Who knew that you could feel nostalgic for televangelists? I almost miss the days of the Bakker scandal and the Swaggart scandal. I even miss those crazy '90s cults. They were much more fun than Antifa SJWs.
Back in the day, I had an interest in studying the various cults from a human behavior point of view. It was fascinating how they were able to attract and keep members loyal to their cause and loyal to their leader. From the Moon Unification movement, Jim Bakker and PTL, the Armstrong's (Herbert and son Garner Ted) Worldwide Church of God, to Jim Jones and Jonestown and more.
The gold standard handbook and information resource on cults at the time was Dr. Walter Martin's book Kingdom of the Cults.
As a side note, in the early days of home satellite TV, technically you needed one letter of approval from a satellite content provider granting you permission to watch their programming to make your satellite station "legal". PTL was one of the few networks that would send you a letter giving permission, so they received a large number of requests for permission letters from home satellite TV viewers (few of which probably actually watched the network)
If I remember correctly, Dr. Gene Scott's University Network and TBN would also give you letters of permission.
