Bob Ross: The Happy Painter (2011) - full transcript

- Hi I'm certainly glad
you could join me today.

You ready to do another
fantastic painting with me?

(bright music)

- [Narrator] You recognize
his iconic image.

- Who's this?

This is Bob Ross.

This is the most famous painter

in the history of the universe.

- [Narrator] Signature phrases.

- A happy little cloud
that floats around it,

just has fun all day.



- [Narrator] And soothing voice.

- Anything that you
want you can build here.

This is your world.

- [Narrator] Bob Ross is one of public

television's most beloved personalities.

- The Bob you see on the show,

is the Bob that we all knew
even behind the scenes.

- I used to watch Bob Ross all the time.

The thing I remember was his positivity.

He made you want to do that.

- He wasn't only a painter, he was

an entertainer in his own right,

without any flash, his
paintings spoke for him

and he kind of took you by the hand and



led you along the way.

- I talk to only one
person when I'm filming

and I'm really crazy about that person.

- [Narrator] Some watched for his

easy to learn painting technique.

- When I watch his method, I go it is,

wow how does he do that?

It's amazing and

he makes it look incredibly easy,

but the interesting thing is that when

people actually try to
do it, they have success.

- Once you have the technique down,

all you need is a dream in your heart

and a desire to put it on canvas.

- [Narrator] And some we're just

captivated by his calming demeanor.

- And I think maybe
that's part of the magic.

I think his voice was
part of it, his presence,

his manner, his tone.

I think his sincerity came across,

and I think people relate to that,

they still relate to that.

- Every legend has an intangible

aura or something and I just imagine

whenever you're encompass of greatness

you know people just want to be around it.

- [Narrator] Bob Ross is public

television's most recognizable artist.

- Everybody knows Bob Ross
and especially his hair.

- [Narrator] This is the
story of a young painter

with a dream to share the joy
of painting with everyone.

- My father, he spent most of his time

when he came home from work,
watching public television.

He would have us watch Bob Ross,

where we would learn how to paint

and learn how to use our imagination.

- I'm sure the word magic gets used a lot

but I mean it really is like magic.

I mean, he'd mix up this color and

I'm gonna take a little bit of this yellow

and stick it in this black, and you think

what, right.

That's so counterintuitive, and then

takes like a palette knife
and gets a little thing and

(whooshing) and there's a tree,

and it's like how'd you do that?

- People continually say I
can't draw a straight line,

I don't have the talent,
Bob, to do what you're doing.

That's baloney.

Talent is a pursued interest.

In other words, anything that you're

willing to practice, you can do.

- [Narrator] This is Bob
Ross, the happy painter.

(bright music)

But before Bob became one of the

most popular artists on television,

Robert Norman Ross was just a

boy from Daytona Beach, Florida.

He was born on October 29, 1942

and grew up in the Orlando area.

Each of Bob's parents helped

shape his life in critical ways.

His father Jack was a builder.

- [Bob] I used to be
a carpenter years ago.

My father was a carpenter
and he taught me that trade.

I tell you what, it isn't that

easy to make a shed on a barn.

- He lost a finger helping his father.

When there's a pallet shot you
can see the missing finger,

but because it was on his left
hand and not his right hand,

it didn't affect his
ability to hold the brush.

- Lender brushes are very very soft.

My father used to say their
tender as a mother's love

and in my case that was certainly true.

I'm very prejudiced but I think I

had the greatest mother there was.

- [Annette] She had the
largest influence on him.

She's the one who taught
him the love of wildlife.

Second to painting or maybe
even more than painting,

Bob loved wildlife.

- [Bob] I think when I was a kid I must

have had every kind of pet imaginable.

I lived in Florida so I had
access to a lot of creatures,

but I had a pet snake.

I mean he got out of the cage and was

lost in a house for a long time.

My mother got up and went
to the bathroom one night,

he was in there and scared her.

- [Narrator] But Bob's
childhood wasn't all that easy.

- [Annette] Bob says that
they were not wealthy

and really I think he
viewed these wild animals,

anything he could get his hands on

as toys and entertainment.

- [Narrator] His mother and father

separated when Bob was very young.

His mother remarried
briefly and had another son,

Bob's brother Jim.

- [Bob] When I was a kid
I used to sit around and

you know my brother and
I we'd look at clouds

and we'd pick out all kind of shapes,

we'd see the mean old which or the

or the Candy Man or whatever.

- [Narrator] 20 years later,

Bob's mom married his dad again,

but they didn't have long together.

Bob's father died soon
after they remarried.

School was also tough for Bob.

- Do these little X's, see?

Little X's.

There, that's just the way the teacher

used to grade my paper in school.

She just run across it and go (clicking).

- [Narrator] When he was just 18 years,

old Bob joined the Air force.

- I spent half my life in the military

and I used to come home, take
off my little soldier hat,

put on my painter's hat.

- [Narrator] He got married
and had a son, Steven.

- He has been painting I
think since he was born.

He was about 12 years old before he

realized everybody didn't paint.

- [Narrator] But Bob soon found

himself raising a son on his own.

His first marriage didn't last long.

Bob and his son had a close relationship

and years later after The Joy
of Painting series took off,

Steve would occasionally
appear on the program

and eventually became a certified
Ross instructor, himself.

- Steve travels all over the country,

teaching hundreds and hundreds of people

the joy of painting and I've asked him

to come in today and show you what

he can do in just a few minutes.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Steve

and I'll be back at the end of the show.

Steve?

- Thanks a lot, dad.

- Steve was incredibly talented.

Bob said he talks better than I do

and he paints better than I do,

but Steve never was
someone we could convince

to come on and work with the show,

and I always regretted that because

I thought he had enormous talent.

- [Narrator] Bob and
Steve lived in Florida

for several years until the
military transferred them

to Alaska when Steve was a young boy.

- I had been born and raised in Florida,

and was 21 years old
before I ever saw snow.

- [Narrator] Bob
remarried and settled down

near Fairbanks, Alaska
with his new wife, Jane.

She was a civilian worker
with the Air Force.

For more than a decade Bob worked mainly

as a medical records technician
at the air base hospital

and cultivated his love of painting.

He was inspired by the snow capped

mountains that surrounded him,

and sold his paintings to tourists.

(upbeat bright music)

- He was a part time bartender,

and he was painting gold pans in Alaska

and selling them in the bar to make money.

- [Narrator] One day the tavern's

television was tuned to a PBS station.

Bob looked up and saw a painting show

hosted by a German man,
named Bill Alexander.

- How long can you hide a dream?

How long can you have creative power?

You need that almighty creative power.

- [Narrator] Alexander
was painting scenery

that Bob was familiar
with, and he was using a

centuries old painting
method called alla prima,

which means direct
painting or all at once.

The basic premise is that a thin paint

will stick to a thicker paint.

Alexander called it the
wet on wet technique.

- Years ago Bill taught me
this fantastic technique

and I feel as though he
gave me a precious gift,

and I'd like to share that gift with you.

- [Narrator] This method allows
you to layer colors of paint

on top of one another and
blend them right on the canvas.

Traditional oil painting requires you to

wait for each application to
dry before adding a new color,

but the wet on wet technique
is more user friendly

because it allows you
to paint very quickly

and if you make a mistake
you can just blend it away.

- [Bob] Because as you know
we don't make mistakes.

In our world we only have happy accidents

and very quickly, very
quickly you learn to

work with anything that
happens on this canvas.

Anything.

- [Narrator] This painting style was

exactly what Bob was looking for.

- I remember when he was in
the Air Force up in Alaska.

We went up there and he was excited about

watching someone on
television and he says,

"That's what I want.

"I want to paint before the bubble bursts.

"I want to get my painting on the canvas

"before I lose my idea."

- About 1975 I saw Alexander on television

and like millions of other
people I fell in love with him,

and it took me about a year to find him.

I studied with Bill and when
I retired from the military

they offered me a position
with his Magic Art Company

as a traveling art instructor.

- [Narrator] Bob's wife
Jane and his son Steve

stayed in Alaska for a couple more years

until Jane was eligible for retirement.

- So she allowed Bob to
leave Alaska with $1,000

and told him to either go out and

make his fortune or come back home.

He promised her, "I'll go and do this,

"if it doesn't work I'll come back home

"and do domestic stuff and be
a good husband and father."

And so she stayed in Alaska and waited.

- [Narrator] Although he
was leaving the land of snow

covered mountains, they left
an indelible mark on Bob.

- I lived in Alaska
for about a dozen years

and it has some of the most beautiful

mountain scenery there
that I've ever seen.

Absolutely gorgeous.

- [Narrator] That breathtaking scenery

would serve as his inspiration
for the rest of his life

and would eventually become
Bob's signature subject.

He took that thousand dollars and set out

to try and spread the Joy of Painting.

Bob was teaching Bill Alexander

classes all over the country.

He happened to land one in
his native state of Florida

and that's how he met Annette Kowalski,

in one of his painting workshops,

and Bob's life would never be the same.

- I had just lost a child
and was still in mourning.

My husband would have done anything

to pacify me and make me happy.

So he said, "Okay, I'll
drive you to Florida,

"which is the only place you can

"take a Bill Alexander class."

So I called the Alexander
Company in Oregon

and they said, "Yes, we have
some classes in February."

Unfortunately Bill Alexander has retired

and there's this guy named Bob Ross

who's teaching his classes
and I was so unhappy.

- [Narrator] Annette enrolled in a seminar

that was five full days of painting.

- [Annette] During that
five days, I became aware

of an effect that Bob was
having on these students.

Very calming effect, very quiet.

I had never seen anything like
it I was mesmerized by him.

- She kept insisting that there was some

something there that had
to be packaged or bottled

and that's what I was hearing
almost every single night

as we had dinner and I think
that was the driving force.

- [Annette] So the last day that we

were in Florida on a Friday night,

we went to a local hamburger joint

and we invited Bob to
join us, and he agreed.

I said to Bob, "I sure wish you would come

"to Washington DC and teach a class."

So he said, "Okay, okay. I'll do that."

- [Narrator] So Bob quit working for the

Alexander Magic Company
and formed a partnership

with Walt and Annette Kowalski,

who were living in Northern Virginia.

Teaching their own painting
classes sounded like a good idea

but getting people to enroll wasn't easy.

No one had ever heard of Bob Ross.

- [Walt] We tried to get
Bob into a shopping mall

and demonstrate and in turn
try to recruit students

for the classes that would
occur maybe three days later.

- [Annette] We didn't have much success,

even though we ran expensive newspaper ads

and paying all the
salary, and no students.

- [Narrator] They
thought maybe the classes

weren't filling up because people

were working during the day.

So Bob decided to offer an evening class.

- One man came to our evening class,

and I said, "Bob we're not gonna

"stay here teach this one man."

And he said, "Oh yes."

And at the end of the class the man said,

"I'm so impressed with you.

"The idea that Bob would take the time

"to teach just me to paint,

"I'd like to make you a proposition.

"I'm a business man," which was his

way of saying I have a lot of money.

"I would like to offer
you a million dollars,"

and in return he wants 40% of what we do

for the rest of our lives.

- [Narrator] They turned down that offer

and decided to keep pursuing
their dream on their own terms,

teaching painting classes in
art stores and shopping malls,

but they had meager attendance
and mounting expenses.

One of the ways Bob tried to save money

was by getting his straight hair permed.

- [Annette] He thought that
if he got his hair permed

he wouldn't have to pay for haircuts,

and he could save the thousand
dollars Jane had given him.

- He was the best man in our wedding

and one day a number of years later

my kids were looking
through our photo album.

They kept saying who is this
man in these wedding pictures?

I said, "Well you know who that is."

I said, "Well that's uncle Robert."

They said, "Nah-ah."

(laughs)

And I said, "Yes, it is."

And they said, "Well he
don't have curly hair here.

I said, "That came later."

- [Annette] Probably one
of the most important

things Bob said to me was,

"If you do what you love,
the money will come.

"Don't think about money,

"just do what you like."

- To me the first step
of accomplishing anything

is to believe that you can do it.

- [Narrator] But they needed a next move,

a turn in the right direction.

So Annette called Bill Alexander

and asked him to make a commercial

with Bob promoting his classes.

I hand over that almighty
brush to our mighty man, Bob.

- Thank you very much, Bill.

We've had so many cards requesting
classes in this area that

we've decided to set one up here and

we will have a class
going in the near future.

We'll produce some almighty painters.

- [Narrator] But the commercial wasn't

recorded on a standard size tape.

It needed to be converted to a format

that television stations could air.

So they took the commercial to their local

public television station
in Northern Virginia, WNVC.

- When they saw Bob painting on this tape,

they got very excited and they came to us

and said, "Wow this guy is wonderful.

"Would you agree to do
a television series?"

And we said would we ever (laughs).

- [Narrator] They came
up with the idea for a

show and called it The Joy
of Painting with Bob Ross.

- Hi, I'm Bob Ross and
for the next 13 weeks

I'll be your host as we
experience The Joy of Painting.

- [Narrator] At the beginning of the show,

Bob would start with a blank canvas

and finish less than a half hour later

with a completed oil painting.

- [Annette] Bob told me that he

went through every brush stroke

in his head when he was in bed at night

of how he would execute
that painting on TV.

- [Narrator] Every element
of the show was thought out,

from Bob's standard long
sleeved dress shirt and jeans

to the soothing tone of his voice.

- [Annette] He said,
"Annette, these television

"programs could go on for years."

Little did he know.

"I want to be sure and wear something

"on television that looks as good 30 years

"from now as it does now."

I think the hair he was
a little sorry about,

and he couldn't change that because

we had made a logo out of it.

- He hated his hair but
it was his trademark

and he had to do it, and it
really really bothered him.

- I talked to him about
it a couple of times

and said you know, "Have you thought

"about changing your hair?"

And he said, "No, this is my trademark,"

and he had decided that's
what he would look like

and people loved it.

- What a signature look.

Yeah, I mean, it's like fantastic.

- [Narrator] Even the simplicity
of the set was no accident.

- It was just a black curtain environment.

Bob and his easel, three cameras.

I ran the camera that Bob talked to.

- Richard's been with me

since the first series

and as you can see Richard
has finally got smart

and he now wears a raincoat.

He got tired of all his
clothes being painted.

- Bob's original idea was
to have this elaborate set

that looked like a trapper's
long cabin, whatever,

and this was the original intent,

but it finally dawned on Bob that

he would not create the
intimacy with the viewer

with all of that in the background.

- He liked the intimacy of the small space

and it allowed him to
feel the kind of intimacy

and to sound intimate and be
intimate with us, the audience.

- [Annette] He said he pretends

like he's talking to one woman in bed.

- I talk to only one
person when I'm filming,

and I'm really crazy about that person.

It's a one on one situation
that I think people realize that

and they do feel that they know me

and I feel that I know them.

- [Narrator] Bob wanted
to publish a how to book

to go along with The
Joy of Painting program.

- WNVC said, "I'm sorry
we can't publish the book,

"if you want a book you're
gonna have to publish it,"

and it was going to cost
thirty thousand dollars.

So Walt mortgaged our house

and we published Bob's first book.

- [Narrator] The book
had the same step by step

approach of his television program.

They would go on to produce a book for

every series of The Joy of Painting,

and Bob would dedicate each one to

someone meaningful in his life.

- [Annette] Bob gets all
the credit for these books.

After he filmed a painting
in front of the cameras,

we would then go back home and

he would repaint that painting,

and I would stand behind Bob with

my Canon 35 millimeter
camera and he would make me

take about 50 photographs, the
whole time he was painting,

and those were the how to photos

that he wanted in that book.

- [Narrator] Series one
aired on many public

television stations on the East Coast

but the audience was small.

- And the time you sit
around worrying about it

and trying to plan a painting you could

have completed a painting already.

- [Narrator] And the quality
of the audio and video

was so poor that the first
series of The Joy of Painting

was never aired again, and the book that

goes along with it is a rare find.

The partnership with WNBC dissolved.

- I think we'll call that finished

and I want to thank you very
very much for watching us.

I hope to see you again
in the near future.

- [Narrator] Bob would have to look

for a new home on public television.

With series one of The Joy
of Painting under his belt,

Bob forged ahead teaching painting classes

across the country and looking for a new

television station to partner with.

- Our dream was to move
this inland to the Midwest.

Walt was tracking where Bill Alexander's

program was popular.

Those were the cities that we

wanted to hit with our classes.

Phil Donahue was very big in those days

and he was coming out of Chicago.

We wanted to run commercials
on the Phil Donahue Show,

but where would we get a commercial?

- [Narrator] Once again he
turned to public television.

This time in Muncie, Indiana,

just across the state line from Chicago.

- In 1981 funding for Public
Television got really bad

and a committee was formed in Congress

called The Temporary Committee
For Alternate Funding,

we called it TCAF, and
out of that committee

there became a legislation
that allowed for

10 public television stations
to actually sell commercials.

WIPB was one of those stations.

Well I was sitting in
my office which happened

to be the upstairs
bedroom of this television

studio which was an old house,

I look out the window and this
VW bus pulls in the driveway

and we're thinking okay and
this bushy haired man gets out

and this lady with him and they
come walking up to the door.

He says, "Well hi.

"My name's Bob Ross and
we're doing a demonstration

"and some classes at your
mall down the street,

"and was wondering if you could
give any publicity to us?"

And I looked at our
production manager and I said,

"Have we got a deal for you."

- [Narrator] WIPB be produced a commercial

promoting Bob's painting classes

and aired it before and after
Bill Alexandra's program.

Walt and Annette also bought

airtime on the Phil Donahue Show.

All that advertising paid off.

The class was such a success
that Bob thought about making

WIPB be the permanent home
of The Joy of Painting,

so he went to see the general manager.

- He said, "Well we we'd like to talk

"to you about an idea we have."

And I said, "What's that?"

He said, "Would you would
you go to lunch with me?"

And I said sure so we took him to lunch.

He said, "How about
making a painting series?"

- We did the first one
and he made the painting

in basically 26 minutes and 46 seconds

and so we said well my goodness.

How many of these can you do and

he says how many you want to do?

I said, "Well you realize we could

"do 13, we'd have a series."

So believe it or not in
like a three day period

we knocked out 13 programs.

- [Narrator] The next step was to get

The Joy of Painting picked
up around the country.

So they submitted the series
to a national distributor

to see if there was enough interest from

other stations to carry the program.

- It went up for a vote and basically

Bob and Annette and I
and a couple of others

were in our office, we were actually

watching this vote tally,

and by golly you know it was a hit.

They said oh yeah we'll take it.

They designed a marketing campaign

turning over Bill Alexander's technique

and his legacy to Bob Ross.

- I hand over now that almighty brush

to a mighty man and that is Bob Ross.

Congratulations.

- Thank you very much, Bill.

We look forward to seeing you
right here on this channel

for The Joy of Painting each week.

- [Narrator] Now with a national audience,

Bob was on the hook to produce a

new program series every quarter.

The production schedule was grueling.

- We did the whole 13
programs that would be

in a typical quarter, in
one week here at WIPB.

Bob would show up on Sundays,

he'd place the paintings
actually around the studio

in which we're sitting right now,

and he'd pick out the order in which

he was going to produce them,

and we would do the opens
and closes of the shows,

all of them on Monday,

and then we'd do probably two
or three programs on Monday.

Then Tuesday we'd
usually do eight or nine,

and Wednesday we'd do what was left,

and look at them again on Thursday

and if we had two we did retakes.

- The show was generally shot
straight through live to tape.

Occasionally if there
was a technical problem

or something like that they would go back

and do an edit but he was
producing those paintings

as you saw it on television.

- [Annette] He was very proud of that,

that there's no trickery going on.

And I should mention here that those

paintings were not all that spontaneous.

There was always a
finished painting hanging

off camera that Bob was referring to.

- Tell you what let's get crazy today.

- And he would say all these

funny things like let's get crazy

but he knew where he was going.

He knew where he was
going, but he's taking

you on that ride with him, you know.

He's keeping you entertained and

painting all at the same time.

- [Annette] But Bob insisted that nobody

ever see the finished painting

because sometimes he
didn't have time to do

everything that was in that painting.

And he would have to leave out a big tree

or a bush or a boat.

- [Narrator] There is one exception

to Bob's thoughtful planning,

he did series two completely
off the top of his head.

- One night somebody
broke into our motor home

two days before we were to start taping,

and they stole all 13 of
the reference paintings.

And that was the most spontaneous
series that Bob ever did.

- [Narrator] This new partnership with

the PBS station in Muncie, Indiana

was the right move for Bob.

He would go on to produce
the remaining 30 series

of The Joy of Painting there.

That's almost 400 episodes.

- There's a lot of super people

that put a lot of work
into making this happen.

It's not done just by coming up here

and painting a little picture.

There's a lot of people here in the studio

that work very hard to
bring you a nice production.

They really do a good job.

- It was always fun to work with Bob.

It was always a week that I think we

looked forward to when he would come back.

- Bob had a wonderful sense of humor

and so our days were spent more or less

telling jokes and goofing off,

and then when it came time to be serious

and do the show you know then the Bob you

see on the show is the
Bob that we all knew

even behind the scenes.

- [Narrator] And when the work was done,

Bob and some of the WIPB team would scour

local antique shops for
forgotten treasures.

By 1984 The Joy of Painting could be

seen in most parts of the country,

but some stations still
weren't carrying the program.

While Bob was teaching
classes in upstate New York,

he gave every one of his students the home

phone number of the
local PBS station manager

to convince him to carry Bob's show.

- [Bob] Give your station a call.

I don't know, let them
know what you want to see,

and when they need some
help give him a hand.

- [Narrator] Bob's wife
Jane came down from Alaska

to work with Walt on the
business side of things.

- Jane was very much involved.

She did the secretarial
work and the office work.

- We were forever
supplying Bob and Annette

when they were on on the
road teaching classes,

and that's when we were in
the basement of our home.

- I was in college when they started this,

you know crazy thing and

came home one day for
Thanksgiving or something

and the house was just
transformed it was no longer home.

It was like a warehouse
and a shipping dock.

- [Narrator] At this point Bob and Annette

were on the road teaching
painting classes nearly non stop.

- As Annette and I have
traveled around the country

teaching people we have made
so many fantastic friends

that have been with us for so long now,

and that might truly
be The Joy of Painting

is the friends that you make doing it.

- [Narrator] But all
that travel was necessary

for the sake of the business,

because teaching painting classes

was at the core of what they did.

- [Annette] I think we all
had a good relationship

with our spouses, all of us did,

but Jane allowed Bob to go out

and do what he wanted to do.

- My wife Jane, she's stood behind us

and kept this thing going,

and it takes a special lady
to live with a crazy man.

- It wasn't fun for them,

it wasn't necessarily a lot of fun for us,

but the encouragement was there from Jane

and certainly I was
going to all lengths to

satisfy my wife as well.

- [Narrator] The Oprah Winfrey Show called

and asked if Bob would agree to appear

and I said, "Oh, yes.

"Should I bring the easel
and the canvases and paint?"

They said, "Paint?

"No, we're just looking
for couples that are

"in business together
but don't live together."

- [Narrator] Without
the opportunity to paint

Bob turned down the guest appearance

on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

- [Annette] To Bob it
was all about painting.

It's always been about painting with Bob.

- [Narrator] But the
stress of turning this

dream into a reality wore on them,

and many times Annette, Walt, or Jane

talked about throwing in the towel.

- Fortunately there was never a consensus.

Not all four of us
agreed at the same time,

so it just sort of, we were on a shift.

Those who objected or wanted
to quit were in favor,

and then the others would switch over

and decided let's cash it in.

- [Narrator] But Bob's
persistence kept them all going.

- [Annette] Well he never wanted to quit.

- No, he was probably one of the--

- And I was the one who most wanted out.

- [Narrator] His complete
dedication to painting

and teaching others to
paint was the driving force.

What ultimately led to
Bob's unprecedented success

hosting a painting program,
was his unwavering belief

that anyone could learn to paint.

- You often hear that to be an artist

you have to be blessed
with your own talent.

I think Bob's really reversed that notion,

anybody can paint.

He said just a little bit of practice

and anybody can paint.

- You know just recently I was

doing a demonstration in a mall,

and I had a man come to me and he said,

"Bob I could never paint
because I'm color blind,

"all I can see is gray tones."

So I thought today we'd
do a picture in gray

just to show you that anyone can paint.

- That's the miracle of Bob Ross.

He starts very simply and it just

layer and layer and he
builds, and anyone can do it.

- [Narrator] That was part of the magic,

Bob's unyielding encouragement.

He said all you need is a
desire to take that first step.

- I remember putting my knife out for

the first time and just shaking.

From where I came from with
absolutely no background in art,

not knowing anything about
brushes, paints, canvases,

I didn't know anything
and I actually sat down in

front of the canvas and did something.

I was amazed that what I could do.

- It's brought painting
to the, or the ability

to create something to the average person,

and you know they know they're never

gonna be a famous artist, I
think, maybe they will be.

But when they sit down they just

get into their own world and
it's a nice place to get.

- [Narrator] Bob nurtured
the confidence of his

viewers and for many people painting

gives them a feeling of accomplishment

and that's part of the joy
that Bob was trying to spread.

- There is joy in that in painting

and creating something
and being proud of it,

and you can see the
looks on people's faces

when they're proud of their painting.

It's like they just can't
believe they did that.

- You feel so important
when you're doing that.

You know when you're putting
that paint on that canvas,

you are doing something
that up until that moment

was in a couple of tubes and
a blank canvas sitting there.

I mean it wasn't doing
anything for anyone,

and you're taking those same exact things

and with just a little bit of energy

you've taken this and
made it into a creative

and a wonderful thing.

- [Narrator] But the fact
that a first timer can

achieve immediate success
using the wet on wet technique

is part of the criticism.

Traditional artists chastise the method

as being overly simplistic.

And some say his landscapes use color

combinations not found
in the natural world.

- Most people think that art is something

that's very complicated that
you have to go to school

for a hundred years to learn,

and we try to teach them that

that you can do a very good painting

with very little instruction,

a lot of happiness,

and teach them how to create.

- People don't believe that
he had any real talent,

that he just put paint on a canvas.

In actuality, he does everything that

traditional artists do.

He just doesn't talk about it.

He just doesn't talk about it.

He doesn't say, he doesn't
use the word perspective,

he'll say make the color
light in the distance.

- I think the hardest
part with painting is

is knowing the balance you know,

where the foreground and the background

and not putting things in the middle

and of course when you watch what he does

as a professional, you realize that

he does all of that for you,

but he's not telling you
okay these are the rules,

you don't do this and you don't do that.

He just automatically does it.

- [Narrator] But Bob never
let the critics get to him,

because it was not his goal to
be regarded as a great artist

or even to teach others to be.

- You say out loud your work
will never hang in a museum.

Bob!

- Well maybe it will but
probably not this morning.

- Because why, Bob? What's the deal here?

What are you telling us?

- Well I'm trying to teach people

a form of art that anybody can do.

This is art for anyone who's ever

wanted to put a dream on canvas.

It's not something, it's
not traditional art,

it's not fine art, and I don't
try to tell anybody it is.

- [Narrator] His goal was to get people

to experience the joy of painting,

and he did that by removing
the fear of failure.

- [Walt] I think that's
probably the main ingredient

of Bob's technique, that he dismissed that

sort of fear of beginning.

- I think that you have
to believe in yourself

and you need the confidence
belief to carry on.

- I'd probably say he's done more for art

than anyone in the history of art.

He's got more people involved
just because of his nature

and he told them they
could do it and they can.

- [Narrator] Bob even
acknowledged those criticisms

in a spoof he did as an HBO
filler to run between movies.

Bob interrupts a formal art class

when he comes to paint the house.

When the class takes a break,

Bob gives it a try using his own tools.

With each series of The Joy of Painting

Bob's familiar image and soothing voice

filled more and more
homes across the country.

- I think our first series we managed

fifty stations around the country,

and probably for the
next two or three years

we didn't rise much beyond seventy five

of the public channels and then sort

of exponentially we went to 300.

- It's on almost every
station in the country still.

It's like 95% of stations
which is the highest

of any of the art programs.

- [Narrator] But most people
who watch The Joy of Painting

are just watching, the Bob Ross Company

estimates that only around
3% of the show's audience

actually paints along with him.

Millions and millions of people
watch him all over the world

and only a small
percentage actually paint.

They watch him because
they just enjoy him.

- I hear people to this day say you know I

watched that just so that
I can hear his voice.

- My method of viewing
Bob Ross was definitely

turn on the TV and watch and
listen and just be captivated.

I couldn't possibly lift
a brush while Bob Ross

was talking and working because

you just get so sucked
into what he's doing.

It was amazing because his subject

matter didn't vary too
much, but it never got old.

It never cease to amaze me.

- Every day I just come
home from school and I

like I really unwind
when I watch his show.

He's just like semi enchanting.

He really puts like a good
feeling into my heart.

It's fantastic.

- [Narrator] The secret to
Bob's success was Bob himself.

His warmth and gentleness were sincere

but once he got in front of the camera

he was well aware that his
personality was part of the show.

- His manner, he just seemed like

the happiest guy in the world.

I think that for me was

very powerful seeing
him and his happiness.

The things that he used to say

and the ways that he
would always talk about

the world and you can see
the way he saw the world.

- You just get swept off
into this magical world

where you're taken out
of the present moment

and you're taken into a fantasy reality,

and yes it's his but
it can become your own.

- [Bob] You can make up stories,

because this is your
world and in your world

you can have any fantasy that you want.

- [Narrator] Bob cultivated
a relationship with his

viewers by engaging them in
a one sided conversation.

- If you think about
what Joy of Painting was,

it's TV death, right?

It's a dude

speaking softly

and painting a picture,

but it's one of the
most beloved shows ever.

- The instinct when you go on television,

you see that red light go on,

you know it's (babbling),
entertain the people.

The worst thing could happen
to me was a moment of silence

and all of a sudden comes along Bob Ross.

Who's gonna put in a
white cloud here you know,

I remember thinking how'd
this guy get a show?

- [Narrator] And although Bob
was speaking slowly and calmly

he was painting rapidly.

- Bob Ross for as mild as he was

he painted like a bulldog.

I mean he really like
got in there was just,

I mean he worked that canvas,
he worked that painting,

he expected a lot out of
his materials and he got it.

- There's things you pick up watching him

like the way to do a pine
tree with the fan brush

where you just you know go
straight up, get the little

trunk and then you do little pieces

all the way down with the fan brush

and it's so fast and the
next thing you know he

takes a brush and he does a couple of

swirls with gray and black
and white and they're rocks.

It was like so quick what he was doing and

it's fascinating to watch.

- [Narrator] Bob had a passion for life.

- And of course he had a Corvette

and he loved that Corvette.

- [Narrator] And a passion for wildlife.

He was known for having small animals

or critters as he liked
to call them on his show.

- [Jim] This was not
something we were happy with

or encouraged but we allowed him to do it

because Bob was Bob.

- We had lots of creatures on the show,

and squirrels of course
became his trademark.

He really loved squirrels
and he had Peapod.

- That's the one that just became famous

and Peapod lived in his house
with him for about two years

and finally he said you know he really

needs to be out in the wild
and so he released him.

- [Narrator] Bob was committed to

rehabilitating injured
or orphaned animals,

and he would build
elaborate cages for them.

- Actually I lived a
couple blocks from him

and every now and then he'd say,

"Oh I made you a cage today."

And he would have made
me one of these enormous

wire cages and they were lifesavers.

They helped me so much.

- [Narrator] Bob rented
an apartment in Muncie,

near the television studio.

It had a lake right out the
backdoor filled with fish

and Bob would feed them every day.

- Well Bob had a heart attack
while we were in Muncie.

And he was bedridden for quite some time,

and he worried about those fish.

I stayed in Muncie with
him while he was sick.

So he said, "Annette, you have to go buy

"the bread and feed the fish."

- [Narrator] But even when
he wasn't feeling well

Bob always tried to stay positive.

- He was always up, I
mean he was a person that

and I know he had bad days,

he used to have terrible headaches,

and I know that he'd have bad days but

you would not know it if
you didn't know Bob Ross.

- [Narrator] He rose to stardom

on the wings of public television

and he wanted to give back to the

system that had given him so much.

- Most of these paintings are donated

to PBS stations across the country.

They auction them often,

they make a happy buck for them.

So if you'd like to have one you know

get touch with your PBS station.

You know NBC or ABC gets
a thousand phone calls

about a program and they say
oh okay, we'll note that.

PBS gets a half a dozen
phone calls from you

with a pledge especially they
shut down and have a party.

(laughter)

- I'll never forget at an
auction one time we were,

he was painting a painting
live and we sold it

and the person that bought it said,

"I'm coming in will you wait
for me so I can meet you?"

And the woman walked in with her walker

about 11:30 at night and had driven

for about an hour to get here,

and she started crying,

and she said, "I don't have
too many good days anymore,

"but when I watch your show
it's the best part of that day.

"I just want to thank you for that,

"that's why I had to have your painting."

And Bob thanked her and gave her a hug

and he said, "That's why I do this."

- [Narrator] But at this point the

main source of income for Bob's business

came from teaching painting classes

and selling instruction books,

and then a happy accident.

The Alexander Company called and said

they couldn't produce enough paint to

keep up with the growing demand and

suggested that Bob start
his own line of products.

- [Annette] Bob also took that opportunity

to refine the product that
Alexander had been using.

- He reduced the size of
the largest brush that

Alexander was using, from
two and a half inches down

to two inches, and he adjusted
the formula of the paint.

- Bob was very adamant
about what he wanted.

He was kind of a perfectionist,

because he knew the system
that he developed would

work for a beginner if it
was formulated a certain way.

- More than the colors being specific,

is the consistency of the paint.

It's very specific to the technique.

They're very very firm.

- [Narrator] Here's what it takes to make

the Bob Ross landscape oil colors.

- You measure, you put
it in, you let it mix,

and then thicker products
go over a three roll mill,

then the lab chemist
comes and does a job on it

and then if he approves it then it goes

through to filling equipment.

- [Narrator] Each tube of paint was

printed with Bob's smiling face.

As his products hit commercial
shelves so did his image

establishing his brand in
the commercial art world.

Now Bob could focus on
growing his business

and that meant training
some instructors to go out

and teach the method and the
message of The Joy of Painting.

As the demand for more television episodes

plus more painting classes,
both steadily increased

Bob began to realize that he wouldn't have

enough time to devote to both.

In 1987 he created the first
team of Bob Ross instructors.

These students would go out
and teach in Bob's place.

- One of the things that
we're trying to do is we

travel around and teach
this almighty method

is we're trying to gather
up an army of teachers

and soon we'll have teachers that travel

this entire beautiful
country teaching this

fantastic method of painting.

- [Narrator] Seminars and
demonstrations gave way

to guest appearances in big cities.

When he released his first
hardcover book in 1989,

Bob hit the talk-show circuit.

- My next guest has
been creating his magic

for the past 10 years on his own show,

The Joy of Painting which
I watch all the time.

He is the author of several
books on the subject,

his latest is called The
Best of The Joy of Painting.

Please welcome America's favorite
art instructor, Bob Ross.

(crowd cheering)

Nice to have you on.

- Thank you, very very much.

- Why are you so popular?

Most people can't paint, yet
I find myself fascinated.

I sit and watch you paint.

- I think it's because that magic really

does happen in 30 minutes and

there's no editing to these shows.

What happens really happens.

- What is the easiest thing to paint,

if somebody wants to start out,

somebody in the audience or me,

what would be the first thing
you would say to somebody?

- Probably just a little landscape because

nobody knows if a tree is incorrect.

If you put three eyes on
there either you're Picasso

or something's wrong.

- [Joan] Show me, show me.

- You know it's very funny you think

that Bob would pull up
in some big limousine

and he would jump out and the paparazzi

would be clipping and clip, clip, clip,

but in fact we were like dragging easels

and we were just a bunch of country folk

just in the big city.

- [Narrator] He was also invited to be a

celebrity guest at the Grand Old Opry.

Bob was a big fan of country music

and his friend Hank Snow
brought him up on stage.

- And when they introduced
him the crowd just went nuts.

And he went up there and
he was a little nervous

at first and cracked a
joke and everybody laughed

and they cheered and he was on his way

and they had a great interview.

It was just a really cool
thing to walk in there

and have all these country music stars

come up the Bob and say
oh you're my favorite,

I watch you all the
time, I paint with you.

- Annette Kowalski and
I had a private class

for one of country western's
living legends Mr. Hanks Snow.

- I've learned more in
the last couple of days

that I could learn in a year really.

- [Bob] Well thank you.

You're doing almighty things there.

- [Narrator] By the early
90s nearly 300 episodes

of The Joy of Painting were on the air

in the US and then Canada.

Soon translation started
cropping up in Mexico,

Costa Rica, Colombia, the United Kingdom,

the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland,

Austria, Turkey, Iran,
South Korea, and Japan.

- It was on in Japan they said no take

the soundtrack back up
we've got to hear his voice.

I think his sincerity came across even

if you didn't understand the words.

- [Narrator] By now
Bob was arguably one of

the biggest stars in the
history of Public Television

and host of the most popular
art show of all time.

- It's just wow.

This guy has got it and that's

kind of what it was,

but he didn't let it go
to his head, not at all.

- I mean you would never know

that he had this program that clearly had

the attention nationally
of people because he was

just kind of under the radar.

- [Narrator] When his second
hardcover book came out

Bob was once again called
up to the networks.

- Bob was looking at us and
he's painting a mountain.

I don't know.

- Because he's famous for his landscapes.

He says millions of people harbor a

desire to paint and I think he's right.

Wouldn't you love to be able to?

- Well you know we've talked about this

before I frankly have
no, there's his book,

I have no...

- Artistic talent at all?

- Absolutely not.

None.

- Tell you what if I can get
you to pick up your palettes,

we have a palette
prepared for each of them.

- That's this part, Reg.

- And just sort of put your thumb

right through the hole
there, there you go.

Hold it like, oh you look good.

- Okay.

- [Bob] This is the fun part of all this.

We're just gonna paint
a happy tree right here.

- [Regis] Oh look, what I'm doing here.

I'm painting.

(audience cheers)

- [Narrator] Bob rose to the status of

pop culture icon with a series
of promotional spots for MTV.

- I do love to paint trees,

you can make it wiggly.

That's how I always do it.

MTV, it's all just fluffy white clouds.

- [Narrator] And a tongue in cheek

commercial for hair care products.

- Subtle color.

- A little bit of color.

- There's no ammonia or peroxide.

Even conditions your hair.

- You know people have done spoofs

on Saturday Night Live, they've
done all sorts of things

and you know what can I say
if you reach that stature,

it means something in
life, whether you actually

like what they're doing or not,

the point is that they know who you are,

and he certainly had made a reputation

of being a visible icon.

- [Narrator] But Bob learned
just how popular he was

while demonstrating his products on QVC.

When he got off the air a
producer walked up to Bob

and handed him a phone.

He said, "Bob I got somebody on the phone

"who wants to talk to you,"

and Bob said, "Who's that?"

He said, "Marlon Brando's on the

"phone and wants to talk to you."

Bob, who was very humble, he
was like, his jaw dropped.

He just like, Marlon
Brando wants to talk to me?

It was phenomenal.

That's the kind of magnet Bob was.

- [Narrator] Although his
career was at its pinnacle

his personal life was
starting to come apart.

In 1992, he lost his wife Jane to cancer.

And his own health was
starting to fail as well.

He was fighting his
second bout of lymphoma.

He'd had surgery for
the original diagnosis

long before The Joy of Painting started,

and had been in remission for years,

all of which was kept secret
except to his closest friends.

- He really got tired easily and that

probably was a precursor
to what was coming.

- [Narrator] But when Bob
knew he was losing the fight,

he began making plans to
carry on The Joy of Painting.

- We had a couple of years warning

that we were going to lose Bob.

He worried that when he was
gone the landscapes would go too

and so he said, "Annette,
I think you need to go

"public with the florals
that you're painting."

- You know over the
years I've got literally

hundreds of letters from people saying

teach us how to paint florals.

Well, I'm not really a floral painter,

I'm really a tree and
mountain type person,

so I've asked a very dear
friend to come in today

and help us with a little floral painting.

I'd like to introduce you to my partner

and longtime friend Annette Kowalski.

Annette welcome to the show.

- Thanks, Bob.

- [Narrator] Around that same time

they opened the Bob Ross workshop

in New Smyrna Beach Florida to train the

army of new instructors
to carry on Bob's legacy.

- It's viral.

You teach five people
to do it and they go out

and they teach ten people to do it

and then they teach 20 people to do it

and it just keeps rolling.

- That's what he wanted to happen is that

everybody would still pass
that joy on to the next person.

- [Narrator] Then in 1994 about a year

before he died, Bob was invited to

be a guest on the Phil Donahue Show.

- I recall thinking,

you know when people watch
the Donahue Show, you know,

we hope we're interesting
and then you know

people will watch it and enjoy it.

When they watch Bob Ross

they went like this.

You were mesmerized by what he was doing.

I remember just leaning forward
towards the television set.

I couldn't get over this guy.

I was crazy about the guy so,

what do you do when you're impressed

you invite him on your
show which is what I did.

You know you don't necessarily
jump out of a cake,

I mean you never were that kind of guy,

put a lampshade on your head.

- No.

- You know you are so cool,

you are so calm, you are yourself

and you put together some of the most

beautiful work I've ever seen.

Look at the light shining
in, I mean this is wonderful

and so who's stupid to put his

painting up after Bob Ross, the pro.

All right, here I am,

I'm about to embarrass the
whole Donahue family here.

All right?

This is what you can do
if you apply yourself

and have more talent than I do.

There you go.

(audience applauds)

The audience was just totally into this

and you know when you're
29 years on the air

with an audience every day,

you get pretty good at reading audiences

and this audience at the
time that he did our show

was totally wrapped.

Sir, you wanted to ask.

- [Man] Oh, my mom
watches him all the time.

- [Donahue] Yeah.

- I go over there's she's
always watching this guy paint,

and she says he looks so good

I wonder how they look in person

and they look terrific, mom,
in person, they look great.

- [Donahue] Bob, thank you.

- [Narrator] By the end
of 94 Bob became too weak

to continue to travel to Indiana
from his home in Florida.

- It was pretty clear as he started

dealing with those issues that doing

four or five shows in a
matter of three or four hours

was just getting be too much,

and that's when we really just

started saying we need to stop.

- The the worst part of
all for him was his hair,

he was so upset because
his hair, you know,

he did go through a certain
amount of radiation and chemo

and his hair was falling out.

Of course he had a wig
at the end there but,

you know, he had an image to keep

and that was very important to him.

- [Narrator] He had produced over

400 episodes of The Joy of Painting.

The last series was number 31.

- Bob was unable to complete series 32.

I think he prepared ten or
twelve of the paintings,

and then he couldn't paint anymore and so

we were never able to film
or tape those programs

but we do still have the paintings.

- [Narrator] After he stopped
recording The Joy of Painting,

Bob went home to Florida

and remained very private
in his final months.

Bob's life had always been about sharing

the joy of painting with others.

And even as his life was coming to an end,

he wanted to find a way
to share his love of

painting and wildlife with children,

and so he teamed up
with a crew from Muncie

to produce a children's program called

The Adventures of Elmer and friends,

but he was too ill to travel
to Indiana to shoot the pilot.

So the crew came to Florida and

recorded Bob's parts from his home.

- I'll bet the trees and animals knew all

about old Walters treasure like it says.

- But how does that help us?

- I think you should talk to a tree.

- Talk to a tree?

We don't know any trees.

- Oh yes we do. How about
the happy little tree?

- The happy little tree?

You mean the one Bob always paints?

- Yeah that's a great idea,

we can ask him about the diamonds.

- But where is he?

- He's in your imagination but there might

be a picture of him in this book.

- It was really heartbreaking
when we walked in

and saw Bob because we
hadn't seen Bob in so long.

He lost a lot of weight,
he'd lost a lot of hair.

Just not the Bob Ross that we knew

and God bless Bob he had the spirit

and he had the willingness to do it,

whether or not he had the
energy was irrelevant.

- [Narrator] In the end Bob was only able

to participate in the pilot episode.

On July 4th 1995, Bob
Ross died of lymphoma.

He was 52 years old.

- He really touched a lot of people and

made a difference in their lives

and I think the painting made a difference

but what he said made a difference.

I think we're all looking
for hope in life, even today

and will always be and I
think he was selling hope

as much as he was selling painting.

- He was just a wonderful wonderful man

and we were so lucky to have him come

and spend the time that he did with us.

He was our friend.

He was our best friend.

- [Narrator] Bob's legacy lives on

through the thousands of
instructors who teach his method.

- When I'm painting I feel like

he's there with me, guiding me.

It's so funny, it's an emotional thing.

I can't describe how emotional painting

can be for people and for me.

- We continue to certify teachers at

the same rate as when he was alive.

There's probably 2,000 of them now

and they're all over the world.

- [Narrator] And Bob himself
still lives on through his

TV series The Best of The Joy of Painting.

Blue Ridge PBS in Roanoke, Virginia

presents the program to America's
public television stations

where more than 90% of the country

can still watch bob paint
happy little trees each week.

- Who knew that like
30 some odd years later

the shows are still running on TV.

That's just fantastic.

- There was a lot of pressure
on us right after we lost Bob

to replace him with another
painter and we talked about it.

I think the smartest decision we ever made

was not to replace Bob with anybody else.

He just will live forever.

- This is 28 years later
now and I can tell you

the phone calls that we get today

are identical to the calls
we were getting 28 years ago,

this is a new generation of viewers now.

I don't think a lot of people

understand the age range
and the lives he's touched.

College students, young kids, old,

middle of the road, it's incredible,

but yet the one thing is that man's legacy

does not go away, nor should it.

What he's given many people
have imitated, never duplicated,

but what a ride it was.

- I miss him and I'm sure his
millions of fans do as well.

- Until next time, on behalf
of all the personnel here,

my partner's Walt and Annette Kowalski,

I'd like to wish you happy painting.

God bless my friend.

(easy bright music)

- The thing I love the
most about it is he'll go,

and then we'll put a little tree in here,

dip dip dip do do,
maybe it needs a friend,

and maybe another friend.

I just love that.

- And you'd see like there'd
be a part of the canvas

that's done and he would be
like oh I'm gonna put this here.

All of a sudden there's a cottage.

Where'd that come from?

- I don't know if I agree with Bob on that

that anyone can paint.

I think anyone can do
it anyone can enjoy it,

so in that sense everybody should.

I've seen some paintings
that shouldn't have happened.

(bright upbeat music)