She has conquered the Forbes magazine list of richest people, won Emmy after Emmy for both Outstanding Talk Show and Outstanding Talk Show Host, became the first African-American billionaire, spawned a veritable industry of self-help materials, and created the Oprah Effect, as what happens when she recommends — or recommends against — something. Not bad for a woman born to a teenage unwed mother in rural Mississippi — and who herself, shortly after running away from home became pregnant. Oprah’s early television career took her through Nashville and Baltimore before she settled in Chicago, turning around a low-rated morning program. Her success encouraged her to sign a deal launching her own syndicated talk show.

On this day, September 8, in 1986 the Oprah Winfrey Show launched nationally for the first time. Oprah’s appearances on the national stage follow the same stratospheric trajectory as her local ones.

Oprah took a format popularized by Phil Donahue and changed it from a hard-hitting journalistic expose to a more human-interest format. Oprah was interested in the emotions her stories would evoke: TIME magazine derisively called it “the talk show as a group therapy session.” But the audiences loved it. Oprah’s talk show became the highest-rated in the history of television, and spawned the careers of Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and many others.