Elliott Morgan: Hi, I'm Elliott Morgan and welcome to the salon. This is Mental Floss video and did you know Bob Ross estimated that he made over 30,000 paintings in his life? That's a lot of paintings and that's the first of many facts about PBS Star Bob Ross I'm going to share with you today.

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[0:20] Elliott: Though he was an expert in a very hands-on field, Bob Ross is actually missing part of his left index finger. When he was young he cut it in a woodworking accident while working with his father who was a carpenter. Ross was actually in the US Air Force for a while. He enlisted when he was just 18 years old and eventually became a master sergeant. After he left the Air Force, Ross vowed to never yell again. In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel he explained, "I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work. The job requires you to be a mean, tough person and I was fed up with it. I promised myself that if I ever got away from it, it wasn't going to be that way any more." But back to his painting career, he was actually inspired by another painter named Bill Alexander. While he was a bartender Ross discovered Alexander's PBS painting show. Eventually Alexander became his mentor. He actually taught Ross the wet on wet oil painting method. The two ended up feuding. Bob Ross often gave his mentor credit but Bill Alexander got huffy about Ross' success. He once told the New York Times, "He betrayed me. I invented 'wet on wet.' I trained him and he is copying me." (sharp inhale) Oo...Awkward. But actually Bob got his PBS show thanks to a businesswoman named Annette Kowalski. She was a fan of Bill Alexander's show so she signed up to take a painting class with Alexander's mentee, a young Bob Ross. She saw how mesmerized people were by him so she helped produce his show and get it on PBS. The show, of course, was called The Joy of Painting and it ran for almost a decade, from 1983 through 1994. There were 31 seasons and 403 episodes total. Bob Ross didn't get paid to do the show. He used it as publicity for his other sources of income like how-to books, classes, and art supplies. It didn't take up that much of his time either. The seasons were 13 episodes long and he was able to film a season in quick succession over the course of about 2 days. Sounds familiar. He might be best known for the
"happy little trees" that he added to paintings. In 2014 writer Walt Hickey did a statistical analysis of all the paintings in The Joy of Painting. He found that 91% of Ross's paintings contained a tree. The paintings were often inspired by the time that Ross spent living in Alaska. He was stationed there while he was in the Air Force, and Annette Kowalski once said that he was pretty much only interested in painting Alaskan scenery. He was also inspired by pictures. One reporter visited Bob Ross' home and noted the postcards and pictures and calendars taking up the floor of the basement. Why did he like painting? According to Bob himself, quote, "In painting, you have unlimited power. You have the ability to move mountains. You can bend rivers. But when I get home, the only thing I have power, over is the garbage." Bob. One way he exercised that power by removing people from all of his paintings. Annette Kowalski has noted that Ross' paintings very rarely contain humans. He even refrained from putting chimneys on the cabins in his pieces. He did that because chimneys were man-made and represented people. Or maybe it was just a good way to save time. Each episode of the show required Ross to make three practically identical versions of the same painting: the first one was a guide, the second one was on camera, then he'd paint a third one alongside a photographer for his how-to books. But he didn't sell any of his paintings, you guys. Most of Ross's art was donated to PBS stations for fundraisers it's a cool move, Ross... Bob. Though a few did get stolen. 13 were taken from Bob Ross' van during the second season of the show. They got sold on the black market, which is mostly made up of Bob Ross paintings. Obviously his show was very popular but it turns out only around 10% of its audience was actually painting along with Bob Ross and his instructions. Most people just loved listening to him. He knew it too. In 2001 the New York Times interviewed Joan Kowalski, Annette's daughter who was the media director for Bob Ross Incorporated. She said, "It's funny to talk to these people because they think they're the only ones who watch to take a nap. Bob knew about this. People would come up to him and say, 'I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you've been putting me to sleep for 10 years.' He'd love it." People often see Bob Ross is a mysterious figure but he once said, "I never turn down requests for interviews. I'm just rarely asked." Kind of makes me sad. Another sad Bob fact, he didn't like his afro. He originally styled it that way because he didn't want to waste time or money on haircuts so he permed his hair. Eventually his picture went on all his craft supply products so he knew the hair had become his trademark and he couldn't change it. Sucks when you get trapped by your brand, you guys. In the early 1990s he planned to create a children's show called Bob's World which the New York Times described as a wilderness version of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It would have involved him talking to various animals like squirrel[s], deer, and fox. Unfortunately it never happened. Another thing we never got to see is Bob Ross on the Oprah Winfrey Show. There's a rumor that he was invited to be on but he wanted to paint rather than be interviewed. The show's more interested in the fact that Ross didn't live with his wife/ business partner, Jane. One thing he did get on television, promos for MTV which aired during the 1990s. In them his famous landscape paintings turned into the MTV logo. In one commercial he said MTV, the land of happy little trees. In April of 2006, a developer announced that they were working on a series of Bob Ross video games for Nintendo. Many people actually speculated that it was an April Fool's joke but it turned out, it wasn't. Unfortunately the games were canceled. Can we please start a Twitter campaign to make this happen. Okay #Bob-Ross video game for (psp) Nintendo. Thank you. The Joy of Painting aired in a bunch of countries including Japan where he was extremely popular. He once visited the country and got mobbed by rabid fans of his show. Not everyone was like that though. His art did inspire some criticism from a few artists. Some of his critics were quoted in the New York Times. In 1991 they called his art, quote, "terrible Pizzeria art and formulaic and thoughtless." Man ,critics are harsh, you guys. But that doesn't stop people from becoming certified Bob Ross painting instructors. That's right. About 3,500 people are trained to teach the Bob Ross Tech technique to students around the world. Finally I return to the
salon to tell you that Bob Ross has a YouTube channel. Yes, I'm telling you this at the end of the video because I know you're all about to click away and fall asleep to Bob's voice. Bob Ross Incorporated has uploaded a bunch of full episodes of The Joy of Painting. Link in the video description. Thanks for watching Mental Floss video which is made with the help of all these happy little trees. Tell me your favorite thing about Bob Ross in the comment[s] and don't forget to be awesome.

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