Paul Crouch(1934-2013)
- Producer
Flamboyant televangelist Paul Crouch first gained notoriety as the
founder of the "Trinity Broadcasting Network" (TBN), an
evangelical/charismatic Christian television network, on which he and
his wife, Jan Crouch, had their own
religious (but very controversial among conservative evangelicals) talk
show called
Praise the Lord (1973). In
1999, Crouch came under much criticism for his network's relentless
promotion of the film,
The Omega Code (1999), which
involved having members of the film's cast and its producers and
director making appearances on several of the network's religious talk
shows, promoting the film as one that "Christian families" should see
as an alternative to the "sexually explicit, violent and Godless" films
coming out of Hollywood, and claiming that it was a "huge box office
hit" (it wasn't); what Crouch didn't tell his audience was that he was
in fact an executive producer of the film, his organization financed it
and he stood to make quite a bit of money if the film became a hit (it
didn't). After the Crouch organization's connection with the film
became public knowledge (and after many letters from outraged viewers),
he admitted his role in the film's production on subsequent promotional
efforts that were run on his network.
