    3 of 27 Welcome, Mr. President
    4 of 27 First “Oprah’s Favorite Things”
    5 of 27 Whitney Houston Tells All
    6 of 27 All-White Forsyth County Discusses Racism
    7 of 27 Oprah Meets Mattie Stepanek
    8 of 27 Oprah Interviews Elizabeth Taylor
    9 of 27 Wheeling Out the Fat Wagon
    10 of 27 Oprah Interviews Michael Jackson
    11 of 27 Oprah's First Book Club
    12 of 27 Oprah Champions Hot Alaskan Love
    13 of 27 Ellen DeGeneres Comes Out
    14 of 27 Oprah Breaks Down
    15 of 27 Enter Dr. Phil
    16 of 27 Oprah Slams Beef
    17 of 27 Liberace's Last TV Appearance
    18 of 27 Everybody Gets a Car!
    19 of 27 Dr. Oz Talks BMs
    20 of 27 Oprah Discusses the AIDS Crisis
    21 of 27 Oprah Dances with Tina Turner
    22 of 27 Tom Goes Crazylove on Oprah's Couch
    23 of 27 Oprah Chooses William Faulkner
    24 of 27 Terry McMillan Confronts Her Gay Ex-Husband
    25 of 27 Oprah Fries James Frey
    26 of 27 Oprah Reunites with Her 4th Grade Teacher
    27 of 27 The Black Eyed Peas Flashmob

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