This show was notable for many reasons. Not only was it the last new years event held & televised at the site formerly known as Heritage USA, it was also the last major televised event on which Jim & Tammy Bakkers would appear, and the last televised event during which all four Bakkers would appear. December 31st fell on a Wednesday, so January 1st would have been Thursday. So, Jim & Tammy may have done a couple more of the daily shows before heading out of town for a brief vacation, but this was their last major televised event aside from those dailies.

Little would they realize during this event that this would be one of the last times that they would ever appear on television while reigning over PTL. On a couple occasions during this program Jim made mention of the new Crystal Palace church which was to have a groundbreaking ceremony on January 2nd, 1987 (Jim’s birthday), and I am sure that that event took place, just days after this new years eve program was televised. Almost immediately after that took place, the Bakkers headed to their vacation home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It was while they were on vacation in Gatlinburg after the new years that their world began to fall apart.

Jamie Charles (now known as Jay Bakker) starts off the program by introducing the rest of his family, followed by two songs sung by Tammy Faye. Jay Bakker doesn’t appear throughout any of the remainder portions of these new years eve show videos that I can see. He is likely either backstage or seated in the audience, or may have departed to attend a youth new years eve event held elsewhere at PTL. Ironically, the two songs Tammy Faye opens with would be quite telling for the Bakker family in the following months.

For those who have seen Tammy Faye sing, you are quite aware of how she realy belts out songs with such strong vocals. Yes, this was televised live, and there were a few minor mix-ups, but hey, who cares? Tammy Faye has always done a fantastic job singing, and improvising and ad-libbing during songs. Later on in the program both Tammy Faye & Tammy Sue perform a duet of “Lean On Me”, and I actually have that uploaded as a separate video on YouTube.

YouTube has a 10-minute limit on uploads, so I had to chop up this video into 10-minute segments to upload.

Also keep in mind a couple other things. First, yes, I am aware that there is an annoying graphic right in the middle of the screen periodically throughout this, and other videos I have uploaded recently. So, please, no comments about them until I can get them corrected. Also, this program was recorded on December 31, 1986 (22 1/2 years between the time it was recorded and digitized for upload to YouTube). So, there will be times when the limits of the videotape wil be obvious, such as tracking problems or minor issues with audio during playback.

Also, keep in mind while watching these videos that there were times during the original recording where I had paused the recording for one reason or another. So, this program in its uploaded format on YouTube is not 100% complete. Some segments are missing. For example, I only had one VCR in 1986, and wanted to record two programs on Dec 31st, both of them new years eve events. So, at about 11:30 I stopped recording the PTL program to record Dick Clark’s New Years Eve program (also to be uploaded to YouTube). Other times I may have stopped the recording to save tape, or to check how much tape I had left, or for any number of other reasons.

Also worth mentioning is that my grandmother, grandfather, and an aunt & uncle are also visible during this program, in a subsequent 10 minute segment which is following this segment in the upload process.

So enjoy the videos I have uploaded. I have uploaded MANY videos relating Heritage USA and PTL from my personal collection dating back to the late 80’s.

Duration : 0:10:19

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