DVD Transfer 66 (20/20 - Unfaithfully Yours {PTL Scandal})

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(c)2019 ABC News-The Walt Disney Company

December 18, 2019 DVR recording (and a repeat of a broadcast originally airing in January 2019) of the 20/20 special "Unfaithfully Yours" as a look at the rise and fall of the old PTL network and its principals Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. This has been a story that has always fascinated me.

The background starts with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker; both young Pentecostal evangelists based in Minnesota, where they started in Christian television hosting a children's show (complete with puppets) called "Come On Over" after being hired by Pat Robertson on WYAH-TV 27 (now WGNT); later serving as hosts of The 700 Club in its early years until repeated clashes with Robertson led to the Bakkers leaving by the end of 1972. After a pit stop in Charlotte; the Bakkers moved west to California, teaming with Paul and Jan Crouch - who Jim knew from when Paul was Jim's youth pastor - to help launch TBN only for the Bakkers and Crouches to likewise butt heads until the Bakkers left to start their own TV network, PTL (depending on the source, it officially stood for either "Praise the Lord" or "People That Love"); which grew rapidly during the late 1970s and into the 1980s into a media company featuring guests ranging from the usual group of fellow televangelists, Christian authors, ministers (such as Billy Graham) and singers but also including a large number of celebrity guests (such as boxing great George Foreman; Maria von Trapp {of the Von Trapp Singers memorialized in the 1965 film "The Sound of Music"}; actors Mickey Rooney {there's a 1986 show on YouTube that had him guest hosting} and Dean Jones {a Disney veteran who, following his own coming to faith in Christ was active in the Christian community, particularly after being cast as Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and who himself became a Christian shortly before going to prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up}; then-Love Boat star Gavin MacLeod; then-A Team star Mr. T; then-Incredible Hulk actor Lou Ferrigino {who played the Hulk to Bill Bixby's Bruce Banner}; Little Richard; then-Facts of Life star Lisa Whelchel and even a 1979 show that marked one of the last public appearances for KFC founder Colonel {Harland} Sanders) as well as building a theme park called Heritage USA, which proved a huge success (by 1986; only the two Disney parks had more visitors than Heritage)

But all that glittered wasn't gold; as by 1979 the FCC began investigating PTL for misuse of funds. The report was issued in 1982, finding that $350,000 raised for overseas missions was instead used for Heritage USA, however the FCC by a 4-3 margin voted not to pursue the matter further (Bakker would then sell the only station PTL owned), with the Justice Department declining to pursue charges citing insufficient evidence. A 1985 IRS report later found $1.3 million was used for the Bakkers' personal benefit and recommended PTL be stripped of its tax-exempt status.

But that would not be the big story that led to the downfall of PTL. That event had its roots in a 1980 incident where Jim - temporarily separated from Tammy Faye - and frequent guest John Wesley Fletcher had gone to a hotel in Florida with a young Massapequa, NY church secretary named Jessica Hahn, in which there was a sexual encounter between Bakker and Hahn (Hahn would allege that she was raped, Bakker claimed it was consensual - ignoring the fact that he was married AND a minister who was supposed to be above reproach); with Hahn later being paid $279,000 to keep quiet through an agreement with building contractor Roe Messner (who specialized in church buildings and who did a large amount of work with PTL); and the issue of PTL's finances caught the attention of the Charlotte Observer and reporter Charles Shepard, who wrote a series of articles on PTL.

Ultimately, the scandal broke with Jim's resignation from PTL on March 19, 1987 (admitting to the sexual encounter but denying it was rape); with the PTL network then turned over on what was planned to be a temporary basis to Jerry Falwell, founding pastor of Lynchburg, VA's Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University but known nationally for launching the Moral Majority organization (according to the Bakkers, the reason Falwell was chosen to run it was to head off a hostile takeover by Baton Rouge-based televangelist {and fellow Assemblies of God minister} Jimmy Swaggart; who though he was a fellow Pentecostal was a vocal critic of PTL). However, other controversies (specifically claims from PTL staffers and still another televangelist, John Ankerberg {known mainly for shows dealing with the claims of various cults}, accusing Jim Bakker of homosexual acts {Fletcher, who had accompanied Bakker on that infamous 1980 hotel trip, had himself been accused of sexually harassing a number of male employees and later claimed a handful of sexual encounters with Jim. Fletcher would ultimately die in 1996 from AIDS complications}) led to Falwell barring the Bakkers from returning, later blasting them in a press conference as "the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history" (that same day saw the Bakkers - alleging now that Falwell was, in effect, behaving closer to a typical 1980s corporate raider - appear for an interview on ABC's "Nightline" that became {and may still be} the most-watched edition of the show in its history {including its beginning as a daily update on the Iran Hostage Crisis}) following the disclosure of there being two sets of books (opening up the prospect of fraud charges) and learning that PTL was drowning in debt. Despite managing to raise $20 million during the summer (leading to the famous photo of Falwell, in a full suit, sliding down the park's water slide, Falwell and the new board would resign that October following an unfavorable bankruptcy court ruling. The PTL network would limp along until 1990, when it was acquired by San Diego-based televangelist Morris Cerullo; who renamed it INSP and put son David in charge (INSP still exists, but has since been retooled as a family-oriented network {similar to Freeform when it was the Family Channel and owned by Bakker's former boss, Pat Robertson} with a heavy emphasis on Westerns); which Heritage USA would remain open until heavy damage from Hurricane Hugo in 1989 severely damaged the theme park; with parts of the property purchased by MorningStar Ministries (run by Rick Joyner) while other parts were demolished or ended up in varying states of decay. Bakker would ultimately be convicted in a 5-week trial (that included a bizarre scene where a former employee - upon being cross-examination by Bakker's attorney - collapsed; leading to a meltdown by Bakker and {not mentioned in the special} Bakker's right-hand man, Richard Dortch, testifying against Bakker following Dortch's own plea deal where he pleaded guilty to single mail and wire fraud and a disastrous testimony on the stand by Bakker himself) in the fall of 1989 be convicted on all 24 counts (8 mail fraud, 15 wire fraud and 1 conspiracy charge) related to charges of overselling lifetime partnerships for hotels never completed or built; ultimately being sentenced to 45 years (the judge, Robert Potter, had been nicknamed "Maximum Bob" for his tendency to give long sentences near or at the maximum); but the criticism over the length of the sentence was strong enough - with many noting that many convicted of violent charges often got more lenient sentences than Bakker did for what amounted to white-collar crime - that Bakker's sentence was ultimately reduced to 8 years, with Bakker serving just under 5 years before being paroled (shortly after the scandal broke, the Bakkers sold the movie rights of their story to NBC; which produced the 1990 made-for-TV movie "Fall from Grace" which had Jim and Tammy played by Kevin Spacey {who by the time of this special had his only scandal surface following allegations that he had sexually assaulted several young men early in his career} and Bernadette Peters, respectively).

Jim and Tammy Faye would divorce during Jim's prison time in 1992; with Tammy remarrying Roe Messner (who would soon afterward serve a prison sentence of his own on unrelated bankruptcy fraud charges); eventually getting known for her support of the LGBT community in her later years (some of this dating to an interview with an AIDS patient in 1985 during the PTL years) and for a series of health challenges (having been diagnosed with colon cancer that scuttled a talk show she did with actor Jim J. Bullock named "The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show" {a play on the name of her show with her ex-husband} and her 2004 diagnosis with inoperable lung cancer, ultimately passing away on July 20, 2007; just over a day after what proved to be her final appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" where a now-emaciated looking Messner appeared via satellite with husband Roe (which Roe suggested and which in hindsight clearly was Tammy's goodbye appearance).

Meanwhile, Jessica Hahn seemingly did a 180 in going from church secretary to posing nude for Playboy on three occasions in the space of a year and dating the likes of comedian Sam Kinison (himself a one-time Pentecostal preacher before apparently abandoning his faith) and "Married...with Children" creator Ron Leavitt.

As for Jim, he seemed to be doing a 180 of his own by releasing a book in 1996 titled "I Was Wrong" where he repudiated the prosperity gospel teachings from his PTL days, later acknowledging in an interview with Barbara Walters that he had been molested in his youth and had also been sexually assaulted while he was in prison; with Bakker marrying Lori Graham in 1998. Bakker resurfaced on TV in 2003 on a number of smaller Christian networks but regained notice during the 2010s due to Bakker's show focusing mainly on a prepper, survivalist approach; complete with sales of freeze-dried food (Bakker would raise enough money to buy back the PTL name and a number of tapes from a friend for a Roku channel, though Bakker insists that the PTL initials {mentioned earlier as standing for either Praise the Lord or People That Love but in the aftermath of the sexual and financial scandals many snarked that the PTL initials more accurately stood for "Pass the Loot" or "Pay the Lady" when the Jessica Hahn story broke} now stood for Prophets Talking Loudly). In early 2020, shortly after the broadcast recorded here, Bakker began selling colloidal silver as a treatment for COVID-19; drawing the ire of the office of the Attorney General of New York and Bakker's current home state of Missouri along with the Federal Trade Commission and FDA, with Missouri and Arkansas suing Bakker. This led to Bakker being cut off from credit card transactions; which coupled with GEB America (a Christian network associated with the family of Oral Roberts) and World Harvest Television (run by the family of Lester Sumrall) dropping him, led Bakker to claim he was on the brink of ruin (followed by the aged Bakker suffering a mild stroke in May 2020; not returning until July). Ultimately, in August 2021; Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced a settlement where Bakker would no longer claim the silver solution as a cure for disease and pay out $157,000 in restitution to those who bought the solution between February-March 2020.

Regarding the broadcast; perhaps the biggest omission in the special was completely ignoring the role of Bakker's right-hand man at PTL, Richard Dortch, who isn't even mentioned even though he played a part in arranging for the hush money for Jessica Hahn (alongside Roe Messner) and later testified against Bakker as part of a deal where Dortch pleaded guilty to single counts of mail and wire fraud.

Among those interviewed are: Charles Shepard (former Charlotte Observer reporter who broke the initial story and later wrote the book "Forgiven" as a compilation of those stories); Mark DeMoss (an executive who had worked for Jerry Falwell); ABC/ESPN reporter Chris Connelly; former ABC correspondent Al Dale; John Wigger (a professor in Missouri who wrote a book titled "PTL"); former PTL security chief Don Hardister; former Charlotte disk jockey Chuck Boozer; former ABC correspondent Rebecca Chase Williams (later Mayor of Brookhaven, GA, Williams sadly died on March 11, 2020 for cancer; just three months after this record and just over a year after the original airdate); entertainer and frequent PTL guest Pat Boone; gospel singer BeBe Winans (who started his career at PTL alongside his sister CeCe before the two struck out on their own; to tremendous success); former WSOC (the ABC affiliate in Charlotte) anchor Suzanne Stevens; MorningStar Ministries founder Rick Joyner (whose ministry acquired much of the old Heritage USA propertty); actress/singer Kristin Chenoweth (who was working on a musical based on Tammy Faye's life; though whether anything came of it is unknown); former Nightline host Ted Koppel; former Washington Post reporter Art Harris; David Yarnes (also with MorningStar Ministries); WSOC reporter Mark Becker; photojournalist Roger Herr and Karen Arthur (director of the "Fall from Grace" movie); former assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Harris (who worked on the prosecution); actor Jim J. Bullock (who co-hosted the short-lived "The Jim J. & Tammy Faye Show" alongside Tammy Faye in 1996) and the show's producer, Dan Weaver; Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (who co-produced the 2000 documentary "The Eyes of Tammy Faye")

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