Dec 2 2005 03:04 PM ET

Oprah and Dave: Feud? What feud?

Categories: Television

94030__oprah_lDavid Letterman got his wish last night: After a 16-year absence, Oprah Winfrey appeared on his CBS Late Show program. While Oprah insisted she has ”never for a moment had a feud” with Dave, she nonetheless brought a peace offering: No, not Brrrrrberry, but rather, an autographed photo of herself and Uma Thurman, the punch lines of Letterman’s ”Uma-Oprah” joke at the 1995 Oscars. The daytime talk show host didn’t walk away empty-handed either; she got great publicity for The Color Purple, the Broadway show she’s producing, when Letterman ended their interview by escorting her to the show’s red carpet opening just a block away. Overall, a charming, if not terribly controversial, sit-down.

What did you think of the Dave-Oprah summit?

Comments (1-19) of 19 Add your comment

  • nessa

    Two TV titans unite!!!
    I watched it this morning (thanks Tivo) and thought it made for great television – Dave is at his best when he is nervous and slightly uncomofrtable. He asked great questions and Oprah seemed really pleased to be there. she was even funny! I loved the amnesia story…Hopefully this will pull Dave past the horrible Jay Leno in the ratings.
    I thought escorting her over to the theater was a great moment.

  • sosgemini

    Great show!!! I love when Dave talks about world affairs. More of that needs to be expressed on his show. Not the biggest fan of Oprah but I thought she handled herself well enough to keep me smiling and laughing through out. Them walking hand and hand to her theater has got to be the “it” moment on tv this year.

  • Aneya

    Great, great show….Oprah is very different when being interviewed, than when on her own show… it was so interesting to watch! She WAS funny, and i loved how “real” she was…i loved when she said “i can’t beleive you’re being so serious!” i bet she thought she’d come on there and Dave would keep crackin jokes and makin fun….but he didn’t. He was great. He IS great when he’s nervous and figiting and i loved the constant Leno references……He really was such a gentleman, walkin her across the street…..good job, Dave, good job!

  • Carrie

    I know it was a big night on Letterman. But the real gem last night was on Conan O’Brien. Poor Ave Vigota was used as a christmas tree. Between David Cassidy, the pitiful skating rink, and the unprepared children’s choir….last night was another great Conan. I only hope after all the Oprah excitement people wised up and change the channel.

  • Jennifer

    Not a big fan of the peace accord.

  • john

    can someone explain just what the hell was even MEANT by the Uma-Oprah joke? i simply cannot compute.

  • Frank

    Great Show. David did an excellent job..both funny and classy. It was great also to see Oprah being the one interviewed. She was funny and very charming. Dave escorting her to the theater was just the best. Class Act all the way!

  • tom

    Dave is five years into his fatherly/grandfatherly phase. He compliments every actress heavily and gushes when a big name comes on his show. I guess a lot of big names wouldn’t come on the show years ago because he ticked them off. But, the kindler, gentler Dave has me wacthing The Colbert Report more often. The Uma-Oprah joke was just two nominated women with odd names being introduced to each other the year Dave hosted the Oscars.

  • Rob

    What the hell is this crap? Dave just sucks up to her and why can’t they bee honest and say the feud happened because dave used to make fun of her fat ass and oprah didn’t like that. They’re all phonies. Why not have hitler on and dave can gush over him too.

  • Paul

    Of course he is getting a bit softer, it happens with age, but the show was great and Dave is still good no matter what!

  • jim

    I miss the old days when Dave provoked Cher enough for her to call him an ass—-. Now that was great television.

  • Fred Ketteman

    For the person who asked about the Uma-Oprah dustup:
    You will be able to discuss the Letterman-Uma-Oprah-Oscar controversy with authority because you’ve read a short, humorous essay by Thomas Meehan entitled Yma Dream which started the Uma/Oprah ball rolling. You will find this essay in The Best of Modern Humor edited by Mordecai Richler, and frankly, if you don’t get it after that, you should probably keep watching TV.

  • Sven

    Dave did her a favor. He would been smarter to keep the “feud” going, as it made for fun bits. Oprah needed publicity for the Color Purple, and Dave kindly gave it to her. What did she give him? One night of higher ratings? Big deal… It’t not going to help him in the long run. Oprah’s fans don’t ordinarily watch late night is my guess, so Oprah is better comedy fodder than guest.

  • Nancy

    Kudos to both of them. Now Dave can be on Oprah’s show, something I’ve been dreaming about for years.

  • Muffy

    I don’t remember the Oscars 10 years ago, so what is this “Oprah, Uma, Uma, Oprah” joke? It doesn’t make sense to me. Was Dave just trying to make fun of their names?

  • Nancy

    To Muffy: Dave was the Oscar host that year, and since he was arguably the hottest tv talk show host at the time, expectations were high for a classic Oscar show. Well…it was everything but. Dave was out of his element; he couldn’t be his usual snide self lest he insult some executive or A-list star in the audience (I guess it’s different than insulting someone when they aren’t sitting next to you being interviewed). His jokes were pretty lame, and the “highlight” of the show (at least to him) was when he saw Oprah and Uma Thurman sitting in the audience and decided to introduce them to each other. “Oprah…Uma. Oprah…Uma.” Neither of them laughed. Whenever there was a lull in the show (and believe me, there were a lot of crickets chirping that night),”Oprah…Uma. Oprah…Uma.” I’ll give credit to Dave, he was mocking himself a couple of nights later, admitting that he’d probably never be asked to host the Oscars again, and that it was probably for the best. However, I read that that wasn’t the source of the feud, that it was actually Oprah’s two previous appearances on his old show on NBC that made her vow never to return. But I can only imagine that hearing her name mocked in front of a worldwide audience didn’t exactly endear Dave to her either.

  • Junior

    FEDERAL COURTROOM HOT NEWS. The Hartford could’ve used its wasted money for Hurrican victims. On December 7, I received the judge’s final decision directly from the Federal Court in Bridgeport (CT). This case adds more to the question of “HOW RISKY IS OFFICE ROMANCE” or better yet “How risky is interracial office romance”? This story involves a lawsuit against The Hartford for Gender and race discrimination. The Hartford is always promoting itself as an equal opportunity employer however this case is an example of the Company’s dishonesty. This case also reveals deceit and unprofessionall actions, which The Hartford continuously attempted to keep concealed behind its closed doors. There are many stunning details that describe The Hartford’s actions and the judge summarizes some of the Company’s actions without detail in the memorandum that I can forward to you but need a direct email address to forward it to.
    Let’s alert the public of the Hartford’s behavior.

  • stacey

    paul, i don’t understand… what is the similarity between hitler and oprah? a bit of a stretch, i think.

  • IHateEgomaniacs

    Wow, Fred Ketterman, you sound like a pretentious @ss. Instead of just explaining it in a sentence or two, you wasted thirty seconds of our lives with your pedantic BS. I have enough actual literature to read for my classes, so I’m certainly not going to waste an hour at the library just to figure out what some lame joke was about. Anyway Fred, we’re all impressed with your brilliance, so mission accomplished, eh?

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