| Oprah Winfrey | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Airdate | February 1, 2008 | ||
| Curriculum | Social Studies | ||
Oprah Winfrey is a BrainPOP Social Studies video aired on February 1, 2008.
Summary[]
The movie starts out as Tim and Moby are watching the Oprah Winfrey Show. Moby was crying. Tim reads a letter about Oprah Winfrey. He and Moby begin talking about Oprah Winfrey's history.
At the end, Moby freezes the guy having a meltdown during the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Appearances[]
Transcript[]
Quiz[]
Trivia[]
- The updated version doesn't show Moby freezing the meltdown guy in the Oprah Winfrey Show.
FYI[]
Arts And Entertainment[]
Oprah Winfrey’s influence extends into lots of areas. Starting in 1996, she began to exert tremendous influence over national book sales when the Oprah Winfrey Show introduced a new segment called Oprah’s Book Club.
Since then, she’s featured both classic and contemporary books, most of which shoot immediately to the top of the best seller lists, sometimes selling up to a million extra copies. Her power to sell books may be up to 100 times greater than any other type of media or public figure.
Some of the books Winfrey has chosen include:
The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Real Life[]
In 1996, Oprah Winfrey declared on national television that she would never eat another hamburger. She made her decision after interviewing a lobbyist for a show on mad cow disease, a destructive brain disease that affects cows and can be, on rare occasions, transmitted to humans.
Claiming that Winfrey’s statement caused a sharp drop in beef sales costing up to $12 million dollars, Texas cattle owners sued Winfrey and her guest. After a two-month trial in Amarillo, TX, Winfrey was cleared of liability for the damage to the beef producers, but the trial sparked a debate about how responsible public figures are for the effects of their opinions.
Interestingly, the cattlemen’s lawsuit helped create a new celebrity. To help her defense, Winfrey hired a consulting firm called Courtroom Services, Inc. She was so impressed with the company’s co-founder, psychiatrist Philip McGraw, that she soon started featuring him on her show. When McGraw proved popular with viewers, he was given his own weekly segment. Soon, Dr. Phil had a show of his own—with Winfrey as his producer.
Did You Know?[]
One of the things Oprah Winfrey is most loved for her is generosity. Each year, she gives away millions of dollars from her personal fortune, and she is also active in raising money for charitable organizations and projects.
Winfrey has her own charity, called the Angel Network , which raised more than $51 million by 2005. Winfrey covers all the administrative costs herself, so that all the money raised can go straight to charity.
Also in 2005, the magazine Business Week estimated that she had given away $250 million, making her the first African American to be included on their list of America’s 50 most generous philanthropists (a philanthropist is someone who donates a lot of money to charitable causes). She supports causes as wide-ranging as education of girls in South Africa, disaster relief, and AIDS research.
Of course, Winfrey makes sure her many fans share in her success, too. In 2004, she celebrated the premiere of her 19th season on the air by giving everyone in her studio audience that day a new car—a promotion that cost $7 million.
Quotables[]
Here are some quotations from Oprah Winfrey! “Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.”
“I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.”
“I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.”
“I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.”
“My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”
FYI comic[]
Gallery[]
Errors[]
To listen what Tim is speaking in the restored version, the audience's main parts are missing.