Pray TV

THEY’RE BELIEVERS… IN THE ALMIGHTY BUCK! A newly ordained minister Tom McPherson (John Ritter, TV’s Three’s Company and The Comeback Kid) accepts a summer job with a dynamic TV evangelist, Rev. Freddy Stone (Ned Beatty, White Lightning, Deliverance), only to find deep conflicts between the latter’s conventional activities servicing his community’s spiritual needs and his power wielded as a TV celebrity. Pray TV, the 1982 made-for-television drama, garnered controversy when Rev. Jerry Falwell, the prominent televangelist, undertook a public campaign in an attempt to keep the movie from airing. Directed by Robert Markowitz (TV’s The Tuskegee Airmen) with a screenplay by Lane Slate (The Car, They Only Kill Their Masters) and wonderful performances by Richard Kiley (Pickup on South Street), Madolyn Smith Osborne (Funny Farm) and Louise Latham (Marnie).