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63 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
OPRAH GIVES IT UP!!!!!!, November 9, 2005
I was able to get a peek at an advance screening copy and I have to say no fan will be disappointed. Not only are all of the best moments included
but Oprah talks, reminisces, laughs and walks you through all of it. I heard things I've never heard before and found out what Oprah was thinking
during all the big shows I watched over the years.
This is so much more than a "best of" collection. Oprah gives it up!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Catch the whisper, January 4, 2006
On January 29, 1954 Oprah Gail Winfrey was born. Oprah had a mountain of obstacles already in front of her as a newborn baby... she was born to unwed teenage parents, female, she was black, and she was poor.. not just poor...po!
Oprah's mother was an eighteen-year-old housemaid named Vernita Lee. Her father was a twenty-year-old doing duty in the armed forces: his name - Vernon Winfrey.
For the first six years of her life, Oprah was raised on a Mississippi farm by her grandmother. Perhaps the first stroke of good luck for the young child. Oprah credits living with her grandmother probably saved her life.
At the age of six, her mother, Vernita Lee, decided that she could care for her young daughter and Oprah was sent to live with her in Milwaukee. From ages six to thirteen, Oprah stayed with her mother. She was raped by a cousin when she was nine years old and later molested by a male friend of her mother's and by an uncle. The young girl never told anyone about the abuse. Instead, she held her anger and pain inside and she rebelled. She repeatedly ran away and got into trouble.
Her mother decided to put her into a detention home. Fortunately for Oprah, she was denied admission to the home because there were no openings. So, in what may have been her second major stroke of good luck, she was sent to live with her father Vernon Winfrey in Nashville. Before she ceased her promiscuous and wild behavior, she became pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn baby boy when she was fourteen. The death of her baby devastated her and she vowed to turn her life around.
Oprah Winfrey began her career in 1973 in Nashville, Tennessee, as WTVF's youngest -- and first-ever African-American -- news anchor, before moving in 1976 to Baltimore's WJZ, where she took over the chat-fest People Are Talking in 1978.
In 1983, Winfrey moved to Chicago to host AM Chicago, which within three years would become The Oprah Winfrey Show, roll out nationally via syndication, to become what it is today.
On learning from life-- "And what I found is that every time you have to repeat the lesson, it gets worse. I call it God trying to get your attention. The universe trying to get your attention. "Sooo we didn't get your attention the first time. We are going to have to hit you a little harder this time." So I'm still doing it. I'm still learning.
And it seems worse because it gets worse. I say, the universe is always trying to get your attention. Sometimes it starts out -- any major problem you encounter -- as a whisper. By the time it gets to be a storm, you've had a pebble knock you upside the head; you've had a brick; you've had a brick wall; you've had a house fall down. And before you know it, you are in the eye of the storm.
But long before you are in the eye of the storm, you've had many warnings, like little clues. So now my goal in life is not to have to hit the eye of the storm, but to catch it in the whisper. To get it the first time. I think the thing, the one thing that has allowed me to certainly achieve both material success and spiritual success, is the ability to listen to my instinct. I call it my inner voice. It doesn't matter what you call it -- nature, instinct, higher power. It's the ability to understand the difference between what your heart is saying and what your head is saying. I now always go with the heart. Even when my head is saying, 'Oh, but this is the rational thing; this is really what you should do.' I always go with that little... feeling. The feeling. I am where I am today because I have allowed myself to listen to my feelings.
The six-disc collection follows her impressive career, starting with "The Beginning," which outlines the early days of her show; "Heartprints," offering her most emotionally affecting interviews; "Aha!," focusing on moments that provided lessons; and the "Stars, interviews with celebrities. Everything is a highlight.
Harpo Productions, will donate its full share of the net profits from this DVD's sales to Oprah's Angel Network.
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oprah Reigns Supreme!, December 19, 2005
From her earlier beginnings as a field reporter, to the superstar and host of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," this
DVD set shows the incredible evolution Oprah Winfrey has gone through. It's packed with hours of footage, including some that never made it to air, of the past 20-years of Oprah's nationally syndicated show.
Some highlights include: Oprah talking about her role in "The Color Purple," non-celebrity guests who have left a deep impact on her life, her audition reel when she tried out for the Chicago news station, and the original theme song that played at the start of the show (an instrumental song composed of flutes or pipes--somehow I can't seem to get that song out of my head!).
Of course there's so much more on the set including celebrity interviews, behind the scenes footage, etc.
The one thing that I really liked about the dvds was Oprah setting up many of the clips--that viewers are about to watch-- which she explains what was going on in her mind during that time, how and why she reacted the way she did, how the audience reacted, why she chose to do that partcular story, and whether she learned anything from that segment.
I wish she did that with all of the segments, like on certain celebrities so we would learn what she thought of each one, but that would probably take way too long. For the most part, she does provide very poignant and honest commmentaries on the stories that seem to have impacted the American people.
I agree with another reviewer who wrote that one should be prepared to cry. Because there are many highlights on this box set that will move you to tears.
More than just a collection of pop culture-voyeuristic shows, "The Oprah Winfrey Show-20th Anniversary DVD Collection" is a reflection not just of the hostess herself, but also on American life. It exemplifies how far we have come from 1986, and in 2005, how much further we must still go.
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