Celebrity Circuit
By

David Riedel /

CBS News/ May 25, 2011, 10:16 AM

Oprah Winfrey's greatest TV moments

Oprah Winfrey

/ AP
(CBS) Wednesday is the final broadcast of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." To mark the occasion, we've put together some of what we think are Winfrey's greatest moments on the couch.

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This list may not have your favorite moment, so please let us know in the comments what we missed. That disclaimer aside, the following moments are big in Oprah - and television - history. In no particular order:

Oprah calls James Frey out for lying

James Frey wrote "A Million Little Pieces," a memoir of addiction. Winfrey made it a Book Club selection in 2005, had Frey on the show and the book's sales climbed into the millions.

In early 2006, Frey returned to address the claims that parts of his memoir were fabricated. He admitted to exaggerating parts of the book - Winfrey flat-out called it lying - and it looks, at times, as if she is barely controlling her anger.

In May 2011 Winfrey interviewed Frey again, this time apologizing for the way she treated him in the 2006 interview.

The wagon of fat

During an episode in 1988, Winfrey wheeled out a wagon loaded with 67 lbs. of fat to represent the 67 lbs. she'd lost on a liquid protein diet.  Winfrey, whose weight has fluctuated over the years, said she considers that episode her "biggest, fattest" mistake.

"You get a car!"

In 2004, "The Wildest Dreams Season" started big when Winfrey gave everyone in her audience a new Pontiac G6. After giving each member of the audience a box and telling all the people there only one box had a key to a new car, each person was surprised - shocked and ecstatic, really - to open the box and see a key to a car.

"You get a car!" shouted Winfrey. "You get a car!" over and over. Watch the video here.

Tom Cruise jumps on the sofa

On May 23, 2005, Tom Cruise was a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." You know what happened: He jumped up and down on the sofa while professing his love for Katie Holmes.

Nearly three years later, Winfrey visited Cruise in his Colorado home. No jumping.

Oprah launches the Book Club

In 1996, Winfrey launched "Oprah's Book Club." The first book was "The Deep End of the Ocean" by Jacquelyn Mitchard. The last books, selected in 2010, are classics by Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations."

Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" was one of Winfrey's Book Club selections. She experienced a milder controversy in 2001 when Jonathan Franzen expressed ambivalence over his novel "The Corrections" being chosen for the Book Club. Winfrey also put Franzen's next novel, "Freedom," on her list.

Oprah reveals she was abused sexually when she was a child

In 1986, Winfrey told her audience that she was raped by a relative when she was 9.

Ellen DeGeneres talks openly about being gay

DeGeneres came out publicly in 1997 and talked about the controversy surrounding her decision with Winfrey. (In an April 1997 episode of DeGeneres' sitcom, "Ellen," her character came out. Winfrey played the therapist she comes out to on the show.)

It may seem like no big deal now, but in 1997 there was a lot of controversy surrounding DeGeneres' decision to come out publicly and Winfrey's decision to support her.

Mackenzie Phillips talks about her incestuous relationship with her father

In 2009, Phillips, daughter of The Mamas and the Papas' John Phillips and star of the sitcom "One Day at a Time," revealed her 10-year sexual relationship with him and talked about her years of drug and alcohol abuse.

"I was old enough to know better," said an emotional Phillips. "I can't explain this away. It happened."

Oprah interviews Michael Jackson

Before all the allegations of child abuse, Winfrey interviewed Jackson in February 1993. It was Jackson's first interview first interview in 14 years. Winfrey compared going to Neverland Ranch to approaching the wizard in "The Wizard of Oz."

Read more: Oprah by the numbers

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4 Comments Add a Comment
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leftykc50 says:
does she relly believe that the real working class people care about her??
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leftykc50 says:
my greatest opraw moment will be when this ego manic is finally off the airwaves, to be forgotten in a few years..
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credibility2 says:
I think too much is being made over this mediocre talent. If it weren't for people like Roger Ebert opening doors for her, she would have never held up to the double standard for others getting into the genre. Ebert and Winfrey dated. He introduced her to the right people during a time when the genre was trying to get a minority face on the screen, even if they had marginal talent. While it worked for her, it wasn't until decades later that she gave Ebert any credit for helping her get started. This is what the real Winfrey is all about. Using people for her advancement and then begrudgingly giving credit to where credit is due. She's a fraud and phony and the last laugh is on all of the buffoons who have taken in her smarmy verbiage. Good riddance and I hope her new station is the flop it deserves to be.
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I_Mean_What says:
What's with the teary goodbyes to Oprah? OK, so her afternoon chat show is going dark after 25 years, but surely Oprah is not about to pull a Greta Garbo and veer off into obscurity. Trust me, she does not want to be alone. On the contrary. Be prepared to see more of Oprah in the weeks, months and quarter centuries to come.

Read more of our thoughts @ "I Mean... What?!?" http://imeanwhat.com/#ixzz1NNLGonC3
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