Back in 1995, I was reading Newsweek online. Apparently the week before they had reviewed the movie, REALITY BITES, with Winona Rider. The movie was about the trials and tribulations of Generation X and I guess the reviewer didn't like it and bashed the generation as a whole. A young man wrote a letter to the editor which basically said that Baby Boomers (like myself) had no idea who hard it was to be a Baby Buster (Gen x). We had ruined life for them and .. well.. you know the usual liberal crap.
In those days, they would give the writers' email address. Bored, I wrote him a note and told him that it was his job, as the younger generation, to tell me how we screwed everything up. But it was my job to tell him what a spoiled, rotten little punk he was and if he didn't like the way things were, to go out and try to change them. But quit whining.
From there we started an online "dialog" which turned from nasty to nice and I ended up admitting that I thought my generation had failed his generation because we have not taught them how to access all the opportunities out there and I would help him in any way I could.
Now, apparently, Oprah's people had read his letter to the editor too, and contacted him. They wanted to do a show about Baby Boomers vs. Baby Busters. What they would do is take the entire audience that day to see the movie, Reality Bites, and then they would have a panel of Boomers and Busters who would stake their positions. They wanted to do the show around his letter. They asked him if he knew anyone who had an opposing viewpoint. He said, well, there's this crazy girl who I've been emailing. Oprah's people told him to contact me and tell me to call their office.
He contacted me on a Sunday night. I called them Monday morning, and they flew me out to Chicago on Wednesday evening. I told the producers about someone else who shared my viewpoint and they flew him out from Colorado.
They flew me out Business Class, a limousine picked me up and took me to a great hotel. They did the same for my friend. We had dinner at the hotel, and in the morning, a car came and took us the studio. That was a trip.
Oprah filmed three shows a day, so when you're in the green room, you're watching another show. The show before ours was a show about really obese kids. Oprah was crying and it was horrifying. I was worried that it would effect our show. But of course, she was a true professional and all tears were put aside.
I think in 1995, Oprah was her skinniest. I mean, she was tiny. She wore this beautiful pants suit and just looked terrific. They sat you down on stage and wired you up. She came over and made sure she knew how to pronounce your name and all. She was very nice. I commented that I liked her outfit, and she came over and started engaging me in conversation. Very natural.
The show was hysterical. They started by reading the kid's letter saying how horrible us "old" people were (remember, I was 36 at the time). The first person she called to respond was ME! I gave him an earful about how he should quit whining and do something with his life. It got alot of applause. It wasn't a Springer, confrontational kind of show, it was just fun.
After the show, the limousine whisked us back to the airport and off I went. It was a really fabulous experience. We watch the tape from time to time. It actually aired on my birthday, April 22nd and we had a big party.
I guess that's it. But my personal memories of Oprah were great. Plus, Steadman was there and he is so good looking!