Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were among the most famous televangelists in America, living a life of luxury with multiple houses, expensive cars and more money than God, when their empire all came crashing down amid sex and financial scandals.
But in the years following the demise of their ministry, the Bakkers didn't let a prison sentence, the loss of their massively popular multimillion-dollar TV network, the closure of their "Christian version of Disneyland" theme park, financial ruin, a divorce and being the butt of many "Saturday Night Live" jokes keep them down - or away from the spotlight.
Sex. Religion. Money. The scandal captivated the nation - new interviews, details and a n...Read More
By the mid-'70s, the Bakkers were becoming household names through their TV show, "The PTL Club" -- PTL stood for "Praise the Lord" or “People That Love.” Initially it aired on a small North Carolina station owned by media mogul Ted Turner.
"What [Bakker] really wanted to do... was create a Christian version of 'The Tonight Show'," said John Wigger, author of “PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire.” "Which was really the first of Bakker's big innovations, the Christian talk show."
