辉煌谢幕 精神永存――脱口秀女王奥普拉

何航

The Show Farewells, Influence Retains
― Oprah Winfrey’s Marvelous Career Path
辉煌谢幕 精神永存
――“脱口秀女王”奥普拉・温弗瑞的非凡职业生涯

by Paul Harris





Persuading A-list1 Hollywood talent to do anything is noto-riously difficult. There are agents to negotiate, egos to massage and huge fees to discuss.
But when you are Oprah Winfrey and recording the last shows of one of the most successful programmes in American television history, normal rules do not apply. So it was that a veritable2 galaxy of celebrities descended on Chicago to pay homage to the departing goddess of daytime TV.

不可复制的传奇

The list read like the cream of the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Tom Cruise was there. So were Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Madonna and Beyoncé.
It will bring down the curtain on a phenomenon that has dominated the US popular cultural landscape for nearly 25 years. It will leave a chasm3 in the TV schedules, and a vast audience up for grabs4.
“It is going to be very hard to replace her. She was so unique and her approach and background were so unique. She could reach across demographic and racial boundaries,” said Professor Jeffrey McCall, a media expert at DePauw University.
TA启示：在《奥普拉脱口秀》的告别式上，巨星云集，向这位即将结束的日间电视节目的女神致敬。除了平时在圈内经营的好人缘，她对人们精神上的鼓舞早已不是秘密。高度个人化的风格与背景使得很难有人去取代她。

“奥普拉效应”

That enormous reach gave Oprah tremendous power. Her talk show became the heart of a business empire that grew to include her magazine, a radio station and a production company and became responsible for a good chunk of local business in Chicago. It also made her a billionaire.
But even her personal riches were overshadowed by the influence that Oprah could wield over other people’s success. The mere mention of a product on her show could see it cleared off the shelves the next day as viewers scrambled to buy it. Her famous book club could turn an unknown author into a bestseller overnight. It was all dubbed5 the “Oprah effect”.
TA启示：奥普拉有自己的演播室、杂志、脱口秀节目、网站、读书俱乐部、电影投资业务，她甚至还创办过自己的Oxygen电视频道。以《奥普拉脱口秀》为核心和起点，她建立起了一个彻头彻尾的传媒商业帝国，这也将品牌的衍生效应扩大到了极致。

大众精神偶像

Oprah was born to an unmarried mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in the Deep South. She endured hard times, including sexual abuse, until coming to the attention of a Tennessee radio station after winning a beauty pageant6. She started reading the news and never looked back, moving to Chicago and finally landing her own show.
TA启示：尽管有不堪回首的童年、叛逆堕落的少女时代，奥普拉凭着“一个人可以非常清贫，但是不可以没有梦想”的简单信念，实现了“丑小鸭”到“黑天鹅”的美丽蜕变，而这个故事，正是奥普拉脱口秀的精髓所在。人们从奥普拉身上看到了美国梦，也看到了一种“奥普拉精神”。

她让脱口秀不只是煽情

Her blend of homespun7 wisdom and intelligent chatter was perfect for an American daytime TV audience. Her show first broadcast nationally in 1986 and it rapidly became a smash8. She shattered9 audience records and racial barriers as the thoughts and opinions of a black woman came to dominate white suburbia10. She made a strength out of her own struggles ― whether with weight or family problems ― and America loved her for it. “She has an amazing empathic side. It is not fake. She does that emotional stuff very well,” said Richard Laermer, a celebrity expert and author of 2011: Trendspotting. Oprah became a more powerful celebrity than the A-listers who flocked11 to her shows. They knew she could make or break their careers and movies. Little wonder, perhaps, that they gushed over12 her as they congregated for her last shows.
TA启示：奥普拉关注女性，关注黑人，关注二者的结合，关注这些需要社会关爱的边缘人物，她的脱口秀给了那么多平民百姓一个说话的平台，这才是她最大的价值。

But, as with all things for Oprah, underneath all the schmaltz13 and adula-tion14 was a serious point. Earlier this year, she launched her own TV network ― the Oprah Winfrey Network ― and the attention surrounding the departure from her trademark show15 will no doubt allow her to make a pitch16 to her audience to stick with her on her own channel.
TA展望：在此前的57年人生里，她将一半的时间给了同一个节目《奥普拉脱口秀》。此后的日子里，她将把经历放到自己创办的电视网上。据悉明年她将推出一档叫做《奥普拉的新篇章》的新节目，这或许也就是她人生的又一页篇章。