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Lake Twp. woman at Oprah during breaking story
By P.J. Whitman
Special to The Press
news@presspublications.com
Lake Township resident Gloria Ford was part of the audience for the
January 17 taping of the special Oprah Winfrey episode that featured the
Missouri families of two boys who had recently been rescued.
One of the boys had been held captive by a kidnapper for four years. The show had been hastily put together by the Winfrey staff as a breaking story.
Ford explained that when she arrived for the show she did not know what the topic was going to be because the original topic, she believed, would be about working mothers. Ford, although her children are grown, remains a working mother herself.
But, the episode was put together on a moments notice after the Winfrey show got access to the parents and the boys involved in the kidnapping.
What was special is Ford witnessed a show that was not taped and delayed for broadcast, but was broadcast the next day on national cable television. Parts of the show were live in studio and other parts were taped and shown to the audience on screens the way the television audience would usually see the broadcast of the show the next day on the syndication network.
Ford also received the rare opportunity to see the most popular talk show on television work behind the scenes in order to put together an hour long broadcast about real people in a crisis situation, and how those real people deal with the events around them. The show was broadcast within about 72 hours after the boys had been rescued.
But the most surprising part of the experience for Ford was not the nationally publicized news story, but the security that surrounded the show. Arriving at the Harpo Studio complex, estimated to be the size of a city block, the potential audience members were gathered and put through a screening process that she said would make Homeland Security officials proud.
Outside the studio, audience members went through a large plastic tubing to shelter them from the Chicago elements. People were informed in advance that cell phones and recording devices were not permitted. Everyone attending passed through metal detectors. A small handbag would be allowed only after being searched, larger personal bags were not allowed, and their coats were checked.
Ford explained that she has vacationed outside of the United States and that security was probably more intense for the Oprah show than the airport security she had faced before getting on an international plane flight.
“I know that it is their job, but the (security) staff was kind of snippy about it,” said Gloria.
After the screening process, audience members were gathered in a large waiting area and were seated in the taping studio about 50 at a time. The show tapes two episodes a day and her episode was scheduled for the afternoon session. The afternoon tapings usually run from about 1 to 3 p.m., followed by a 30 minute taping of Oprah and the audience for a show that runs on the Oxygen cable network.
Gloria also was surprised at all the things that went on behind the scenes to put the show together — the time in-between when the commercials would be running and all the stage direction that would go on to put the show together.
Ford and the mother of friend Jason Knowles had been trying to get tickets for the Winfrey show since last October. Knowles was formerly a news staff member of Toledo Channel 13 and is currently a news producer for Channel 7 news in Chicago. Both TV stations are owned by ABC-Disney. Knowles recently traveled overseas with Winfrey as a producer when Oprah opened her now famous school in South Africa.
Also in the audience for the show was the wife of Clint Van Zandt. Van Zandt is a former FBI agent with 25 years of bureau experience who writes and lectures about kidnapping and hostage situation victims.
“I talked to the wife of Clinton Van Zandt. She had to go through everything like all the other people even though her husband was the expert guest on the show,” said Ford.
“A woman on the staff came out before the show and told us what was going to happen. Then Oprah came out in her flats carrying her shoes and sat down and talked to us while they put on her make-up,” explained Ford.
“It was a very sad show, depressing. I felt sorry for the boys; they will probably need therapy for years. One thing I was glad about was that they decided the younger boy should not go on television because of his age. The boy said they played video games and told people that were being home-schooled.”
“It was nice to hear the officers tell about how they were on another call when someone spotted the truck and the details about that. The FBI then came and the real hero was the young man who reported the truck. I couldn’t absorb all of the story,” admitted Ford.
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