It’s Oprah’s America

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The pair are seen pumping gas, something Oprah admits to not having done since 1983. Then they go to, in Oprah’s words, “a place called Albertsons.” Albertsons is a supermarket chain. A huge supermarket chain featuring “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Patricia Heaton as their spokesperson. And Oprah has never heard of it. This is cute. But it’s not enough to base a media personality paradigm shift on.

What is enough are the words that come straight from the O Herself during and after their journey, one that was supposed to be relatively free of celebrity treatment: “It’s really fun being a celebrity.” Well, yeah. Another good one was, “I’m used to being met at the door” (after not being able to find a hotel check-in desk). And, best of all, “I’m not a people person.”

Then, to ice the sweet red velvet cupcake from Sprinkles bakery in Beverly Hills — shipped overnight by good friend Barbra Streisand — there’s the haughty, huffy, daggers-for-eyes expression Oprah puts on when their entourage of crew and camera equipment is denied entrance to Las Vegas’s biggest buffet. It’s a buffet that’s not going to get Oprah. And that, says O’s face, is punishment enough. “Let’s just go,” she says, coldly staring straight into the camera. It’s a TiVo rewind-and-pause moment, if not for the ages, at least for an episode of “Best Week Ever.”

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And this is just the season opener. A Fun Episode, to be sure, and clearly the audience’s favorite type of her three main episode styles (the other two are “Scold The Cheating Husband/Gay Senator” and “Julia Roberts Is Here!”) but it’s a far cry from giving away a car to everyone in the studio.

It’s Oprah’s way of shifting Chevrolet gears a little bit, to help everyone adjust to the idea that, though she still loves us all as much as we love her, the cracks in the “Just Folks” veneer were not only showing, they were blinding us with her privilege. She knew she had to show us her grumpy, prickly side, to be even more honest and lay it bare, like she’s always done in her own strange, controlling way. It’s more than we get from our own president or any other bubble-dwelling famous person, that’s for sure. And it’s why we voted her Queen.

Now, when do we get to see her and Gayle rough it at a Motel 6 outside of El Paso? Because that’s going to be good.

Dave White is the author of “Exile in Guyville.” Find him at www.imdavewhite.com.

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