Everybody Gets a Car!

     On September 13, 2004, Oprah Winfrey kicked off the 19th Season of her acclaimed talk show with Harpo Studios filled to the brim with 276 screaming fans.  As the episode went on, Oprah was teasing some big thing happening at the end of the show, leading all the viewers on and making them wonder what it could possibly be.  Then the moment came, and Oprah announced that 11 members of her audience were going home with brand a new Pontiac G6.  As a final act, she distributed boxes to every member of the studio audience under the pretense of one of the boxes containing keys to a final car being given away.  She even told the audience: "Do not open it[the box). Do not shake it,".  And then, they opened the box.  And one lucky audience member found the keys to a new car.  And then the person sitting next to them found the same thing.  And then the next guy too.  And so on and so forth until...Well let's just let Oprah say what happened next, shall we?

     Yes, all remixed and everything.  Alas, the aftermath of the giveaway wasn't nearly as rosy as the buildup to it.  You see, all 276 models of the Pontiac G6 that were given away that day were prizes.  And thanks to the quirks of U.S. tax law, the winners(audience members) had to pay taxes on the value of those cars, which worked out to roughly $6,000.  Some winners chose to either forfeit the cars, or sell them to pay the tax bill.  Of course some people kept the cars, and a few of them are even still on the road today 10 years later(On a separate note, in 2010 Oprah did the same kind of giveaway, except this time the taxes were taken care of already.)  While many of those cars aren't with their original winners anymore, the Oprah Winfrey show has been off the air for over 3 years, and the Pontiac brand has even been shuttered by GM, the legacy of that day and its immediate impact will live on for years to come.