- 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)
Founding father of ASMR
Bob Ross liked fast cars? Imagine him as a top gear host.
ahhhhh :)
Uhhhh you mean he didn’t naturally have an Afro? My life is a lie.