To Dennis Swanson’s credit when I walked in and I said, look, you know, I'm black, and I'm overweight, and he said, I’m looking at you. Because I'm not gonna be able to change that, because I've been in the market in Baltimore where once I was hired, they wanted me now to be something else, they wanted me to change my hair, change my look, get a nose job, all that, God, I'm not gonna be doing any of that, and Dennis Swanson did me the greatest service any boss could ever give to anybody who’s being hired. He said to me, you know, “You know, girl, competing against Donahue over here, Phil Donahue. We know you can’t beat him, so we just want you to go on the air and do the best you can and be yourself, young lady.”

 

Phil Donahue was the talk show icon. He defined that genre at the time, and I had nothing but respect for him and certainly didn’t even consider myself even in the same category as him, so I was coming to do a local talk show, AM Chicago, which was airing at the same time right down the street from this national talk show done by Phil Donahue.

 

Good morning everybody, I’m Oprah Winfrey, a new host of AM Chicago and I am thrilled to be here. Coming up this morning…

 

It was on the air New Year’s Day, first day, January 1st, 1984.

 

It is a star-studded, hour long live rose bowl party next on AM Chicago.

 

Nothing worked, everything fell apart, I'm cooking, I don’t cook, I certainly didn’t cook then and certainly don’t cook on a hot plate on TV.

 

I figure this is gonna be like the Galloping Gourmet. We have a stove here, you know, the whole hood and everything.

 

And it was a mess.