Not many people know this, but Jimmy Fallon and Oprah Winfrey co-starred in an '80s soap titled Midnight Meadows. OK, not really—but the TV host, 40, and the Selma star, 60, pretended that they once played a husband and wife during a laugh-out-loud, auto-tuned sketch on Monday's Tonight Show.
"It was a great show...but the director at the time was just a...very interesting guy," Fallon recalled. "He was experimenting with audio." Winfrey remembered, too, saying, "He did that thing with the voices." According to Fallon, "He would change our voices during the scenes. I guess he thought it would make things more dramatic." In hindsight, the comedian admitted, "I'm not sure if it helped or hurt the show."
Fallon thought it would be best to let the audience decide by showing a series of clips.
In the first scene, Fallon—using a normal voice—said, "Valentina, you've been quite distant lately. I want you to answer this question, and I want you to answer it honestly..." Winfrey asked, "What is it darling?" After a dramatic pause, Fallon— speaking in a higher pitch—asked her, "Are you seeing another man?"
Cue the laughter.
"How dare you!" Winfrey, speaking like a chipmunk, replied. "How can you accuse me of such a thing?"
"Because I'm a man!" Fallon told her. "And a man knows when he's not being treated like a man!"
"You're a man? You make me laugh!" Winfrey said with a cackle.
"That's it!" Fallon shouted. "We're through!"
"I've wanted to do this for a very long time," Winfrey said before slapping Fallon.
Fallon and Winfrey later agreed that the voices were "a little distracting," so they decided to show the audience two additional scenes (both of which featured the celebrities speaking in different octaves). After the clips aired, Fallon and Winfrey reminisced about their soap opera days. "Who knew auto-tune could be so emotional? It was truly an honor working with you," Fallon said. "I think those clips hold up."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)