American Christian television program
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The PTL Club
, also known as
The Jim and Tammy Show
, was a
Christian
television program that was first hosted by
evangelists
Jim
and
Tammy Faye Bakker
, running from 1974 to 1989. The program was later known as
PTL Today
and as
Heritage Today
. During its final years,
The PTL Club
, which adopted a
talk show
format, was the flagship television program of the Bakkers'
PTL Satellite Network
.
History
[
edit
]
Jim
and
Tammy Faye Bakker
had been in the ministry with the
Assemblies of God
denomination since the early 1960s prior to joining
Pat Robertson
's
Christian Broadcasting Network
(CBN), then based in
Portsmouth
,
Virginia
, in 1965. The Bakkers launched a children's show called
Come On Over
where the couple entertained viewers with songs, stories, and puppets. In 1966, Jim Bakker became the host of
The 700 Club
, a religious talk program that evolved from a
telethon
.
The 700 Club
would become the flagship program of CBN, which expanded from its original
Hampton Roads station
to include outlets in
Atlanta
and
Dallas?Fort Worth
by 1973.
Beginning in 1972, the Bakker-hosted
700 Club
was launched in a dozen test markets, including then-independent station
WRET-TV
in
Charlotte
,
North Carolina
. However, the Bakkers departed CBN in 1973 and relocated to
Southern California
for a brief period, where they assisted
Paul
and
Jan Crouch
in launching
Trinity Broadcasting Network
and the show
Praise the Lord
before eventually starting their own television ministry in North Carolina. When WRET-TV dropped
The 700 Club
in 1973, the station's then-owner
Ted Turner
approached Bakker about buying two hours a day on the outlet, which Bakker accepted. Initially, his show in Charlotte was under the umbrella of Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting and also called Praise The Lord. This edition of the show was launched in a small studio at WRET-TV.
The 700 Club
moved to then-
ABC
affiliate
WCCB
in Charlotte. Soon after, 16
WGGS-TV
in
Greenville
,
South Carolina
also picked up the show. In the fall of 1974, Bakker broke up with Trinity Broadcasting, secured usage of the
PTL
acronym from the Crouches, and called his new show
The PTL Club
.
The PTL Club
continued being produced at WRET and in November 1974, the show expanded to a few other stations such as
WHMB-TV
in
Indianapolis
;
WHCT
in
Hartford
,
Connecticut
; and
KHOF-TV
in the
Los Angeles
area, among a few others. The show launched nationally in 1975, with two editions offered: one was the full two-hour edition, which tended to air on Christian stations and smaller independent stations, and the other was a one-hour edition which tended to air on stronger independent stations, as well as network affiliates.
By 1976, the Bakkers moved their studio to the site of a former furniture store in Charlotte. With
The PTL Club
program as its centerpiece, the Bakkers and their staff built what became known as the
PTL Television Network
, broadcasting worldwide. In a
Tonight Show
-type format, the program featured many well-known ministers and Christian recording artists. In the beginning, Henry "Uncle Henry" Harrison, who had worked with Bakker at CBN, was Bakker's co-host and sidekick (much like
Ed McMahon
to
Johnny Carson
), and when Tammy Faye took over as co-host, Harrison became the announcer.
[1]
The program was later broadcast from Bakker's Heritage Village ministry headquarters and complex on Park Road in Charlotte, and then moved to studios constructed at the ministry's new 2500-acre mixed-use family theme park and resort in
Fort Mill, South Carolina
, known as
Heritage USA
. Bakker's
conspicuous consumption
and
prosperity gospel
preaching led critics to claim that PTL stood for "Pass The Loot".
[2]
As time went on and as more stations had additional programming commitments by 1980, many opted to only run an hour of the
PTL Club
. In the fall of 1981, the show was cut to an hour, at which length it remained until its cancellation.
Scandal and subsequent demise
[
edit
]
Due to his involvement in highly publicized financial and sexual scandals, Jim Bakker resigned on March 19, 1987. He turned all ministry assets over to
Lynchburg, Virginia
?based pastor and broadcaster
Jerry Falwell
, who became CEO of the parent organization,
Heritage Village Church and Missionary Fellowship, Inc.
and assumed control of Heritage USA, the cable network, and of its flagship program. Falwell's involvement was deemed newsworthy,
[
by whom?
]
as the PTL ministries were a part of the Assemblies of God denomination and Falwell was a
Southern Baptist
. Ministry supporters questioned Falwell's intentions and attributed his interest solely to maintaining control of the lucrative cable-television empire owned by PTL to broadcast his own ministry programming.
One commentator noted that "Bakker arranged for Falwell to take over PTL in March in an effort to avoid what he called a 'hostile takeover' of the television ministry by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter he admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary
Jessica Hahn
."
[3]
According to Hahn, on the afternoon of December 6, 1980, when she was a 21-year-old church secretary, Bakker and another preacher,
John Wesley Fletcher
drugged and raped her for "about 15 minutes". Hahn stated she overheard Bakker say afterward to another PTL staffer, "Did you get her too?"
[4]
A federal grand jury indicted Bakker for diverting millions of dollars of church funds to personal use. Much of the nation
[
citation needed
]
watched the court case to see the outcome of the $165 million in donations.
[5]
[6]
The PTL Club
continued as a television program for a considerable time after this, first with Falwell as its host and PTL personality
Doug Oldham
as co-host. Falwell later brought in Christian singer
Gary McSpadden
as the show's co-host, along with PTL musical talent Ron Aldridge. The show was renamed
PTL Today
, then?in an effort to distance the show from the PTL name?
Heritage Today
. Aldridge continued as co-host alongside another PTL singer, Brenda Davis, after Falwell suddenly resigned from the now-bankrupt PTL ministry. McSpadden and Oldham subsequently left the show out of support for Falwell's decision to resign his position with the ministry.
With Falwell's resignation, Sam Johnson, a member of the PTL ministry team, assumed leadership and incorporated a new entity known as Heritage Ministries to run the television program and associated ministry functions. As Heritage USA and PTL assets were now tied up in bankruptcy reorganization, the new ministry and the television program had to move from their longtime Heritage USA broadcast studios to newly bought property on Nations Ford Road in Charlotte that was named Heritage Place.
The program remained on the air as late as September 1988, when Johnson faced problems with the IRS.
[7]
In 1989, evangelist
Morris Cerullo
purchased the network out of bankruptcy. As of 2012
[update]
, it operates as
INSP
from broadcast facilities in Charlotte, with headquarters in nearby
Indian Land
, South Carolina.
On August 23, 1991, after the second and final day of his re-sentencing hearing, the court reduced Bakker's original 45-year sentence to 18 years, five of which he actually served before being released.
In February 2009,
Atlanta
, Georgia investment-banker Ben Dyer announced his intention to auction off over 15,000 hours of videotaped episodes of
The PTL Club
on March 27, 2009.
[8]
A friend of Jim Bakker's purchased the programs. The master library of PTL programming has been returned to Jim Bakker and the old tapes are being digitally remastered and restored. Restored programs are being run on the new PTL Television Network on
Roku
and online at the PTL Television Network's website.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"PTL Considering Future"
. Associated Press. August 10, 1987
. Retrieved
August 27,
2013
.
- ^
"Fallen PTL preacher Jim Bakker is back with a new message about the Apocalypse"
.
The Charlotte Observer
. February 17, 2018
. Retrieved
July 28,
2019
.
- ^
Steve Baker.
PTL-Falwell
Archived
2006-05-28 at the
Wayback Machine
Associated Press. July 21, 1987.
- ^
Transcript of interview
with
Larry King
,
CNN
, July 14, 2005.
- ^
"Jim Bakker"
. GospelGrace.com. Archived from
the original
on August 30, 2007.
- ^
Ostling, Richard N.
(December 19, 1988).
"Jim Bakker's Crumbling World"
.
Time magazine
. Archived from
the original
on August 20, 2006
. Retrieved
December 5,
2007
.
- ^
"IRS Asks Court to Stop PTL Show"
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-11-08
. Retrieved
2017-07-07
.
- ^
"Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's old shows up for sale"
. Associated Press. February 28, 2009
. Retrieved
March 1,
2009
.
External links
[
edit
]
PTL scandal
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Leadership
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PTL Ministry
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History
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In popular culture
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