Oprah's not totally crazy after all

According to Neilson, the average American watches four hours of TV a day. Holy cow, that seems like an awful lot to me. We don’t watch that much. Well, except during March Madness, of course. Our TV’s been on more the last four days than the last three months, I imagine.

Anyway, we recently switched from cable to satellite to save a few dollars and amazingly enough, the lower-cost option gave us several new channels we didn’t have before. One of them, BBC America, is Michael’s favorite channel because it means he can see current episodes of Top Gear. He was very, very happy we made the switch. The girls, not so much. I think they are pretty sick of Jeremy, James and Richard…

Another channel is OWN, Oprah’s new network. I must admit I loved Oprah. I love that she worked from small market to medium to large to now, the entire freaking world. She is a force of nature. I’m not thrilled with the spirituality pap she broadcasts to the world; her, “All paths lead to Heaven,” nonsense is not going to end well and by espousing it she is leading untold numbers of women (and men, I’m sure) away from truth. Maybe Rob Bell’s been watching too much Oprah.  Anyway, it seems she’s so happy to let everyone do her own thing anymore I couldn’t believe she’d have heartburn over a show called, “30 Year Old Virgins.”

There’s a behind-the-scenes show that’s following Oprah through her last year taping her self-titled show. And last week, I happened across it and got completely sucked in. I love behind-the-scenes stuff, and seeing how someone creates the phenomenon that is the Oprah show was too much to ignore. That day, the show’s producers were filling Oprah in on the guests they’d recruited for a show called “30 Year Old Virgins.” The producers acted like these women were freak shows. They couldn’t believe anyone could possibly reach the ripe old age of 30 and not have had sex. Oprah had an entirely different reaction. She was appalled her producers treated the subject so lightly and was visibly angry that they thought someone who waited to have sex was crazy.

Ah, Oprah, you had me at, “I beg your pardon!” One producer said, “It is not okay in the world we live in to be a virgin at 30,” to which Oprah responded, “People, what is happening to the world?” She did not seem pleased at all. Y’all, can you imagine ticking off Oprah? “Maybe I am just 50 years old and out of touch,” she said, shaking her head.

At one point, Oprah tells the producers she is listening to their pitch as a representative of the viewers and she does not think people are going to take kindly to being told unmarried 30 year olds who abstain from sex are wackadoodle. In separate interviews, the producers shake their heads and basically tell Oprah she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

I wonder if the producers have taken a look at the comments on Oprah’s website concerning this episode. The viewers siding with Oprah easily outnumber those siding with the producers. Actually, of the 51 comments, I didn’t see a single one that disagreed with Oprah.  Perhaps we can consider this the 52^nd comment – I agree with Oprah.

Her dive into spirituality and emphasis on all truths being equal caused me to tune her out years ago. But I’m glad I came across the behind-the-scenes show last week because I enjoyed spending a few minutes with her again. Won’t be saving her show on the DVR, but I certainly appreciated my little visit with the media mogul.

And producers, next time she thinks you’re off your rocker, you better start looking for another chair.