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Oprah Winfrey: Harpo Productions
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Oprah Winfrey, a multi-millionaire businesswoman with her own national top-rated talk show and Chicago-based movie production company called Harpo Productions, Inc., is one of the most affluent and powerful black women in America. Deemed the undisputed "Queen of Talk" since the mid-1980s, she is the first black woman to host a nationally syndicated weekday talk show.
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Oprah Winfrey, with the income and wealth derived from her production company and other efforts, has chosen to donate a signficant amount to charities and other philanthropic causes, especially stressing education. The Oprah's Angel Network is one of her projects, in which she gives $100,000 awards to those who are helping others in significant ways.
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After graduating from college in 1976, Winfrey worked as a television newscaster and then as a talk-show host in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1984 she became the host of the talk show A.M. Chicago, which was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1985. Dealing openly with controversial subjects, it achieved national syndication in 1986. That same year, Winfrey formed Harpo Productions to produce her show and other projects. One of her show’s most popular segments is “Oprah’s Book Club.” Beginning in 1996 this book discussion has aired several times a year, each time focused on a work chosen by Winfrey.
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A month after Winfrey opens her own studio, Harpo Productions (her name spelled backwards), The Oprah Winfrey Show goes into national syndication and quickly becomes the highest-rated talk show in TV history. It goes on to attract 49 million viewers each week in the U.S. alone and is distributed to 122 other countries. In 2000, after winning more than 40 Emmys, Winfrey takes her show out of Emmy consideration.
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In 1994, with talk shows becoming increasingly trashy and exploitative, Winfrey pledged to keep her show free of tabloid topics. Although ratings initially fell, she earned the respect of her viewers and was soon rewarded with an upsurge in popularity. Her projects with Harpo have included the highly rated 1989 TV miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place, which she ... starred in. Winfrey also signed a multi-picture contract with Disney. The initial project, 1998's Beloved, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novel byToni Morrisonand starring Winfrey andDanny Glover, got mixed reviews and generally failed to live up to expectations.
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During a lawsuit against Winfrey (see Influence), she hired Dr. Phil McGraw's company Courtroom Sciences, Inc. to help her analyze and read the jury. Dr. Phil made such an impression on Winfrey that she invited him to appear on her show. He accepted the invitation and was a resounding success. McGraw appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for several years before launching his own show, Dr. Phil, in 2002, which was created by Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions in partnership with Paramount which produced the show.
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Harpo Productions