The Story Behind Oprah Winfrey's Most-Quoted TV Moment Ever
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" saw many iconic moments throughout its 25-season run, including the viral interview that Tom Cruise alleged he was set up for. However, Oprah's most expensive giveaway, in which she gifted a Pontiac G-6 Sedan to all 276 of her audience members, remains one of her most-quoted TV moments ever. You've likely seen this exact occasion immortalized in gifs and memes across the internet, as her enthusiastic shouts of "You get a car!" have long been parodied.
The episode originally aired on September 13, 2004, with the talk show host beginning the giveaway segment by gifting sedans to 11 hand-selected audience members. Afterward, she passed out jewelry-sized boxes to the remaining studio audience, explaining that one more random viewer would be the lucky winner of a Pontiac. When she finally allowed everyone to open their boxes, though, it was revealed that the entire crowd was actually receiving a brand-new ride.
"You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!" Winfrey shouted as the audience went wild. It's been decades since the joyful moment, but Oprah's iconic car giveaway continues to be a highlight of her career. "It delights me; it makes me so happy to see other people be happy and to be able to do that," Oprah told People. "That's one of the great joys of my life."
Gayle King brought the car giveaway idea to Oprah
The concept for Oprah Winfrey's iconic car giveaway originated from her holiday-centered segment "Oprah's Favorite Things." Each year, the Mississippi native would curate a list of gift-worthy items that she also gave to her studio audience, with the practice starting with a pair of Karen Neuburger pajamas that she gave away in November 1996. The Pontiac sedans weren't a traditional iteration of "Oprah's Favorite Things," but the segment set the foundation for the show's epic giveaways.
Journalist and TV personality Gayle King, who's had a long-running friendship with Winfrey, actually played a significant hand in the viral car giveaway. As King explained to People, she was initially approached by a Pontiac spokesperson at the airport. The anonymous man pitched the car giveaway, explaining that the company had been attempting to contact the show to no avail. While King admitted that the idea seemed "far-fetched" at the time, she was definitely intrigued.
"I said, 'I'll take your card and pass it along to her team,'" the CBS News co-host said. "And I couldn't get to the phone fast enough." While Oprah didn't typically like to talk shop with her best friend, the idea was reportedly too good to pass up. As King added, "And then from there, then the question became, how do we execute it?"
Winfrey paid attention to the details of the car giveaway
While Oprah Winfrey's Pontiac giveaway was an off-shoot of her "Favorite Things" segments, the talk show host and her producers approached the situation in some unique ways. For one, they thought about who would be receiving the brand-new cars. "When we sat down and started to talk about the car giveaway, I asked, 'How do we find people who really need cars?'" Oprah explained on the "Making" podcast, "That would make it worth it to me."
In order to pull off the surprise for the audience, the TV host also paid attention to the boxes in which the keys were passed out. The jewelry-sized packages were handed out while the viewers were under the impression that only one additional audience member would be the lucky recipient — but the truth would be spoiled if everyone began shaking their boxes and heard the keys rattling around. "She made one of her producers go around and tape each key to the box," comedian Annie Lederman explained to People. "The finished product was well worth it."
Oprah's iconic lines were actually shouted to ensure that the audience understood the surprise. "The reason I was like, 'You get a car, you get a car, you get a car!' [was] because the people were screaming so loud, and they were confused by the keys," the host explained. A lot went into the making of this iconic moment, so it's really no surprise that it lives on in internet notoriety.