User Reviews

Growing up in the 1980s, my sister & I would watch this show religiously. We used to roll on the floor & laugh so hard that it hurt. This was the funniest show on TV in its day. Our mother would often reprimand us for making fun of the program (and equating our reactions with sacrilege). However, mom would soon find out (thanks to us) that her mother had been sending PTL $$$ (On one visit, I noticed that she had the "Rice Patty" dolls, given to donors of over $100), Of course, our grandmother was a bit dippy so it really didn't surprise me.

The Bakkers really knew how to get Americans to cough up their $$$, and with such cheezy entertainment too. If only the Jerry Lewis Telathon was as unintentionally entertaining. Of course, Tammy stole the show with her crying & her makeup. But sometimes, the conversation would even trump these histrionics. My favorite was Tammy recounting a Tennis match with their neighbors (who drank & swore) & said that he told her: "Tammy, I may swear a lot & I know you pray a lot, but each of us knows that we don't mean what we say." Everyone reacted shocked to the comment, making it quite ironic & funny to see....and of course every time the money started dropping off, they'd wheel out a cripple in a wheel chair. It was quite transparent to my sister & I (early teens) at the time that they were milking people for their money. We even told our grandmother that it was a scam, but she wouldn't listen... until the scandals hit. Then she refused to acknowledge that she ever gave them any money.

It would be nice if someone could track down the tapes of the show & release them on DVD, or at least a "Best of....". I know I'd buy a copy.

I confess I watched a few of their shows which I remember one when Jim and Tammy Bakker plus some other people claimed that P.T.L is so much in debt that they took a 6 foot long piece of paper and stretched it across the stage which and I thought "Nobody would believe this!" but the scam must have worked because people kept donating and there were more shows too.

On October 1989 my all time favorite judge Robert (Maximum Bob) Potter gave heartless crybaby Jim 45 years in a country club prison(Reduced to 18 on appeal which he served 5) and fined $500.000 for 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.(Did he pay the fine?) Out of the $165 million dollars that the money was suppose to go to heritage U.S.A Jim kept 3 million dollars for himself!(Swindled 117,000 people!)

After Jim was granted parole televangelist Billy and his son Franklin Graham paid for a house for him and gave him a car!(Why Billy why?!) Billy Graham also stated that Jim is my friend. (Just think I almost donated to the Billy Graham crusade but I didn't Thank God!)

I felt that Tammy Faye Bakker should have served time too for knowingly taking a salary from P.T.L and being in on the shenanigans of her husband Jim but I guess she was too incompetent to stand trial.(Fat chance!) Here are the goods on Bakkers income from 1984 to 1987. 1. Jim and Tammy collected $200.000 each in salaries! 2.Jim awarded himself 4 million dollars in bonuses! 3.A $600.000 house in Palm Springs California! 4.Four condominiums in California! 5.A Rolls Royce! 6.P.T.L. spent $100.000 to fly them across the country! 7.This makes me shake my head, P.T.L once spent $100 for cinnamon rolls because the Bakkers wanted to smell them in their hotel room!(Did they give the leftovers to the poor? I doubt it.)

U.S parole commission order dated May 1993 stated to Jim "You shall refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the occupational activity in which you were engaged when you committed the instant offense behavior,namely televangelism. (He's back on the job again folks!)

Recently Tammy Faye died of colon cancer which spread to her lungs which in interviews she said things like "I believe when I leave this earth I love the Lord, I,m going to heaven."

Asked if she had any regrets she said and I quote "I don't think about it because its a waste of brain space."(If a convicted person used that line in a parole hearing, the persons parole would be rejected and the person would be sent back to prison!)

In my opinion if these two people are so caring, why would they have to write books about their crimes to make money!? Real people would pay back the people they ripped off and would also say they are sorry for free!

Please folks don't ever trust these people because if they are so caring, how come there is so much poverty and starvation!? Instead buy you relatives nice things and if you want to do things to benefit others heres what you can do. 1. Sponsor a local sports team (Baseball, Softball, Hockey, etc.) because there's people who cant find teams to join. 2. Give your stuff that you don't want to a good friend because there are poor people who don't own a good bed,a fan or a t.v. set to watch. 3. Be a big brother or sister to a child who needs a trusting and caring adult to look up too and a nice gift to a poor child will make them smile!

I will give honor to the mislead people who were conned into giving their life savings to these uncaring crooks who I,m sure when they asked Jim and Tammy for help in their letters, they were ignored and their letters thrown away! Yes some committed suicide, died because they cant afford to buy anymore medicine, had their homes and cars repossessed, died of sadness because P.T.L ignored them after they couldn't afford to give them any money!

Please good people don't ever give your money to television ministers because they think of you like a wildebeest swimming in the river getting dung kicked at by a hippopotamus!

This show was the epitemy of everything wrong with boob tube tv preachers. With the scandal came the fall, yet in the aftermath came the rebirth. Has america learned it's lesson? Sadly no. The PTL Club was a program that was like the roman catholic ritual of selling indulgences. For 50 bucks they'd say your name on the air or for 4,000 you could get time in their time share hotel. Nothing more than a gospel of big bucks the show eventually had it's waterloo.

I watched this show once in the early 1980s, long before Jim and Tammy Faye's fall from grace, and that was about all I could take. I remember thinking, what a load of garbage. The whole show consisted of Jim and Tammy weeping crocodile tears (with Tammy's now-famous running mascara) about how they needed more money to continue their so-called ministry. As we found out later, this "ministry" included gold bathroom fixtures and an air-conditioned doghouse. Like most corporate swindlers of today, Jim got off with only a few years in a white-collar prison. This in exchange for making off with countless widows' life savings.

It's a shame they split up during Jim's prison term. Nowadays they make waterproof mascara. Need I say more?