Bryant immediately saw Gifford's potential as a Christian entertainer and invited her to live and work with her and her husband, Bob Green, at their home in Key Biscayne, Florida. Gifford agreed and spent a disillusioning year babysitting, doing secretarial work and occasionally singing in Southern Baptist churches. She realized that the couple's loveless marriage was merely a front for their careers and that their family life lay in shambles. Wanting no part of the hypocrisy, Gifford opted to leave. However, Bryant had already secured a full scholarship for Gifford at the evangelical Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as a place in Roberts' World Action Singers. Beginning in 1972, Gifford sang on Oral Roberts' television show broadcast from Burbank, California, and traveled throughout the Bible Belt attending revival meetings.

Gifford quickly became aware of the manipulation going on behind Roberts' charismatic veneer and dropped out of the university during her junior year.

Gifford simultaneously began to work on her own, more secular career. While visiting a friend on the set of the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, she was hired to play Nurse Callahan, which she did for nine months. She also worked on commercial jingles and made several TV pilots. From 1977-78, Gifford was the featured singer on Name That Tune, replacing song lyrics with 'la-la's.' This exposure generated a slew of career opportunities, including a part in the TV sitcom Hee Haw Honeys, and gigs as the opening act for such comics as Bill Cosby, Shecky Green and Rich Little in Reno and Lake Tahoe casinos. In 1981, Regis Philbin left his post at the radio show A.M.

Los Angeles, and Gifford substituted as host for two days.

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