PTL Club
| The PTL Club | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Jim and Tammy Show PTL Today Heritage Today |
| Genre | Religious talk show |
| Created by | Jim Bakker |
| Starring |
Jim Bakker & Tammy Faye Bakker (1974–1987) Henry Harrison Richard Dortch Doug Oldham Gary McSpadden Ron Aldridge Brenda Davis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 14 |
| Production | |
| Location(s) |
Charlotte, North Carolina Fort Mill, South Carolina |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | PTL Satellite Network, The Inspirational Network |
| Original release | 1974 – 1989 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The 700 Club, Praise The Lord |
The PTL Club (PTL stands for "Praise The Lord" or "People That Love"), later called The Jim and Tammy Show, and in its last days PTL Today and Heritage Today, was a Christian television program first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, which ran from 1974 to 1989. The PTL Club, which adopted a talk-show format, was the flagship television program of the Bakkers' PTL Satellite Network.
Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy had been in the ministry with the Assemblies of God since the early 1960s prior to joining Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, then based in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1965. The Bakkers launched a children's show called Come On Over (later to be retitled Jim and Tammy) where the couple entertained viewers with songs, stories, and puppets. In 1966 Jim Bakker became the host of The 700 Club, a then-new religious talk program which evolved from a telethon. The 700 Club would become the flagship program of Christian Broadcasting Network, which expanded from its original Hampton Roads station to include outlets in Atlanta and Dallas–Fort Worth by 1973.
Beginning in 1972, The 700 Club was launched in a dozen test markets including then-independent station WRET-TV in Charlotte. When station owner Ted Turner dropped the show from his station in 1974, Turner approached Bakker about buying two hours a day on his Charlotte station, which Bakker accepted. He opted to call the show The PTL Club, Trinity Broadcasting (TBN NETWORK) used the title Praise The Lord for their flagship show until January 2017, the show is now called 'Praise'. It appears that PTL, PTL CLUB, and Praise The Lord has again returned to Jim Bakker as TBN no longer uses any of those names or acronyms as of 2017. The 700 Club moved to then-ABC affiliate WCCB in Charlotte. The program began as a local TV broadcast in a small studio at WRET in November 1974. The show expanded to a few other stations early the next year, such as WGGS in Greenville, SC, WHMB in Indianapolis, WHCT in Hartford, Connecticut and KHOF in Los Angeles, among a few others. The show launched nationally in the fall of 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.
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