Every year around this time, Oprah surprises her audience by announcing that they've come to the show on the day of her "Favorite Things" episode. The audience goes...well, berserk. You really can't understand what it's like if you haven't seen it. Imagine The Beatles, circa 1964. Then multiply by 6.

Yesterday she went to Macon, GA, the city that has given her show the best ratings over the years. To show her thanks, she gave her audience thousands of dollars worth of electronics, clothing, and food. I really hope she had medics on hand, because the audience when just as crazy for body lotion as it did for an LG fridge with a built-in HDTV. After the jump is the full list of stuff the Macon audience got and you didn't (and check out the video highlights).

Normally I wouldn't mention local programming on TV Squad, since it would only be of interest to those who live in the same city I do (in this case, Minneapolis). However, three nights ago I may have discovered the most ingenious use of public access television I've ever seen. I don't remember the time, but I know it was after midnight. I've watched public access before, but this time I found myself encountered with an odd paradox. What I was seeing on the screen was so intriguing I couldn't change the channel, and at the same time, it was one of the most boring things I had ever seen in my life. A young man was playing Scrabble with people who called in. He sat off to the side, and "your" letters sat facing you. Since it was live, there was no editing. You actually had to wait while he spelled something, and then wait for someone to call in to spell another word. The whole show was like some kind of dadaistic, Warholian endurance test. It may have been the ultimate public access moment, the kind of parallel television universe that could only be created by normal people with too much time on their hands.