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''The PTL Club'', also known as ''The Jim and Tammy Show'', was a
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
television program that was first hosted by evangelists Jim and
Tammy Faye Bakker Tamara Faye Messner (née LaValley, formerly Bakker ; March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American evangelist. She co-founded the televangelist program ''The PTL Club'' with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974. They had hosted their own puppet-s ...
, 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 A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
format, was the flagship television program of the Bakkers' PTL Satellite Network.


History

Jim and
Tammy Faye Bakker Tamara Faye Messner (née LaValley, formerly Bakker ; March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American evangelist. She co-founded the televangelist program ''The PTL Club'' with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974. They had hosted their own puppet-s ...
had been in the ministry with the
Assemblies of God The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provi ...
denomination since the early 1960s prior to joining
Pat Robertson Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (March 22, 1930 – June 8, 2023) was an American Media proprietor, media mogul, Televangelism, televangelist, political commentator, presidential candidate, and charismatic movement, charismatic minister. Rober ...
's
Christian Broadcasting Network The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long-running TV series ''The 700 Club'', co-produces the ongoing ''Superbook (198 ...
(CBN), then based in
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,
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, 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 ''The 700 Club'' is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing each weekday in syndication in the United States and available worldwide on CBN.com. The news magazine program features live guests, daily news, p ...
'', a religious talk program that evolved from a
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. ''The 700 Club'' would become the flagship program of CBN, which expanded from its original Hampton Roads station to include outlets in
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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,
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. However, the Bakkers departed CBN in 1973 and relocated to
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for a brief period, where they assisted
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and
Jan Crouch Janice Wendell Crouch () (née Bethany; May 14, 1938 – May 31, 2016) was an American religious broadcaster. Crouch and her husband, Paul, founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in 1973. Early life and ministry Crouch was the daught ...
in launching
Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...
before eventually starting their own television ministry in North Carolina. When WRET-TV dropped ''The 700 Club'' in 1973, the station's then-owner
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approached Bakker about buying two hours a day on the outlet, which Bakker accepted; this edition of the show was launched in a small studio at WRET-TV. (''The 700 Club'' moved to then-
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affiliate
WCCB WCCB (channel 18) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with The CW. It serves as the flagship station of locally based Bahakel Communications. WCCB's studios are located just outside Uptown Charlot ...
in Charlotte.) Bakker, looking to differentiate himself from the Crouches and their TBN program '' Praise the Lord'', 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
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in Greenville,
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; WHMB-TV in
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; WHCT in
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,
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; and KHOF-TV in the
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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 ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the American Media, United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest inte ...
''-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 Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer, and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the American Bro ...
to
Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...
), and when Tammy Faye took over as co-host, Harrison became the announcer. 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 Fort Mill, also known as Fort Mill Township, is a town in York County, South Carolina, United States. It is a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 24,521. Some businesses and residents in th ...
, known as
Heritage USA Heritage USA was an American Christian-themed water park, theme park and residential complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina, built by televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye Messner, Tammy Faye Bakker, founders of ''The PTL Club''. The ...
. Bakker's
conspicuous consumption In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen c ...
and
prosperity gospel Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success, seed-faith gospel, Faith movement, or Word-Faith movement) is a belief among some Charismatic Christians that financial bl ...
preaching led critics to claim that PTL stood for "Pass The Loot". 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

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
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–based pastor and broadcaster
Jerry Falwell Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservatism in the United States, conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch ...
, 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, as the PTL ministries were a part of the Assemblies of God denomination and Falwell was a
Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestantism in the United States, Pr ...
. 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." 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?" A federal grand jury indicted Bakker for diverting millions of dollars of church funds to personal use. Much of the nation watched the court case to see the outcome of the $165 million in donations. ''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. In 1989, evangelist
Morris Cerullo Morris Cerullo (October 2, 1931 – July 10, 2020) was an American Pentecostal evangelist. He traveled extensively around the world for his ministry. He hosted ''Victory Today'', a daily television program, and published more than 80 books. Ce ...
purchased the network out of bankruptcy. , 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,
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, 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. 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
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and online at the PTL Television Network's website.


References


External links

*
PTL Television Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ptl Club 1970s American television talk shows 1974 American television series debuts 1980s American television talk shows 1989 American television series endings Christian entertainment television series Christian mass media American English-language television shows Evangelicalism in the United States Political organizations based in the United States Finance fraud in Pentecostalism