﻿WEBVTT

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..:: Presented By ZarFilm Website ::..
.::  www.bolboljan.net ::.

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<i>Bob Ross is used to painting
a landscape in 26 minutes,</i>

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<i>slightly less than
the length of an episode</i>

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<i>in his popular television series.</i>

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<i>The series is </i>The Joy of Painting<i>.</i>

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<i>Hello, I'm Bob Ross.</i>

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If this is your first time with us,

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then let me extend a personal invitation
for you to get brushes and paint along

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and spend a relaxing half hour
enjoying some of nature's masterpieces.

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I think each of us,
sometime during our life,

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has wanted to paint a picture.

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I think there's an artist hidden
in the bottom of every single one of us.

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Here, we will try to show you
how to bring that artist out.

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When you paint like this
for any length of time,

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you begin seeing things in your painting.

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When you see these things,
take advantage of 'em.

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Take advantage of 'em, use 'em.
They're like... they're like gifts.

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Use 'em.

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That's why I paint.

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It's because I can create
the kind of world that I want,

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and I can make this world
as happy as I want it.

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Shoot, if you want bad stuff,
watch the news.

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Who's this?

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- Bob Ross!
- This is Bob Ross!

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This is the most famous painter
in the history of the universe.

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Here's the man who does so much magic
in one half hour on PBS every week.

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Bob Ross painted this.

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Is that fabulous?

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Yeah.

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I'd like to introduce you today
to my son, Steve.

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- Steve, glad to have you with us.
- Well, thanks, Dad.

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I've been wantin' to get
this story out for all of these years.

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Yeah, long time.

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There have been some hard days
in the past, no doubt about that.

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I tell you, the best
mountain painter in this technique

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is probably my son, Steve.

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Boy, that rascal. Whew.

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He can paint some mountains.

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Maybe we'll get him on here
before the series is over.

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Of course, he never could tell anybody...
anything about it.

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He was always...

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pretty quiet... about the whole thing.

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It's gonna be difficult to get people
to do interviews for this film.

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There's no doubt in my mind.

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What they did was shameful.

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And people should know that.

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They should know.

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On this canvas,
I have absolute and total power.

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I can always escape
to this piece of canvas

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and create any illusion that I want.

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<i>And now, here's Regis Philbin
and Kathie Lee Gifford.</i>

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Hi, everybody.

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Hi, Reeg.

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Hi, everybody. Nice to see ya.
Tuesday, December 3rd, 1991.

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I'm just looking over here
at, uh, Bob Ross.

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I thought, for a minute,
Bob was gonna do our portrait.

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Bob is looking at us,
and he's painting a mountain. I dunno...

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He does... He's famous
for his landscapes, mostly, Reeg.

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- Bob, do you do portraits?
- Not very well.

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I... I do mostly trees and bushes.

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Yeah, you do a great bush and tree.

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Just out of memory, huh, Bob?

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Yeah, I lived in Alaska about 12 years,
so a lot of my scenes come out of Alaska.

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Whew.

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How you feelin'?

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Uh... tired.

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Yeah, this all happened so long ago.

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Really havin' to pry
the memories outta my head.

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My father started out

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painting the old metal
gold miners' pans with my mother.

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When we met, he loved to paint.

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He would paint sometimes
till two in the morning,

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and he had to be at work at eight.

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Bob was in the Air Force.

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He got orders for Alaska.

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We got married.

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And then, a few months later,

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I got pregnant with Steve.

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Bob loved the forest,
the animals, the trees.

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I mean, he <i>loved</i> it.

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<i>I look at a lot of nature.</i>

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<i>And if painting teaches you nothing else,</i>

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<i>it'll teach you to look at nature
with different eyes.</i>

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Bob believed in
doing something worthwhile,

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something he enjoyed.

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The biggest thing was his painting.

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What is he doing now?
He's starting a new painting?

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He's gonna finish it...

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Within 30 minutes,
he'll finish a painting.

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Is that the background?
You do background first?

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Yeah, we're gonna use
this tiny two-inch brush

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- to put in a happy little background.
- Yeah.

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He's a happy guy,
that Bob, isn't he?

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I'll show you how to fix it.

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Just a happy guy. Hey, Bob.

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We'll give you double scale
if you let us cut your hair in February.

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The world is wondering if that's a perm.

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- No? That's natural?
- Well, you gonna tell my secret?

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A lot of people spend
an awful lot to get hair like that, and...

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God gave that to you, right?

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Well, God and my hairdresser did.

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He was always a hair guy.

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He loved messing around
with different hairstyles,

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as we can all see
with his Afro on television.

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The Afro was not real.

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It was... a perm... a perm,
and Bob liked to call that

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"having his springs tightened"
every few months.

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And, of course, I remember him painting.

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Every day, I would just have
my jaw dropping open, you know,

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looking at these beautiful works of art
that just came outta nowhere.

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Hi. Um... Do you wanna...
Let's... let's start in the back.

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- Yeah, sure.
- We'll walk to the back.

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Uh, show us the... old studio.

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We'll go see where the joy <i>really</i> began.

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Let's check it out.

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My first meeting of Bob
was 42 years ago.

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He decided
to take a painting class from me.

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For the first assignment,

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I just asked them to paint a picture
of the thing that you love most.

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Instantly, I knew
he was an accomplished painter.

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So, one thing
that I definitely don't want to do

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is... put forth the idea
that I was Bob's teacher.

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Many of the class
would lay down their brushes

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and come over to see what Bob was doing.

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And you know, he loved an audience.

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Always did.

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My dad started off
with traditional-style painting,

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but he got tired of that.

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My father was the type of man that,
he would be on one project,

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and in his mind,

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he would be
halfway through the next project

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at the same time.

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He had so many different plans

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that those are the things
he filled his head with,

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rather than... uh, anything
that was happening at the current time.

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My parents,
they had a pretty shaky relationship.

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Eventually divorced.

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We were livin'
in Spokane, Washington, at that time.

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Then he met Jane Zanardelli.

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She had been base commander's secretary

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on Air Force bases we lived on.

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She was just head over heels
for my father.

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And he absolutely loved her to death.

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But my father was always thinking
about the next painting.

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Hooray! That's what we have to do.

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I have to put myself
in that almighty bubble.

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Bob saw a video
done by William Alexander,

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and he was very taken with
what William was doing.

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<i>It almost made me angry
the first time I saw Alexander on TV,</i>

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<i>that he could do in a matter of minutes
what took me days to do.</i>

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It got to be fast.
Don't fiddle around for hours.

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Too many details there.

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People what don't paint,

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they would think that guy
works a whole year on that painting.

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An oil painting can take days,
months, even years to paint.

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Bill Alexander accelerates everything
with this wet-on-wet technique.

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First, I put my almighty Magic White on.

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He'll usually pre-prime a canvas
with gesso, white, gray, or black.

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Touch of Prussian blue.

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See? Not too much paint.

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And then he's putting oil paint
on top of that.

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The proper name for it is
"alla prima," the first attempt.

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It allows for certain things
that you cannot achieve with dry paint.

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In the mid-15th century,

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it was used for hair

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and certain fabrics,

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just to give the effect
of textures and movement.

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The most famous instance,
perhaps, of alla prima is Impressionism.

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So, alla prima is
a very, very, very old invention.

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Bob said,
"I really would like to meet this man."

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He'd pretty much
had enough of military life.

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He just wanted to paint.

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I knew a woman
that would invite William Alexander

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down to her studio for a workshop.

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Bob and William hit it off nicely.

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I saw Alexander on television,

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and like millions of other people,
I fell in love with him.

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And it took me about a year to find him.

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I studied with Bill,
and when I retired from the military,

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they offered me a position
with Magic Art Company

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as a traveling art instructor.

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He was teaching classes
up and down the East Coast,

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selling paint
and selling canvases and brushes,

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which were always a big part
of these programs.

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I met Bob Ross at the Muncie Mall in 1982,

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and he was in there
doin' a painting demonstration.

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I was fascinated by him
'cause I already painted.

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We had so much in common
that... we just became friends.

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There was a white-haired lady
there with him.

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She was there to help sell paintings.

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Later, I found out
that that was Annette Kowalski.

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I'd like to introduce you to my partner
and longtime friend, Annette Kowalski.

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- Annette, welcome to the show.
- Thanks, Bob.

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My father met the Kowalskis
through Annette,

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who came to take a painting class
from Bill Alexander.

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Annette had already been a good artist.

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There was no classes available from him,

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but she found out
there was a protégé of Bill Alexander

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named Bob Ross.

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She was... looking for something,

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and, uh, she found it in... in Bob Ross.

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And it wasn't just the painting.
It was something bigger than that.

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She felt renewed, inspired by Bob.

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I had lost a son,
and I was desperately grieving.

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I was so devastated,

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all I could do was lay on the couch
and watch television.

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She was changed forever,
I think, by the death of her son.

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Annette needed something
to work her out of her depression.

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I called Bob, and I said,
"I don't know what you've got,

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but I think
we ought to bottle it and sell it."

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She took him back home
to Walt and said,

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"Hey, you know, this guy's magical."

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"We should try to do some kind
of business with this guy."

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I don't think Bob really understood
what the future held for him at that time.

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He was just not into it for the money.

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But the Kowalskis certainly were.

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The Kowalskis encouraged Bob
to go out on his own

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and that they were willing to invest
in his own enterprise,

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that, in many ways, were modeled
on what he was doing with Bill Alexander,

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teaching workshops.

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They gave him his new career.

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His new life, really.

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That was
before anybody even knew Bob Ross.

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They'd say, "Who's Bob Ross?"

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One day, he said,
"Do you want to go to Chicago with me?"

00:14:48.470 --> 00:14:51.181
"I think I'm gonna have a big class
and I need help."

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We get to Chicago.
Guess how many people shows up.

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To save money
and to keep the business all in one place,

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and everybody there to work,
we moved in with the Kowalskis

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for, I don't know,
a year and a half, two years.

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Which was, uh... very interesting.

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Walt and Jane,
they handled all the administrative work.

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It's two married couples,

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but one husband workin'
with the other wife,

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and then, you know, vice versa.

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We got to know them more and more.

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If there was something
to be said within the family,

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they would go to a separate room

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and do their talking
outside of the ears of other people.

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Walter, at that time,
had just retired from the CIA.

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Like a lot of people
who retire from the government,

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he would use
previous government connections

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and ties in order to have
success in business.

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The Kowalskis always
recorded their business phone calls

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with a suction cup
on the back of a telephone.

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Which I always thought was pretty weird.

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I just wonder sometimes
how things would've worked out

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if... if he had <i>not</i> hooked up
with Annette and Walter.

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That could've been better for him, and...
I don't know.

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It's... it's one of those
unanswered questions.

00:16:44.628 --> 00:16:46.964
<i>At the tone, please record your message.</i>

00:16:47.047 --> 00:16:49.299
<i>When you've finished recording,
you may hang up.</i>

00:16:49.383 --> 00:16:51.802
Yeah, this is Dana Jester,
returning your call.

00:16:51.885 --> 00:16:53.595
Just give me a call back later.

00:16:54.096 --> 00:16:55.514
Uh, thanks. Bye.

00:16:57.391 --> 00:17:01.311
A lot of people are backin' out
that agreed to do an interview for this

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because they're scared of the Kowalskis.

00:17:03.522 --> 00:17:05.941
The Kowalskis
are really known for suing people,

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so that's what they're afraid of.

00:17:16.035 --> 00:17:18.620
Okay. In five, four...

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I hand over that almighty brush
to our mighty man, Bob.

00:17:23.375 --> 00:17:24.585
Thank you very much, Bill.

00:17:24.668 --> 00:17:27.129
We've had so many cards
requesting classes in this area

00:17:27.212 --> 00:17:29.089
that we've decided to set one up here,

00:17:29.173 --> 00:17:31.508
and we will have a class going
in the near future.

00:17:31.592 --> 00:17:33.927
We'll produce some almighty painters.

00:17:34.511 --> 00:17:37.723
<i>My parents decided to do a little ad spot.</i>

00:17:37.806 --> 00:17:40.267
<i>And while Bob was painting,</i>

00:17:40.350 --> 00:17:42.978
<i>the station manager walked by,
and he said,</i>

00:17:43.062 --> 00:17:48.108
<i>"What that guy is doing is remarkable.
Let's do a series with him."</i>

00:17:49.651 --> 00:17:52.321
Knowing what Bill Alexander
was able to achieve

00:17:52.404 --> 00:17:53.530
through his broadcasts,

00:17:53.614 --> 00:17:56.158
the Kowalskis thought
that that could be a way

00:17:56.241 --> 00:17:58.911
to create a... a newer audience,

00:17:58.994 --> 00:18:03.582
which would, in turn,
drive people to the workshops.

00:18:04.083 --> 00:18:08.545
It was a very humble beginning,
one that was not economically sustainable,

00:18:08.629 --> 00:18:12.174
to one that became
very economically sustainable.

00:18:12.674 --> 00:18:15.594
We were in an old house,
and... and we filmed in a living room.

00:18:15.677 --> 00:18:19.431
That's the reason there's a black curtain,
Because we were covering up the fireplace.

00:18:19.515 --> 00:18:21.892
And the switcher, it was in the kitchen.

00:18:22.518 --> 00:18:26.855
We start with a vision in our heart,
and we put it on canvas,

00:18:26.939 --> 00:18:29.942
and we're here to teach you
to be able to do this too.

00:18:30.442 --> 00:18:33.487
So, let's do it.
Let's paint a picture, right here.

00:18:33.987 --> 00:18:36.490
He filmed three shows in one day,

00:18:37.074 --> 00:18:39.618
which was really a lot of work.

00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:42.204
Painting in 28 minutes

00:18:42.287 --> 00:18:46.208
and finishing an entire landscape
was hard enough,

00:18:46.291 --> 00:18:48.168
but that was just the beginning.

00:18:48.252 --> 00:18:51.296
It was all the,
"Turn the palette this direction,"

00:18:51.380 --> 00:18:53.549
or "You've only got this much time left,"

00:18:53.632 --> 00:18:57.761
or "Whoops. The example painting fell
off the easel right in the middle of it."

00:18:57.845 --> 00:18:59.721
"I don't know what to do. It's facedown."

00:18:59.805 --> 00:19:01.390
And, "Where do I go from here?"

00:19:01.473 --> 00:19:05.060
This is your creation. You can do
anything here that you wanna do.

00:19:05.144 --> 00:19:06.770
But he got better at it.

00:19:07.271 --> 00:19:09.857
You gettin' excited yet?
Are you ready to paint with us?

00:19:10.524 --> 00:19:11.650
You can do it.

00:19:17.322 --> 00:19:19.283
I don't even remember it
from this angle.

00:19:19.366 --> 00:19:20.909
It's been so many years.

00:19:21.493 --> 00:19:25.497
This might be the very first place
they filmed, and, uh, the place I was at

00:19:25.581 --> 00:19:27.833
looked a little bit different
than this one though.

00:19:27.916 --> 00:19:28.750
Oh, lookie there.

00:19:28.834 --> 00:19:32.254
Yep. They got all kinds
of Bob Ross stuff right here.

00:19:33.463 --> 00:19:35.299
This was the studio space.

00:19:35.382 --> 00:19:37.759
So, we want to invite people
to come in and celebrate Bob.

00:19:37.843 --> 00:19:38.677
Mm-hmm.

00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:41.013
Um, so, over here,
we've got our X on the floor

00:19:41.096 --> 00:19:43.056
where we're pretty sure the easel was.

00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:46.185
Uh, we know it moved back and forth
different times throughout the room.

00:19:46.268 --> 00:19:49.438
People continually say,
"I can't draw a straight line."

00:19:49.521 --> 00:19:52.191
"I don't have the talent,
Bob, to do what you're doing."

00:19:52.691 --> 00:19:53.691
That's baloney.

00:19:54.193 --> 00:19:56.153
Talent is a pursued interest.

00:19:56.904 --> 00:20:00.490
In other words, anything
you're willing to practice, you can do.

00:20:00.991 --> 00:20:02.451
And this is no exception.

00:20:03.118 --> 00:20:06.079
By the second series,
he got rid of the glasses,

00:20:06.163 --> 00:20:08.749
and he was pretty darn confident

00:20:09.249 --> 00:20:12.586
that it was gonna go
maybe even better than he thought.

00:20:13.962 --> 00:20:16.381
I worked on <i>Joy of Painting</i>
from the start.

00:20:16.465 --> 00:20:18.884
I thought,
"Wow. This is gonna be so much fun,"

00:20:18.967 --> 00:20:21.762
'cause that was my favorite thing
in... in production, directing.

00:20:21.845 --> 00:20:23.388
I like tellin' people what to do.

00:20:24.890 --> 00:20:27.517
At first,
he'd have a painting off to the side,

00:20:27.601 --> 00:20:30.187
so we kinda knew
what it was gonna look like.

00:20:32.189 --> 00:20:35.400
But eventually, he kinda just did away
with that and had it in his head.

00:20:35.484 --> 00:20:37.736
We got a minute or so left here.

00:20:37.819 --> 00:20:40.447
But every time
I gave him a two-minute cue,

00:20:40.530 --> 00:20:42.950
"Oh, it's time for a big ol' tree!"

00:20:43.033 --> 00:20:45.160
And I tell you, from the very last taping,

00:20:45.244 --> 00:20:49.581
I <i>always</i> got nervous
'cause I wasn't sure if he'd get her done.

00:20:50.165 --> 00:20:52.793
Okay, you ready?
This is your bravery test, big-time.

00:20:53.293 --> 00:20:54.293
Right here.

00:20:54.336 --> 00:20:56.755
Pew.

00:20:56.838 --> 00:21:00.467
But that's what makes it fun.
Be brave. Take a chance.

00:21:00.968 --> 00:21:03.053
All right. Here's your bravery test.

00:21:06.139 --> 00:21:07.057
Pew.

00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:09.059
There ought to be a big tree
right here, though.

00:21:09.142 --> 00:21:12.062
And by putting this tree in,
it does two things.

00:21:12.145 --> 00:21:15.190
It drives my director crazy,
that's the first.

00:21:15.691 --> 00:21:17.776
But the second thing
is it pushes everything back.

00:21:17.859 --> 00:21:20.028
It gives much more perspective.

00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:22.197
It was like it was magic.

00:21:24.283 --> 00:21:26.785
With Bob Ross,
when something doesn't work out,

00:21:26.868 --> 00:21:29.621
for the most part,
he does what a good teacher would do.

00:21:30.455 --> 00:21:32.082
You take it in stride.

00:21:32.833 --> 00:21:35.043
Your next step is correction.

00:21:36.586 --> 00:21:38.338
Hi.
Glad you could join me today.

00:21:38.422 --> 00:21:40.590
You sorta caught me
piddlin' around here a little bit.

00:21:40.674 --> 00:21:44.219
I get so many cards and letters
from people all over the country saying,

00:21:44.303 --> 00:21:46.638
"Bob, what should I do
if I'm in the middle of a painting

00:21:46.722 --> 00:21:47.848
and decide I don't like it?"

00:21:47.931 --> 00:21:49.516
Over and over again, I say,

00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.269
"We don't make mistakes.
We have happy accidents."

00:21:53.854 --> 00:21:55.397
And he's overcome this notion

00:21:55.480 --> 00:21:58.108
that you have to have talent,
born with talent,

00:21:58.191 --> 00:21:59.985
blessed by the hand of God...

00:22:00.652 --> 00:22:03.155
uh, to be able to paint,
and it's absolutely false.

00:22:04.698 --> 00:22:07.743
He believed
that anybody can create things.

00:22:07.826 --> 00:22:10.704
You know, just recently
I was doing a demonstration in a mall,

00:22:10.787 --> 00:22:12.664
and I had a man come to me, and he said,

00:22:12.748 --> 00:22:15.834
"Bob, I could never paint,
because I'm colorblind."

00:22:15.917 --> 00:22:18.045
"All I can see is gray tones."

00:22:18.128 --> 00:22:22.382
I thought today we'd do a picture in gray
just to show you that anyone can paint.

00:22:23.425 --> 00:22:27.637
It really spoke to Bob's heart
that he was willing to do that.

00:22:28.472 --> 00:22:30.766
Didn't know
you had so much power, did you?

00:22:31.350 --> 00:22:33.185
You really can do this.

00:22:33.935 --> 00:22:37.189
Can move mountains, trees, mighty rivers.

00:22:37.773 --> 00:22:40.359
We're gonna start off
with a bit of the midnight black.

00:22:40.442 --> 00:22:43.070
Maybe in our world,
there's just a happy little cloud

00:22:43.153 --> 00:22:44.404
that lives up here.

00:22:44.488 --> 00:22:47.783
Shoot, when we were kids,
my brother Jim and I, we used to...

00:22:47.866 --> 00:22:50.786
we used to sorta lay on our back
out in the field and

00:22:50.869 --> 00:22:54.247
look up at clouds and see
all kinds of crazy shapes in 'em.

00:22:54.331 --> 00:22:56.958
I bet you've done that too,
whether you'll admit it or not.

00:22:57.793 --> 00:23:03.840
The Bob you see on TV
is pretty darn close to his real attitude

00:23:03.924 --> 00:23:07.719
about nature and about everything, really.

00:23:07.803 --> 00:23:10.889
Today I have a couple of guests
that I want to introduce you to.

00:23:11.014 --> 00:23:15.018
These are two little baby robins.
They're some of the cutest little rascals.

00:23:15.102 --> 00:23:17.479
Hey. Ooh, what you gonna do? Huh?

00:23:17.562 --> 00:23:19.481
He <i>loved</i> nature.

00:23:22.609 --> 00:23:25.821
He had a canoe and would go out on a lake.

00:23:26.947 --> 00:23:28.448
He would catch a few fish,

00:23:28.532 --> 00:23:31.118
but he would always throw the fish back.

00:23:31.201 --> 00:23:33.495
He wouldn't keep any of those fish.

00:23:36.123 --> 00:23:38.166
He used to say he hunted with a camera.

00:23:40.710 --> 00:23:42.921
This is Peapod.
Peapod the pocket squirrel.

00:23:43.004 --> 00:23:46.550
It fell out of a tree,
and a very nice lady brought him to me

00:23:46.633 --> 00:23:50.095
and asked me if I would take care of it
till he got big enough to release.

00:23:50.804 --> 00:23:53.056
You know,
if he saw an injured animal,

00:23:53.140 --> 00:23:55.642
he'd do whatever he could do to help.

00:23:56.184 --> 00:23:58.812
One thing I've noticed
as I travel across the country,

00:23:58.895 --> 00:24:01.189
doing demonstrations and teaching classes...

00:24:02.315 --> 00:24:04.025
only nice people paint.

00:24:04.818 --> 00:24:08.029
Everybody I've ever met that's a painter,
they're super people.

00:24:08.613 --> 00:24:11.783
After the show started,
every workshop was just blasted full.

00:24:13.660 --> 00:24:17.289
'Cause there were so many people
wanting to instruct, themselves.

00:24:17.873 --> 00:24:20.375
So, he decided to do the teacher training.

00:24:21.751 --> 00:24:24.296
I see most of you already have done it.

00:24:24.379 --> 00:24:27.090
Like, the real thin coat
of Liquid White on your canvas.

00:24:28.592 --> 00:24:31.511
You guys been watching Bob so much,
you already know all that.

00:24:32.721 --> 00:24:35.515
Today, it's my privilege,
as well as my pleasure,

00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:36.808
to present to you

00:24:36.892 --> 00:24:40.520
one of the finest teachers in the country,
as well as one of my closest friends.

00:24:40.604 --> 00:24:43.064
I'd like to present to you,
today, Mr. Dana Jester.

00:24:43.148 --> 00:24:44.566
Dana travels all over the country,

00:24:44.649 --> 00:24:46.485
and he teaches
literally thousands of people

00:24:46.568 --> 00:24:48.195
The Joy of Painting.

00:24:48.945 --> 00:24:50.322
We were the originate...

00:24:50.405 --> 00:24:52.725
- We were there from the very beginning.
- We were day one.

00:24:54.659 --> 00:24:58.914
My son Steve, boy, he...
he's a dynamite painter, and he just...

00:24:59.456 --> 00:25:02.042
He's so young,
and he gets so excited over this.

00:25:02.125 --> 00:25:06.296
It's nice to see young people
get excited over something like this.

00:25:06.379 --> 00:25:07.839
We send Steve all over the country,

00:25:07.923 --> 00:25:10.800
and he teaches hundreds of people
The Joy of Painting.

00:25:10.884 --> 00:25:13.178
Tap down into the paint.

00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:19.226
And then, you know, these little areas
that you have that are in between,

00:25:19.309 --> 00:25:22.062
that are dark, you can just touch.

00:25:22.145 --> 00:25:27.400
Bob liked the thrill
of watching a new student smile

00:25:27.901 --> 00:25:30.779
with a fresh, new, beautiful painting.

00:25:32.948 --> 00:25:35.867
Bob would just make 'em so happy,
it's... it's unreal.

00:25:38.203 --> 00:25:41.331
It's like,
"Man, did I do this? I couldn't have."

00:25:42.332 --> 00:25:43.458
Yes, you did.

00:25:44.793 --> 00:25:49.130
There's a lot going on besides painting,
and I think people are aware of that,

00:25:49.214 --> 00:25:50.757
and they enjoy that.

00:25:52.050 --> 00:25:56.680
Despite Ross's success,
he was not completely unique.

00:25:57.764 --> 00:26:02.352
In the early '80s, other artists
were also teaching on television.

00:26:04.729 --> 00:26:07.649
We started on TV in '83,

00:26:07.732 --> 00:26:10.026
the same year as Bob Ross.

00:26:10.819 --> 00:26:14.364
Ross was doing his thing, his landscapes,

00:26:14.990 --> 00:26:16.908
and we were doing flowers.

00:26:17.993 --> 00:26:20.954
Bob would say,
"I'm a mountain and tree guy."

00:26:21.955 --> 00:26:23.039
He also said,

00:26:23.123 --> 00:26:25.875
"If you wanna learn to paint flowers,
go to the Jenkins."

00:26:28.169 --> 00:26:33.049
At trade shows, Bob and I, uh,
many times would have dinner together.

00:26:34.884 --> 00:26:37.012
And after dinner,

00:26:37.095 --> 00:26:42.225
we would walk around
to see who got recognized the most.

00:26:43.393 --> 00:26:45.478
'Course, Bob always won that.

00:26:50.317 --> 00:26:53.695
Talk to me about
what Bob was like away from the camera.

00:26:53.778 --> 00:26:55.113
Oh, yeah, he's fun.

00:26:55.614 --> 00:26:57.616
Well, I just wanna share a little secret.

00:26:57.699 --> 00:26:59.492
He could be ornery.

00:26:59.576 --> 00:27:02.287
He would tell us ornery jokes
right before we started taping.

00:27:02.370 --> 00:27:06.916
I think, just to loose... loosen us all up.
But yeah, he was like he was on camera.

00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:12.672
He was fun, and he had charisma
like you've never seen before.

00:27:14.966 --> 00:27:18.219
He was more energetic in life,

00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:21.348
and he really liked fast cars.

00:27:21.973 --> 00:27:25.352
<i>The competition
has nothing to match this car.</i>

00:27:25.852 --> 00:27:29.230
<i>Chevrolet's incomparable Corvette.</i>

00:27:29.731 --> 00:27:31.816
He had a '69 Stingray,

00:27:31.900 --> 00:27:34.569
all hand-molded fiberglass,

00:27:35.320 --> 00:27:38.448
350 motor, built to the hilt.

00:27:38.948 --> 00:27:42.410
Took me out one day in the Corvette.
I said, "What are you doin'?"

00:27:42.494 --> 00:27:44.704
He said,
"Gonna take you on a thrill ride, dude."

00:27:50.168 --> 00:27:54.005
It's not that he liked to scare people.
He liked to thrill people.

00:27:54.089 --> 00:27:55.840
Yeah, he was really into that.

00:28:02.138 --> 00:28:06.768
The Kowalskis took care
of the business aspects of the enterprise,

00:28:06.851 --> 00:28:10.063
and they freed up Bob
to do what he did best,

00:28:10.146 --> 00:28:12.023
which was to connect with people.

00:28:14.401 --> 00:28:17.237
Everybody just tried to work
and do their job.

00:28:18.488 --> 00:28:21.825
Jane, I mean,
she was highly intelligent, you know,

00:28:21.908 --> 00:28:24.869
and incredible at administrative work.

00:28:26.371 --> 00:28:31.334
She taught me if you're gonna do a job,
do it right, don't do it halfway.

00:28:33.169 --> 00:28:35.088
And so, with Walt and Annette,

00:28:35.171 --> 00:28:38.758
the two families,
they had a really good thing going.

00:28:39.384 --> 00:28:43.888
Within five years, everything
seemed to be workin' pretty well.

00:28:46.057 --> 00:28:49.686
His joy and his love
just illuminated a room.

00:28:50.353 --> 00:28:53.690
I just remember him
making me feel like family.

00:28:53.773 --> 00:28:56.651
Every morning
that he got there for his show,

00:28:56.735 --> 00:29:01.406
he would come into my office
with his cup of coffee and tell jokes

00:29:01.489 --> 00:29:03.533
and put his arms around us

00:29:03.616 --> 00:29:07.495
and... and just tease us
like a big brother.

00:29:09.748 --> 00:29:11.833
He did have a heart of gold,

00:29:13.084 --> 00:29:15.879
but he was also a showman.

00:29:16.588 --> 00:29:19.883
I'm gonna get our little...
our little soft blender brush,

00:29:20.467 --> 00:29:22.510
very gentle, soft, little brush,

00:29:22.594 --> 00:29:25.805
and just blend the base of that
out a little bit.

00:29:26.347 --> 00:29:27.974
Gentle, gentle, gentle.

00:29:28.558 --> 00:29:29.684
Barely touching.

00:29:30.185 --> 00:29:32.520
Just caress the canvas a little.

00:29:33.521 --> 00:29:34.689
There we go.

00:29:35.690 --> 00:29:38.735
I asked him,
"Why do you talk this way on TV?"

00:29:38.818 --> 00:29:44.157
And he said, "Well, you know,
Bill Alexander was always kind of harsh."

00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:48.495
You know, I use the other color already
in my... in my brush here for the clouds.

00:29:48.578 --> 00:29:53.082
They already have so much yellow.
So, I like to have a change.

00:29:53.166 --> 00:29:55.293
You know, his voice was harsh.

00:29:55.376 --> 00:29:58.171
He was very hyper and energetic.

00:29:58.254 --> 00:29:59.589
So, my father said,

00:29:59.672 --> 00:30:03.676
"Well, uh, it seems to me
that most of our audience is female."

00:30:03.760 --> 00:30:06.179
"A lot of the audience is female,

00:30:06.262 --> 00:30:09.140
so maybe I'll try to whisper."

00:30:09.641 --> 00:30:11.434
In other words, he tried to create

00:30:11.518 --> 00:30:16.105
almost exactly the opposite
of what Bill Alexander was like.

00:30:16.815 --> 00:30:18.733
Grab it and lift it.

00:30:18.817 --> 00:30:21.611
Fluff it, tease it, pull it.

00:30:22.237 --> 00:30:23.947
Mmm. There.

00:30:24.948 --> 00:30:26.199
Make love to it here.

00:30:26.282 --> 00:30:29.327
Very gentle. <i>Very</i> gentle.

00:30:30.453 --> 00:30:33.373
The fact that he calls his show
"<i>The Joy of Painting</i>,"

00:30:33.456 --> 00:30:34.874
of course, is not coincidental

00:30:34.958 --> 00:30:38.711
because that feeds into
this whole tradition of how-to things

00:30:38.795 --> 00:30:40.421
in the early '70s.

00:30:40.505 --> 00:30:42.215
There's <i>The Joy of Cooking</i>,

00:30:42.298 --> 00:30:43.842
but then <i>The Joy of Sex</i>.

00:30:43.925 --> 00:30:46.469
That was a watershed publication.

00:30:46.970 --> 00:30:51.182
It really makes sense that
Bob Ross adopted a very similar title.

00:30:51.683 --> 00:30:54.936
He's speaking
with this liquid tranquilizer of a voice,

00:30:55.019 --> 00:30:56.521
which is very sensual.

00:30:56.604 --> 00:31:01.276
He pretends like he's talking
to one woman, in bed.

00:31:02.318 --> 00:31:04.571
It's true. He practiced.

00:31:04.654 --> 00:31:06.865
He was trying to be a little sexy.

00:31:06.948 --> 00:31:09.534
I talk to only one person
when I'm filming,

00:31:09.617 --> 00:31:12.245
and I'm really crazy about that person.

00:31:12.328 --> 00:31:14.122
It's a one-on-one situation.

00:31:14.205 --> 00:31:15.874
And I think people realize that,

00:31:15.957 --> 00:31:18.668
and they... they do feel that they know me,
and I feel I know them.

00:31:19.669 --> 00:31:21.004
Barely touching.

00:31:21.504 --> 00:31:22.964
Just caress it.

00:31:23.464 --> 00:31:25.300
Graze it. Caress it.

00:31:25.383 --> 00:31:27.093
Shake off the excess.

00:31:29.596 --> 00:31:31.806
And just beat the devil out of it.

00:31:31.890 --> 00:31:34.767
Now also, if there's any questions
we don't answer during the show,

00:31:34.851 --> 00:31:35.727
drop us a line.

00:31:35.810 --> 00:31:39.689
We'll be glad to try to answer
almost any question you can come up with,

00:31:39.772 --> 00:31:41.399
long as it's not too personal.

00:31:41.482 --> 00:31:42.817
Let's see here. What's...

00:31:42.901 --> 00:31:47.155
Oh. We're not gonna read that one on TV.
We'll just... we'll set it aside and go on.

00:31:48.156 --> 00:31:50.491
Bob was doin'
a painting demonstration.

00:31:50.575 --> 00:31:52.619
After he finished his painting, he goes,

00:31:52.702 --> 00:31:54.329
"Steve, Dana, come here."

00:31:54.412 --> 00:31:57.665
"Protect me. All these ladies are wantin'
my autograph and followin' me."

00:31:57.749 --> 00:32:01.085
- "I'm tryin' to go to the restroom."
- They were rippin' his shirt off.

00:32:01.169 --> 00:32:02.170
It's crazy.

00:32:02.253 --> 00:32:04.881
Tryin' to get a piece of chest hair,
even, or anything.

00:32:07.050 --> 00:32:10.428
Bob was charismatic,
but he was a little bit of a flirt.

00:32:11.095 --> 00:32:14.807
He flirted with me,
flirted with any female staff member.

00:32:14.891 --> 00:32:17.477
That's just the way he was.
He was just charming.

00:32:18.019 --> 00:32:20.939
But I think he also did it
to make people feel good.

00:32:25.234 --> 00:32:28.529
Annette, uh, became
quite enchanted with Bob.

00:32:28.613 --> 00:32:32.992
I remember
Bob Ross get-together in Daytona.

00:32:33.076 --> 00:32:36.704
And everybody wanted
to have their picture taken with Bob.

00:32:36.788 --> 00:32:41.125
Annette was just jealous
about relationships

00:32:41.209 --> 00:32:44.379
that Bob had with others besides herself.

00:32:47.382 --> 00:32:49.592
Bob would pay attention
to someone else,

00:32:49.676 --> 00:32:51.594
and Annette didn't like that.

00:32:51.678 --> 00:32:55.181
That might've been a little...
I'd say, little jealousy streak.

00:32:55.264 --> 00:32:56.099
- I dunno.
- Yep.

00:32:56.182 --> 00:32:58.184
- Anybody that got close to Bob.
- Yeah.

00:32:58.267 --> 00:33:00.067
- She was like that.
- Exactly.

00:33:02.730 --> 00:33:05.108
Tell me a little bit about your impression

00:33:05.191 --> 00:33:08.236
of what the relationship
between Bob and Annette was.

00:33:09.946 --> 00:33:10.946
Mmm.

00:33:14.117 --> 00:33:16.285
I don't know. Do I go there?

00:33:18.663 --> 00:33:20.665
Was Bob and Annette a thing?

00:33:21.374 --> 00:33:23.418
Everybody always asks that question.

00:33:24.627 --> 00:33:25.670
And the answer is...

00:33:27.338 --> 00:33:28.631
Steve might know.

00:33:31.134 --> 00:33:32.260
Mmm.

00:33:36.597 --> 00:33:41.477
There was an affair
between my father and Annette, yes.

00:33:42.520 --> 00:33:46.149
When we were
at the early trade shows in the '80s,

00:33:46.232 --> 00:33:47.817
we'd go pick them up for dinner,

00:33:47.900 --> 00:33:50.862
and they'd come out of
the same little hotel room and all that.

00:33:51.696 --> 00:33:54.490
We knew there was
funny things goin' on there.

00:33:55.324 --> 00:33:57.201
This was back in the '70s, I think.

00:33:57.285 --> 00:33:59.704
No, '80s, honey.
We weren't with Weber till '80.

00:33:59.787 --> 00:34:02.999
It was... Everybody was
sleeping with everybody else.

00:34:03.082 --> 00:34:05.126
- Yeah, but okay. Let's get back to...
- Okay?

00:34:05.209 --> 00:34:08.546
You know, you can cut that out,
but that's the way it was.

00:34:10.590 --> 00:34:13.259
I remember it was Christmas night.

00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:16.596
I heard some arguing in the bedroom.

00:34:17.096 --> 00:34:19.557
Jane was asking him, uh,

00:34:20.349 --> 00:34:23.227
"Are you having relations
with that woman?"

00:34:24.395 --> 00:34:25.980
The truth came out.

00:34:37.950 --> 00:34:40.453
Bob and Jane, they worked it out.

00:34:42.038 --> 00:34:46.584
But there was a rift
that came between everybody.

00:34:52.840 --> 00:34:54.467
Several months later,

00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:00.264
when I was walkin' down the hallway,
Annette was in the bathroom.

00:35:01.974 --> 00:35:04.393
I walked by, and the door was open,

00:35:04.477 --> 00:35:07.897
and she was in the dark, on the commode.

00:35:08.981 --> 00:35:10.983
She had one cigarette in her mouth,

00:35:11.067 --> 00:35:15.279
and, I think, two lit,
sitting in the ashtray, just smoking away.

00:35:16.739 --> 00:35:18.324
She said, "Steve,

00:35:19.450 --> 00:35:21.911
you're the only one that loves me."

00:35:26.874 --> 00:35:28.626
And I was like, "Wow."

00:35:29.418 --> 00:35:30.503
Yeah.

00:35:35.007 --> 00:35:37.760
There was infighting
that started to happen.

00:35:41.305 --> 00:35:45.017
When I first met Annette Kowalski,
they seemed to be close friends.

00:35:45.101 --> 00:35:47.478
But eventually, she stopped coming.

00:35:47.562 --> 00:35:51.107
So, I don't know
if that was kinda the beginning of the end

00:35:51.190 --> 00:35:52.733
as far as their relationship.

00:35:52.817 --> 00:35:55.611
I can just tell you
that a lot of us relaxed.

00:35:55.695 --> 00:35:58.906
We just... You...
I just couldn't relax around her.

00:35:59.115 --> 00:36:04.453
Um, and it just made it easier
to interact with Bob with no filters.

00:36:10.376 --> 00:36:13.671
Hi. Today marks
a sort of an anniversary for us.

00:36:13.754 --> 00:36:17.633
With this painting,
we will have 100 <i>Joy of Painting </i>shows.

00:36:17.717 --> 00:36:18.885
Isn't that fantastic?

00:36:19.635 --> 00:36:22.805
I'd like to welcome you
to the 10th <i>Joy of Painting </i>series.

00:36:22.889 --> 00:36:24.348
- The 12th.
- The 13th.

00:36:24.432 --> 00:36:25.892
- The 15th.
- The 17th.

00:36:25.975 --> 00:36:27.935
...the 18th <i>Joy of Painting </i>series.

00:36:28.686 --> 00:36:30.313
With the completion of this series,

00:36:30.396 --> 00:36:33.608
there'll be
over 230 <i>Joy of Painting </i>shows. Phew.

00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:37.737
MTV. It's all just fluffy white clouds.

00:36:39.113 --> 00:36:43.409
My next guest has been creating his magic
for the past ten years on his own show,

00:36:43.492 --> 00:36:46.162
<i>The Joy of Painting</i>,
which I watch all the time.

00:36:46.245 --> 00:36:48.080
Author of several books on the subject.

00:36:48.164 --> 00:36:50.791
His latest is called
<i>The Best of The Joy of Painting</i>.

00:36:50.875 --> 00:36:54.337
Please welcome America's
favorite art instructor, Bob Ross.

00:36:55.588 --> 00:36:58.257
- Hi, Bob. Pleasure to have you on.
- Thank you very, very much.

00:36:58.341 --> 00:36:59.634
How did they find you?

00:36:59.717 --> 00:37:02.678
We wanted to do a painting show.
We went to a PBS station,

00:37:02.762 --> 00:37:05.473
and, uh, they agreed to do one,
and off we went.

00:37:06.307 --> 00:37:09.602
Most people can't paint,
yet I find myself fascinated.

00:37:09.685 --> 00:37:11.270
I sit and watch you paint.

00:37:11.354 --> 00:37:14.273
I think it's because that magic
really does happen in 30 minutes.

00:37:14.357 --> 00:37:17.318
There's no editing to these shows.
What... what happens really happens.

00:37:17.401 --> 00:37:19.779
The sense people have
is that as they watch you,

00:37:19.862 --> 00:37:22.657
they really <i>can</i> learn
how to do this themselves.

00:37:22.740 --> 00:37:24.242
They really can do this.

00:37:24.325 --> 00:37:26.118
We're getting 200 to 300 letters a day now

00:37:26.244 --> 00:37:29.247
from people all over the United States
and in foreign countries,

00:37:29.330 --> 00:37:30.414
and they're doing this.

00:37:30.498 --> 00:37:33.668
We had one lady that was 93
when she took her first class with us.

00:37:34.168 --> 00:37:36.504
I got a letter from her when she was 94.

00:37:36.587 --> 00:37:39.799
She just had her first one-man art show
and started a whole new career.

00:37:50.017 --> 00:37:53.562
Made it look easy. Just took
a few minutes, really, and there it is.

00:37:53.646 --> 00:37:55.606
Think you can teach anybody how to paint?

00:37:55.690 --> 00:37:57.775
If I can get you to pick up your palettes,

00:37:57.858 --> 00:38:00.027
and pull it through the dark color
in one direction.

00:38:01.153 --> 00:38:02.446
Make it thin.

00:38:03.322 --> 00:38:06.117
All you do is just touch
and give it a little push.

00:38:07.451 --> 00:38:08.619
Good.

00:38:08.703 --> 00:38:09.537
Very good.

00:38:09.620 --> 00:38:12.474
- Hey, Bob. Check this out.
- That's great. You're doing wonderful.

00:38:12.498 --> 00:38:14.917
Hey, look what I'm doing here!
I'm painting.

00:38:15.001 --> 00:38:17.044
All right!

00:38:22.341 --> 00:38:25.678
Recently, I had the opportunity
to travel to New York City.

00:38:25.761 --> 00:38:28.055
They have what they call
Kids Day in the park,

00:38:28.139 --> 00:38:29.932
and we were invited to come there

00:38:30.016 --> 00:38:34.228
and participate and meet
all the fantastic people from New York.

00:38:38.274 --> 00:38:42.069
I was 12 years old
at the time, and I had heard

00:38:42.153 --> 00:38:44.655
that Bob Ross was going to appear
in Central Park.

00:38:44.739 --> 00:38:47.074
We ended up hopping on a train
and going into Manhattan.

00:38:47.825 --> 00:38:49.160
We didn't even know where he was.

00:38:49.243 --> 00:38:52.038
We just started following crowds
around Central Park, seeing,

00:38:52.121 --> 00:38:53.956
carrying paintings that we had brought.

00:38:54.874 --> 00:38:58.544
People came from all over
to bring their paintings and show us

00:38:58.627 --> 00:39:01.255
and to share a day with us
that was spectacular.

00:39:01.339 --> 00:39:03.382
Absolutely spectacular.

00:39:07.762 --> 00:39:10.097
He took the time
to come meet me.

00:39:10.181 --> 00:39:11.766
I showed him some of my work.

00:39:12.975 --> 00:39:15.728
He signed the back of my painting.

00:39:17.646 --> 00:39:20.983
Everything you think Bob Ross would be
is what he was when I met him.

00:39:26.405 --> 00:39:28.532
Central Park
was eye-opening for me.

00:39:30.618 --> 00:39:33.245
And I was like,
"Wow, this guy's really popular."

00:39:34.497 --> 00:39:37.333
I couldn't believe it,
how many people knew Bob Ross.

00:39:37.833 --> 00:39:40.878
And no one ever would think
he would be famous.

00:39:42.338 --> 00:39:45.174
C'mon.
It's the man who does the painting.

00:39:45.257 --> 00:39:46.842
On the TV!

00:39:47.635 --> 00:39:50.304
<i>The Joy of Painting</i>
has become the most successful art show

00:39:50.388 --> 00:39:52.473
in the history of television,

00:39:52.973 --> 00:39:57.478
and I'd like to thank you
very, very much for your support.

00:39:59.021 --> 00:40:01.399
You've made an old man's dream come true.

00:40:03.651 --> 00:40:06.278
People love to have heroes,

00:40:07.905 --> 00:40:10.116
and that's what Bob became.

00:40:17.498 --> 00:40:20.918
There's no doubt,
on the commercial side of it,

00:40:21.001 --> 00:40:24.296
Bob wanted to become bigger
and more popular.

00:40:24.797 --> 00:40:26.924
He was interested in success,

00:40:27.508 --> 00:40:31.053
but, uh, not the way,
the same way, the Kowalskis were.

00:40:32.555 --> 00:40:35.724
The whole Bob Ross Corporation thing

00:40:36.267 --> 00:40:41.480
was more about selling paint,
canvas, and brushes

00:40:41.564 --> 00:40:46.235
than it was instructing people
how to become painters.

00:40:46.944 --> 00:40:51.282
If you were to ask Bob Ross
what was the price of a tube of paint

00:40:51.365 --> 00:40:55.119
or, you know,
"How many kits are you selling?"

00:40:55.202 --> 00:40:57.663
he wouldn't know... not known any of that.

00:40:58.873 --> 00:41:01.792
Welcome back. We're gonna run
the colors across the screen,

00:41:01.876 --> 00:41:03.627
in case you didn't get 'em last week,

00:41:03.711 --> 00:41:07.173
and just let you see all the colors
that we use on each series here.

00:41:07.673 --> 00:41:12.553
When Bob got on TV,
he had to find a paint distributor.

00:41:13.804 --> 00:41:17.308
Ross and the Kowalskis knew
that our sponsor was Weber.

00:41:18.851 --> 00:41:21.312
Weber was a paint manufacturer,

00:41:21.812 --> 00:41:26.108
so they thought, "Okay. Let's go to Weber
and have them make our products."

00:41:28.861 --> 00:41:30.529
He was really picky

00:41:30.613 --> 00:41:34.950
and wanted a product that was exact
to what his qualifications were.

00:41:37.161 --> 00:41:41.165
The composition of the paint
had to be just right

00:41:41.248 --> 00:41:43.542
for this technique to work well.

00:41:45.085 --> 00:41:47.505
But Walt wanted to make good money.

00:41:49.507 --> 00:41:51.842
More profit is what it's all about.

00:41:55.888 --> 00:41:58.807
He couldn't cut any corners
'cause Bob wouldn't let him.

00:41:59.725 --> 00:42:02.728
Bob said, "I'm not havin' products
out there that are bad

00:42:02.811 --> 00:42:06.232
and, you know,
have my reputation ruined for it."

00:42:06.732 --> 00:42:11.070
The material end of things
really was quite important,

00:42:11.153 --> 00:42:14.698
but he wasn't into it for the money.

00:42:16.283 --> 00:42:20.538
There was many, many arguments
about this over the phone.

00:42:21.413 --> 00:42:23.874
He wanted to teach people how to paint,

00:42:25.084 --> 00:42:27.419
but through the selling of products,

00:42:27.503 --> 00:42:32.049
they wanted to exploit that... for profit.

00:42:32.758 --> 00:42:35.177
This is your world
on this piece of canvas,

00:42:35.261 --> 00:42:37.972
and you could do anything
that your heart desires here.

00:42:38.055 --> 00:42:40.849
You have absolute and total power.

00:42:41.767 --> 00:42:44.186
This is the only place in the world
I have any power.

00:42:44.270 --> 00:42:46.689
Here, I'm the dictator.
Boy, I can do anything here.

00:42:46.772 --> 00:42:49.358
It's what's so fantastic
about painting like this.

00:42:49.441 --> 00:42:51.026
You have freedom here.

00:42:53.028 --> 00:42:54.697
He called me and complained,

00:42:54.780 --> 00:43:00.703
and he really, uh, was not happy
with... with the way things were going.

00:43:03.289 --> 00:43:06.000
Things just kinda
went downhill from there.

00:43:10.337 --> 00:43:12.298
Hey, there's my wife, Jane.

00:43:12.381 --> 00:43:14.174
- Hi, Jane.
- Hi.

00:43:14.258 --> 00:43:16.135
And that's Annette with her,
my partner.

00:43:16.844 --> 00:43:18.929
And I would like to...

00:43:19.013 --> 00:43:20.514
I'd like to dedicate this painting

00:43:20.598 --> 00:43:25.394
to a couple of people that have
really made <i>The Joy of Painting </i>possible.

00:43:26.687 --> 00:43:31.150
There's been several that I'd...
I'd really like to... to mention by name.

00:43:31.900 --> 00:43:34.278
First of all, uh, my wife, Jane.

00:43:34.361 --> 00:43:38.574
She's stood behind us
and... and kept this thing going.

00:43:39.617 --> 00:43:42.745
And it takes a special lady
to live with a crazy man.

00:43:51.086 --> 00:43:54.089
I remember walking
into the back bedroom,

00:43:54.590 --> 00:43:59.845
and, uh, for probably
only the second time in my life,

00:43:59.928 --> 00:44:01.263
I saw my dad crying.

00:44:03.807 --> 00:44:05.434
And, uh...

00:44:07.478 --> 00:44:08.478
uh...

00:44:09.396 --> 00:44:12.399
in the fetal position on the ground.

00:44:18.864 --> 00:44:21.533
Jane found out that she had cancer.

00:44:24.912 --> 00:44:29.124
It wasn't long
after that that Jane was gone.

00:44:30.084 --> 00:44:32.920
I would like to take
just a second and thank you.

00:44:33.003 --> 00:44:36.799
I happened to mention
that I had lost my wife.

00:44:36.882 --> 00:44:40.302
I have received
hundreds and hundreds of cards

00:44:40.386 --> 00:44:45.432
from people all over the country,
expressing their sympathy and support.

00:44:45.933 --> 00:44:49.603
From the bottom of my heart,
thank you for sharing my grief

00:44:50.104 --> 00:44:54.692
and... for making my wife
a very special person in your life too.

00:45:02.199 --> 00:45:04.910
Jane's death hit him really hard.

00:45:06.161 --> 00:45:08.163
I can remember him sayin', um,

00:45:08.831 --> 00:45:11.625
"My whole life
went to hell in a handbasket."

00:45:14.586 --> 00:45:16.626
Sometimes when
you're not in such a good mood,

00:45:16.672 --> 00:45:18.590
paintings have a tendency
to get a little darker

00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:21.969
because paintings reflect your mood.

00:45:22.970 --> 00:45:26.014
Sometimes you're not even
conscious of it. It happens.

00:45:31.061 --> 00:45:33.313
You have light on light, you have nothing.

00:45:33.397 --> 00:45:36.775
If you have dark on dark,
you basically have nothing.

00:45:37.901 --> 00:45:40.654
There we are.
You know, it's like in life. If...

00:45:40.738 --> 00:45:44.658
You gotta have sadness once in a while,
so you know when the good times come.

00:45:45.367 --> 00:45:46.869
I'm waitin' on the good times now.

00:46:02.926 --> 00:46:05.512
Two or three weeks
after Jane died,

00:46:05.596 --> 00:46:11.226
the doctor said
my dad had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

00:46:22.112 --> 00:46:25.365
And then we wash our brushes,
as you know, with odorless thinner.

00:46:26.158 --> 00:46:27.534
Shake it off.

00:46:27.618 --> 00:46:29.787
Beat the devil out of it.

00:46:29.870 --> 00:46:34.833
That wet-on-wet technique
does require quite a bit of paint thinner.

00:46:36.752 --> 00:46:41.089
Almost every episode,
he'd be smackin' that brush around.

00:46:41.173 --> 00:46:42.257
Shake him off.

00:46:43.258 --> 00:46:47.054
All the effervescence
of the paint thinner

00:46:47.137 --> 00:46:49.556
would float up right into his nostrils.

00:46:50.682 --> 00:46:52.518
And cover the whole room.

00:46:52.601 --> 00:46:56.939
Even while he was doing it,
I had reservations about it.

00:46:57.898 --> 00:47:00.442
Add the least little touch
of paint thinner to your brush

00:47:00.526 --> 00:47:02.027
and then go through the paint.

00:47:02.110 --> 00:47:03.612
Now, I always wondered

00:47:03.695 --> 00:47:07.616
if maybe that didn't have
something to do with the lymphoma.

00:47:08.367 --> 00:47:13.330
Uh, I'm not a doctor,
but it's... it's speculation.

00:47:14.081 --> 00:47:16.625
We'll wash 'em both while we got it goin'.

00:47:18.418 --> 00:47:19.503
There.

00:47:20.420 --> 00:47:23.465
He decided,
"Well, if I don't have long left to live,

00:47:23.549 --> 00:47:26.093
I'm going to do as much as I can."

00:47:27.636 --> 00:47:29.346
It was "the show must go on."

00:47:30.639 --> 00:47:34.393
Hello. I'm Bob Ross,
and I'd like to welcome you to the 26th...

00:47:34.476 --> 00:47:37.271
- To the 28th.
- To the 30th <i>Joy of Painting </i>series.

00:47:37.354 --> 00:47:40.315
And we just work
all the way across the canvas.

00:47:40.399 --> 00:47:41.859
Maybe in our world...

00:47:41.942 --> 00:47:44.820
There live some little trees,
far back here in the distance.

00:47:45.946 --> 00:47:49.700
When I look back on it,
Bob was really in a work mode.

00:47:50.742 --> 00:47:53.328
He wanted to get
at least three shows a day in.

00:47:53.829 --> 00:47:56.123
And, uh, some days,
he got a lot more than that.

00:47:56.206 --> 00:47:57.666
Just have some fun.

00:47:58.166 --> 00:48:01.712
This is a day you can just be crazy.
Just spin things around.

00:48:03.672 --> 00:48:06.049
When you see
all those later series,

00:48:06.133 --> 00:48:09.761
he was literally suffering from cancer.

00:48:11.305 --> 00:48:14.308
He was very private about everything.

00:48:14.933 --> 00:48:17.144
That was just what Bob wanted.

00:48:17.227 --> 00:48:19.438
A little practice with this,
and you'll be amazed

00:48:19.521 --> 00:48:21.189
at what you can accomplish.

00:48:21.273 --> 00:48:23.775
Every day is like a gift.

00:48:23.859 --> 00:48:26.320
Something new happens on the canvas.

00:48:27.070 --> 00:48:28.572
Here's a happy little tree.

00:48:28.655 --> 00:48:31.116
Maybe there's a happy little cloud
floatin' around.

00:48:31.199 --> 00:48:32.618
Just little happy duders.

00:48:33.368 --> 00:48:36.455
This show is playing
in numerous foreign countries now.

00:48:36.538 --> 00:48:38.957
Often wonder how they translate "duders."

00:48:47.883 --> 00:48:51.219
The people all over the world,
there's a common denominator.

00:48:51.720 --> 00:48:54.014
Everyone loves to paint.

00:49:00.479 --> 00:49:04.358
We knew that right at the moment
when he was becoming

00:49:04.441 --> 00:49:06.193
the best he ever could,

00:49:06.276 --> 00:49:08.862
he was kinda being shut down.

00:49:10.614 --> 00:49:12.824
All right, let's wash the old brush.

00:49:13.909 --> 00:49:17.704
I think, partially, he used
the work to keep his mind off of it.

00:49:19.498 --> 00:49:22.042
Every day, I get letters
from people all over the country

00:49:22.125 --> 00:49:25.212
who have never picked up
a paintbrush in their life,

00:49:25.295 --> 00:49:27.756
and they've tried this, and it works,

00:49:27.839 --> 00:49:30.092
and they've experienced a whole new world.

00:49:30.926 --> 00:49:32.219
A whole new world.

00:49:33.053 --> 00:49:35.222
I've known
so many depressed people

00:49:35.305 --> 00:49:39.059
that came out of their depression
through painting and drawing.

00:49:40.227 --> 00:49:45.357
It's important to express yourself
through that kind of symbolism

00:49:45.440 --> 00:49:47.359
and get out those emotions.

00:49:56.576 --> 00:49:59.788
I'll never forget
when I got the news that Bob had cancer.

00:49:59.871 --> 00:50:03.500
My program manager called me
into his office, and he closed the door,

00:50:03.583 --> 00:50:06.044
and I believe he told me before the crew.

00:50:09.256 --> 00:50:10.674
And he said Bob had cancer,

00:50:10.757 --> 00:50:14.302
and I was, like, shocked because
he hadn't shared that he was sick.

00:50:16.722 --> 00:50:19.474
He didn't want me thinkin' about that
while doing the show.

00:50:19.975 --> 00:50:20.975
There.

00:50:23.061 --> 00:50:25.439
This is really the highlight
of my whole life,

00:50:25.522 --> 00:50:29.359
is to make these shows and to join you
in your home or wherever you happen to be

00:50:29.443 --> 00:50:30.902
and paint along with you.

00:50:34.489 --> 00:50:37.826
I really enjoyed being with you
for the past 13 shows.

00:50:37.909 --> 00:50:41.663
The old clock on the wall tells me
it's about time to bring this show

00:50:41.747 --> 00:50:43.540
and this series to a close.

00:50:55.427 --> 00:50:59.556
During that time,
I think the Kowalskis became worried.

00:51:00.140 --> 00:51:02.726
If Bob dies, their business dies.

00:51:08.607 --> 00:51:11.068
Hi, I'm Annette Kowalski,

00:51:11.151 --> 00:51:16.782
and Bob Ross has invited me to share
with you <i>The Joy of Painting Flowers</i>.

00:51:17.741 --> 00:51:20.243
At our art retreat
in Florida one day,

00:51:20.327 --> 00:51:22.954
a lady throws a book on my table,

00:51:23.455 --> 00:51:25.874
and it's Annette Kowalski's flower book.

00:51:27.042 --> 00:51:29.711
And it says Annette has worked so hard

00:51:29.795 --> 00:51:35.217
for so many years
developing this new style of painting.

00:51:36.218 --> 00:51:37.969
I just about had a heart attack.

00:51:39.221 --> 00:51:42.224
Annette took my same diagrams

00:51:42.307 --> 00:51:45.477
and almost copied 'em completely.

00:51:51.650 --> 00:51:57.572
She uses almost
the exact wording that we use.

00:51:58.865 --> 00:52:03.245
In Kathwren's book,
she's sitting in this peacock chair.

00:52:03.745 --> 00:52:07.249
Annette is sitting
in the same peacock chair

00:52:07.332 --> 00:52:09.209
in the same pose.

00:52:09.292 --> 00:52:11.837
Are you ready to start painting?
I hope so.

00:52:11.920 --> 00:52:15.090
We're going to angle strokes back.

00:52:15.173 --> 00:52:17.551
You wiggle your color
down the middle.

00:52:17.634 --> 00:52:19.761
Angle the stroke towards the back.

00:52:19.845 --> 00:52:22.597
Annette was doin'
those floral paintings.

00:52:22.681 --> 00:52:25.142
I said,
"Those look like Jenkins paintings."

00:52:26.101 --> 00:52:28.395
They're so eerily close,

00:52:28.478 --> 00:52:31.857
and it's kind of funny that
the brushes all look about the same.

00:52:32.858 --> 00:52:36.027
Since the early '80s,
we had designed badger hair brushes

00:52:36.111 --> 00:52:38.280
for our signature line,

00:52:38.363 --> 00:52:41.950
and then the vice president of Weber says,

00:52:42.033 --> 00:52:44.911
"I'm sorry. You can't have
these badger hair brushes anymore."

00:52:44.995 --> 00:52:47.289
"They're on the endangered species list."

00:52:47.372 --> 00:52:51.960
The big excitement around here
is Bob's new floral brushes.

00:52:52.919 --> 00:52:54.588
But guess what?

00:52:54.671 --> 00:52:57.340
When Annette
came out with her product line,

00:52:57.424 --> 00:53:00.760
they had a beautiful line
of badger hair brushes.

00:53:01.761 --> 00:53:05.599
Bob was around Annette... uh, so much.

00:53:05.682 --> 00:53:07.100
How could he not know?

00:53:07.184 --> 00:53:10.061
We're gonna have Annette
paint a little flower for you,

00:53:10.145 --> 00:53:12.981
and I'm just gonna turn the show
over to her and I'll see you later.

00:53:13.064 --> 00:53:14.065
Thank you.

00:53:14.149 --> 00:53:16.109
But what is he gonna do about it?

00:53:16.193 --> 00:53:20.822
She just wanted to control
the whole art market.

00:53:21.448 --> 00:53:23.200
Our sales went down,

00:53:23.283 --> 00:53:26.703
and the stations stopped our shows.

00:53:27.204 --> 00:53:30.498
She did it so that there would be
no competition from us.

00:53:31.499 --> 00:53:33.293
She wanted us gone.

00:53:47.766 --> 00:53:50.143
Dad was getting
a little bit sicker,

00:53:50.227 --> 00:53:53.730
and we all knew that
we were gonna have to take care of him.

00:53:54.231 --> 00:53:57.150
That really changed a lot of my thinking.

00:53:57.234 --> 00:53:59.694
You know,
"Why is he doing the things he did?"

00:53:59.778 --> 00:54:02.906
"Why did he want what he did for me?"

00:54:02.989 --> 00:54:06.618
Uh, "Why was he pushing me so hard?"

00:54:07.118 --> 00:54:09.746
It's a great, great privilege to me

00:54:09.829 --> 00:54:12.624
to be able to introduce
the pride and joy of my life.

00:54:12.707 --> 00:54:14.334
This is my son, Steve.

00:54:14.834 --> 00:54:16.795
Steve, certainly glad
to have you with us, my son.

00:54:16.878 --> 00:54:19.005
- Thanks, Dad.
- Tell you what. Do a super painting,

00:54:19.089 --> 00:54:20.924
- and I'll see you later.
- Okay.

00:54:21.591 --> 00:54:24.636
My dad wanted me to do
a <i>lot</i> of shows,

00:54:25.512 --> 00:54:27.472
and I didn't want to.

00:54:29.266 --> 00:54:31.935
Told me,
"I'm tryin' to do the best for you."

00:54:32.435 --> 00:54:35.355
He wanted me to be
more successful than him.

00:54:35.438 --> 00:54:39.067
Heck, one time, he even told me
that on the painting show,

00:54:39.150 --> 00:54:43.947
he didn't paint as well as he could
because he wanted to make it easier for me

00:54:44.030 --> 00:54:46.658
in the future when I took over.

00:54:47.784 --> 00:54:49.369
And I thought, "What?"

00:54:49.452 --> 00:54:52.706
Got one young feller that out-paints me
when it comes to mountains.

00:54:52.789 --> 00:54:57.252
That's my son, Steve. You might have
saw him on some of the other shows.

00:54:57.335 --> 00:55:00.338
He's just one
of the most dynamite mountain painters

00:55:00.839 --> 00:55:01.965
I've ever seen.

00:55:02.048 --> 00:55:03.758
We didn't get him on this series.

00:55:03.842 --> 00:55:07.137
Maybe next series,
I'll get him back in here.

00:55:07.637 --> 00:55:10.932
There was a power struggle
between us, I guess you would say.

00:55:13.018 --> 00:55:17.022
There was a little bit of a fight
that broke out between us.

00:55:18.898 --> 00:55:24.654
I wanted to go off and do my own thing,
and he wanted me to do what he did.

00:55:27.741 --> 00:55:32.329
It was probably a few years
that we didn't talk much at all.

00:55:32.412 --> 00:55:37.292
I'm still a little bit angry inside
with myself over that.

00:55:39.502 --> 00:55:42.047
If your parents
are tellin' you to do something,

00:55:42.130 --> 00:55:44.799
it's not 'cause they're trying to be mean.

00:55:44.883 --> 00:55:46.509
It's because they care.

00:55:47.177 --> 00:55:51.431
You know, they love you,
and they want the best for you.

00:55:57.187 --> 00:55:59.856
When he was getting weaker and weaker,

00:56:01.149 --> 00:56:04.861
we started to do a lot more talking again.

00:56:08.823 --> 00:56:11.993
We sat down
and had a whole lot of discussions

00:56:12.077 --> 00:56:15.538
about stuff that
he'd never told me before.

00:56:18.166 --> 00:56:19.542
In the beginning...

00:56:21.586 --> 00:56:23.755
there was a voting system set up.

00:56:26.758 --> 00:56:28.176
When Jane died,

00:56:29.094 --> 00:56:31.137
he lost a vote.

00:56:33.723 --> 00:56:37.435
Suddenly, Bob's opinion
didn't really matter anymore.

00:56:37.936 --> 00:56:42.023
It was more or less like,
"We're gonna do what we wanna do,

00:56:42.107 --> 00:56:44.984
and you're gonna do
what we tell you to do."

00:56:47.362 --> 00:56:49.781
After Jane had passed away,

00:56:49.864 --> 00:56:53.284
I know that there were many hard feelings

00:56:53.368 --> 00:56:57.997
from not giving Bob
the latitude to be Bob.

00:56:58.873 --> 00:57:01.918
He'd decided
he was definitely not going to do

00:57:02.001 --> 00:57:05.296
another series with the Kowalskis.

00:57:10.218 --> 00:57:13.304
<i>♪ So step right in
This is where it begins ♪</i>

00:57:13.388 --> 00:57:15.849
<i>♪ The Adventures of Elmer and Friends ♪</i>

00:57:16.891 --> 00:57:17.725
Hi, kids.

00:57:17.809 --> 00:57:19.602
Bob!

00:57:19.686 --> 00:57:21.146
How is everyone today?

00:57:21.229 --> 00:57:22.480
- I'm all right.
- Okay.

00:57:22.981 --> 00:57:27.110
My father had always wanted
to do a TV show for children.

00:57:27.610 --> 00:57:31.781
He wanted to bring
the art world even to the young.

00:57:34.409 --> 00:57:37.954
By the time a kid
gets to be 11 or 12 years old,

00:57:38.037 --> 00:57:42.709
if he gets some negativity
concerning his artistic endeavors,

00:57:43.418 --> 00:57:46.254
uh, oftentimes, he gives it up.

00:57:47.046 --> 00:57:52.594
Bob felt that there was
a built-in audience for children.

00:57:53.595 --> 00:57:56.806
I was just reading
a good old-fashioned storybook.

00:57:56.890 --> 00:57:59.225
I know he was
excited about doin' it

00:57:59.309 --> 00:58:00.768
and wanted to do it so bad,

00:58:00.852 --> 00:58:02.687
but then that's when he became really ill.

00:58:05.982 --> 00:58:07.734
He was wearin' a wig.

00:58:09.486 --> 00:58:13.114
The Kowalskis got angry
that Bob looked sick.

00:58:13.615 --> 00:58:15.575
But he insisted, you know,

00:58:15.658 --> 00:58:18.578
that he would
be able to do the television show.

00:58:19.496 --> 00:58:22.081
Walt and Annette were totally against it.

00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:27.253
They both thought of Bob
as something that they had packaged

00:58:27.337 --> 00:58:30.089
and that they had made from the beginning.

00:58:31.591 --> 00:58:34.344
They didn't want people
to know he was sick.

00:58:46.397 --> 00:58:50.360
When my dad was, uh,
just about on his deathbed,

00:58:51.069 --> 00:58:54.906
my dad and I went over
to the Kowalskis' house.

00:58:57.951 --> 00:59:00.870
We went back to the back bedroom,

00:59:01.371 --> 00:59:03.748
and I laid Bob down in bed.

00:59:06.167 --> 00:59:08.461
Annette started talking to me

00:59:08.545 --> 00:59:11.798
while the door was closed,
so Bob couldn't hear.

00:59:14.092 --> 00:59:18.555
And she said, "You need to go in there
and get Bob to sign this."

00:59:21.724 --> 00:59:26.896
She said, "It's a contract for a memorial
that we wanna build to Bob."

00:59:29.774 --> 00:59:35.238
It looked to me like they were trying
to get Bob to sign his name over to them.

00:59:37.657 --> 00:59:42.328
I refused, and Annette
became very angry and frustrated.

00:59:44.998 --> 00:59:48.501
He didn't want to sign away
the full rights to his name.

00:59:49.877 --> 00:59:52.714
But that didn't stop them
from trying to get it.

00:59:55.341 --> 00:59:57.594
They knew he was gettin' closer to death,

00:59:59.554 --> 01:00:01.598
and as he did, they got more desperate.

01:00:03.141 --> 01:00:04.934
They were having big arguments

01:00:05.018 --> 01:00:08.605
over who's going to possess
his name after he died.

01:00:10.607 --> 01:00:13.443
This went on daily for weeks.

01:00:15.987 --> 01:00:18.740
<i>I like painting
because it gives me total freedom,</i>

01:00:19.324 --> 01:00:22.952
<i>and it's the only place in my whole life
that I've had total freedom.</i>

01:00:23.703 --> 01:00:28.249
Bob had decided that the way
he was gonna circumvent problems

01:00:28.333 --> 01:00:29.792
with the Kowalskis

01:00:30.543 --> 01:00:35.089
was by marrying a nurse
that he had known for a few months

01:00:35.173 --> 01:00:37.008
while he was in the hospital.

01:00:38.718 --> 01:00:42.597
He was trying to make some
preparations for his half brother

01:00:42.680 --> 01:00:47.393
and his son, Steve, to continue on.

01:00:50.063 --> 01:00:53.608
For him to yell,
he had to be extremely angry.

01:00:54.400 --> 01:00:56.653
<i>That's the most fun part
of this technique.</i>

01:00:56.736 --> 01:00:59.364
<i>Take out all your frustrations
and hostilities.</i>

01:01:01.157 --> 01:01:02.909
You could hear him screaming,

01:01:02.992 --> 01:01:04.827
"I'm not giving you my name."

01:01:04.911 --> 01:01:07.121
"You're not getting my name."

01:01:21.469 --> 01:01:27.433
The last phone conversation
I had with Bob was in June of 1995.

01:01:29.227 --> 01:01:30.812
He knew what was happenin'.

01:01:31.312 --> 01:01:36.734
He said he wanted nothing to do
with BRI or <i>The Joy of Painting</i>.

01:01:37.610 --> 01:01:42.657
He said, "They're trying
to steal my name on my deathbed."

01:01:44.367 --> 01:01:46.536
And then I talked to him
a bit longer and said,

01:01:46.619 --> 01:01:48.746
"Well, I'll come down and visit you."

01:01:49.247 --> 01:01:52.667
And he said, "No, I don't want you
to come down and see me like this."

01:01:52.750 --> 01:01:55.420
"I weigh a whole 85 pounds."

01:01:55.920 --> 01:01:59.006
"I just want you to remember me
as you saw me last."

01:02:19.277 --> 01:02:20.987
He...

01:02:22.613 --> 01:02:24.282
He didn't have any hair.

01:02:30.371 --> 01:02:34.208
And he was skinny, so skinny.

01:02:35.084 --> 01:02:37.545
And we had to wet his lips.

01:02:38.045 --> 01:02:39.422
He couldn't drink.

01:02:39.505 --> 01:02:42.842
His throat was... locked up.

01:02:51.851 --> 01:02:54.729
I was watching my hero disintegrate.

01:02:59.108 --> 01:03:02.236
We tried so hard to keep him comfortable...

01:03:04.447 --> 01:03:07.283
...but, he was in so much pain.

01:03:12.997 --> 01:03:14.540
I had to hold him up.

01:03:20.797 --> 01:03:21.964
And he said,

01:03:23.341 --> 01:03:24.801
"You're so strong."

01:04:13.307 --> 01:04:17.645
After my dad passed, Annette said
something to me I'll never forget.

01:04:17.728 --> 01:04:20.773
She said, uh, "Aren't you glad it's over?"

01:04:23.317 --> 01:04:27.822
And I thought, "What do you mean?
Am I glad my dad is dead?"

01:04:28.948 --> 01:04:32.827
I... I didn't understand
what she was talkin' about

01:04:33.327 --> 01:04:36.247
because every second that I could've had...

01:04:37.915 --> 01:04:40.167
Every second...

01:04:42.295 --> 01:04:43.462
would've been...

01:04:44.797 --> 01:04:46.674
I mean, I would've given everything.

01:04:52.388 --> 01:04:57.476
The Kowalskis did not show up
at his funeral, at Bob's funeral.

01:04:57.560 --> 01:05:00.563
Even worse,
they tried to keep the fact

01:05:00.646 --> 01:05:03.733
that the funeral
was even happening a secret.

01:05:06.193 --> 01:05:08.362
I can't even remember
who called me.

01:05:09.030 --> 01:05:13.784
They said, "Bob passed,"
and "Don't tell anybody,"

01:05:13.868 --> 01:05:16.370
and "Get on the next flight to Florida."

01:05:18.706 --> 01:05:19.874
It was crazy.

01:05:21.250 --> 01:05:24.211
There was only, like,
30 or 40 people there, total.

01:05:26.839 --> 01:05:31.928
I found out that he'd passed away
by reading it in <i>Newsweek</i>.

01:05:32.428 --> 01:05:35.556
I was always a little bitter
towards the company

01:05:35.640 --> 01:05:38.517
for not having gotten in touch with me.

01:05:38.601 --> 01:05:41.395
I would've loved
to have attended his funeral.

01:05:43.898 --> 01:05:46.484
Uh, but that... that didn't happen.

01:05:48.736 --> 01:05:52.198
They wanted people, I think,
to believe that he was still alive.

01:05:52.281 --> 01:05:53.824
And many people did.

01:05:53.908 --> 01:05:57.787
Even to this day,
I've had to tell people, you know,

01:05:57.870 --> 01:05:59.622
that he's... he's gone.

01:06:16.097 --> 01:06:21.018
After he died,
things changed permanently for me

01:06:21.644 --> 01:06:24.105
in the way I thought about everything.

01:06:24.188 --> 01:06:26.816
The way I thought about life and death

01:06:26.899 --> 01:06:29.527
and, uh, pretty much
everything in between.

01:06:33.698 --> 01:06:37.451
I think I had a small nervous breakdown.

01:06:42.623 --> 01:06:44.625
After Bob's passing,

01:06:45.459 --> 01:06:47.044
I kinda wondered,

01:06:47.586 --> 01:06:49.005
"Now what?"

01:06:59.640 --> 01:07:04.145
I started working
for Bob Ross Inc. in 1995.

01:07:04.645 --> 01:07:09.817
After he died, they asked me
if I could introduce Bob Ross in Europe.

01:07:11.027 --> 01:07:15.239
I was able to sell it
in the public television of Germany.

01:07:15.823 --> 01:07:20.578
I would collect the orders
for paints and brushes, books.

01:07:21.746 --> 01:07:24.832
Walt Kowalski was my prime contact,

01:07:25.541 --> 01:07:30.963
but when we talked about the business,
it was only very limited to my department.

01:07:32.256 --> 01:07:34.759
In the beginning,
I thought that, you know,

01:07:34.842 --> 01:07:39.305
Bob died, and the Kowalskis were very,
you know, sad about this.

01:07:40.056 --> 01:07:44.935
But I started to notice, uh, changes
at the Bob Ross Company.

01:07:46.187 --> 01:07:51.567
They were becoming much more demanding
on the Certified Ross Instructors.

01:07:52.151 --> 01:07:53.778
Ross students told me

01:07:53.861 --> 01:07:58.407
it was like walking on eggs
in those certification classes.

01:07:59.575 --> 01:08:04.163
The first day, their management
shoots a contract in front of 'em.

01:08:04.789 --> 01:08:10.586
The students were all asked to sign
what were called "guidelines,"

01:08:10.669 --> 01:08:13.756
which really were a contract.

01:08:15.633 --> 01:08:19.011
You cannot promote
any other artist.

01:08:19.512 --> 01:08:24.600
You cannot use any other products
except for the Ross products.

01:08:27.061 --> 01:08:29.438
They had a suggestion box.

01:08:29.522 --> 01:08:31.357
I called it the spy box.

01:08:32.566 --> 01:08:38.906
You were supposed to call
if any of your students or other teachers

01:08:38.989 --> 01:08:44.078
had, uh, gone against
the guidelines in some regard.

01:08:45.454 --> 01:08:48.541
One particular
friend of ours, the first day,

01:08:48.624 --> 01:08:50.709
she gets tapped on the shoulder.

01:08:51.210 --> 01:08:53.754
They said, "We want you
to pack your paints and brushes."

01:08:53.838 --> 01:08:56.173
"Don't say a word to anyone and leave."

01:08:58.717 --> 01:09:01.554
She was mentioning to the other students,

01:09:01.637 --> 01:09:03.556
"I really want to go to Jenkins's class."

01:09:05.724 --> 01:09:09.270
Now, this was reported
in that little suggestion box.

01:09:22.199 --> 01:09:23.909
They were in complete control,

01:09:23.993 --> 01:09:27.329
and they could act
in the name of Bob Ross,

01:09:27.413 --> 01:09:29.915
where Bob Ross never was involved.

01:09:40.176 --> 01:09:43.554
One time,
I was walking around in the warehouse.

01:09:44.597 --> 01:09:47.850
There was a big table with a lot
of paintings all over the place.

01:09:48.559 --> 01:09:54.106
And I saw a guy painting, uh,
with a script liner brush,

01:09:54.607 --> 01:09:58.068
signing the signature
of Bob Ross on the painting.

01:09:58.694 --> 01:10:00.070
I thought, "Hey, wait a minute."

01:10:00.154 --> 01:10:03.365
"This guy died, and now
somebody's signing a Bob Ross painting."

01:10:03.449 --> 01:10:04.491
"What's going on here?"

01:10:06.035 --> 01:10:08.078
A lot of people are able to paint

01:10:08.162 --> 01:10:12.333
almost exact copies of Bob Ross,
and you don't see the difference.

01:10:12.416 --> 01:10:15.211
I don't see the difference.
Nobody can see the difference.

01:10:16.253 --> 01:10:18.589
The difference,
probably, is the signature,

01:10:19.089 --> 01:10:22.718
but even then,
you don't know if it is, uh, valid.

01:10:25.054 --> 01:10:26.972
Walt, is that a Bob Ross over there?

01:10:27.056 --> 01:10:28.974
That is a Bob Ross painting.

01:10:29.642 --> 01:10:31.518
Because somebody told me that it was.

01:10:32.394 --> 01:10:36.190
I can pretty much recognize
a Bob Ross painting.

01:10:36.273 --> 01:10:38.275
What do you think about the idea

01:10:38.359 --> 01:10:40.236
that the only person that is qualified

01:10:40.319 --> 01:10:43.948
to authenticate a Bob Ross painting is,
in fact, Annette Kowalski?

01:10:44.031 --> 01:10:45.658
It's bullshit, BS.

01:10:45.741 --> 01:10:47.493
Sorry, baloney.

01:10:47.993 --> 01:10:51.997
When I saw that guy, that was,
for me, one of the triggers to say,

01:10:52.081 --> 01:10:54.124
"There's something very wrong here."

01:11:01.757 --> 01:11:03.592
The Bob Ross Company knew

01:11:03.676 --> 01:11:06.720
that they were the largest client
of Weber company.

01:11:08.347 --> 01:11:14.019
Walt told me, "We have the right
to audit the Martin F. Weber company."

01:11:14.770 --> 01:11:17.398
And they audited the books
of Martin F. Weber,

01:11:17.481 --> 01:11:19.984
and they found some stuff
which was not correct.

01:11:20.776 --> 01:11:22.861
The management of BRI said,

01:11:22.945 --> 01:11:26.115
"The only thing you have to do
is kick out Jenkins."

01:11:26.198 --> 01:11:28.117
"Destroy his line of painting,

01:11:28.200 --> 01:11:30.577
don't support his TV show anymore,

01:11:31.078 --> 01:11:33.205
and basically kick him out."

01:11:34.248 --> 01:11:37.042
We were under contract
with Weber, 16 years.

01:11:37.126 --> 01:11:39.628
Super loyal to Dennis Kapp,

01:11:39.712 --> 01:11:42.423
even though
they stopped booking our workshops.

01:11:42.506 --> 01:11:46.427
We finally said to Dennis,
"We know what the Kowalskis are doing."

01:11:47.511 --> 01:11:50.055
He said, "You know, it's just business."

01:11:50.139 --> 01:11:52.016
"It's nothing personal."

01:11:53.017 --> 01:11:55.227
It sure was personal to us.

01:11:56.562 --> 01:11:59.857
We were such pioneers
in the hobby craft industry.

01:11:59.940 --> 01:12:06.238
We live, breathe, eat, sleep art 24/7.

01:12:06.905 --> 01:12:09.992
We woke up one morning,
and we were out of a job.

01:12:12.745 --> 01:12:15.497
Being under contract with Weber

01:12:15.998 --> 01:12:20.627
was the biggest, worst thing
that could've happened to us.

01:12:23.964 --> 01:12:27.509
The Kowalskis had
no desire whatsoever

01:12:28.093 --> 01:12:30.262
to spread happiness and feel-goods.

01:12:32.056 --> 01:12:34.183
They only were interested in money.

01:12:36.435 --> 01:12:40.773
There's so many Bob Ross products
that are made now.

01:12:41.523 --> 01:12:42.941
Coffee cups,

01:12:43.442 --> 01:12:45.736
T-shirts, pajamas,

01:12:45.819 --> 01:12:48.113
blankets, lunch boxes,

01:12:48.197 --> 01:12:49.740
jigsaw puzzles,

01:12:49.823 --> 01:12:51.492
ink pens.

01:12:51.575 --> 01:12:52.951
Do you want me to keep goin'?

01:12:53.035 --> 01:12:55.371
<i>Your favorite painter, Bob Ross, Chia Pet.</i>

01:12:55.454 --> 01:12:57.206
- Fantastic.
<i>- Just spread the seeds.</i>

01:12:57.289 --> 01:12:59.541
As the interest has risen,

01:12:59.666 --> 01:13:02.795
we've been very happy
to supply people with Bob Ross products.

01:13:02.878 --> 01:13:07.132
Like, so that they can smile every day
as they drink out of their Bob Ross mug.

01:13:07.633 --> 01:13:12.971
Everything what the Bob Ross Company
communicated to the world was,

01:13:13.055 --> 01:13:14.765
"Bob Ross this, Bob Ross that."

01:13:15.557 --> 01:13:17.643
Bob died. Bob was not involved at all.

01:13:22.731 --> 01:13:24.650
They care about control.

01:13:24.733 --> 01:13:27.778
They wanna own
the whole dang kit and caboodle.

01:13:28.904 --> 01:13:31.990
I mean, I've had enough of it,
to be honest with you.

01:13:35.828 --> 01:13:37.579
Good morning. We're on the record

01:13:37.663 --> 01:13:42.626
in the matter
of RSR Art, LLC v. Bob Ross Inc.

01:13:42.709 --> 01:13:45.421
This is the video deposition
of Robert Steven Ross.

01:13:45.504 --> 01:13:48.465
This is the video deposition
of Dana Jester.

01:13:48.966 --> 01:13:53.345
I'd had decided to put my name
on paint and brushes,

01:13:53.846 --> 01:13:58.100
but even using my own name
was scary for me

01:13:58.684 --> 01:14:03.230
because they believe they are
the full owners of the name Ross.

01:14:03.939 --> 01:14:06.984
I knew I would immediately be sued.

01:14:08.193 --> 01:14:10.529
Our lawyer told us
it's better to sue them.

01:14:10.612 --> 01:14:14.241
It's cheaper than
to have them sue you later

01:14:14.741 --> 01:14:16.452
because they like to sue people.

01:14:17.661 --> 01:14:22.082
Okay, let's, um, talk about
um, my client, Bob Ross Inc.,

01:14:22.166 --> 01:14:24.042
which I will refer to as BRI.

01:14:24.126 --> 01:14:27.796
- An abbreviation you're familiar with?
- That's fine. That's fine.

01:14:27.880 --> 01:14:31.717
Was there more than one person
who came up with the idea of creating RSR?

01:14:31.800 --> 01:14:34.678
- It's a group effort.
- M'kay. And who was the group?

01:14:34.761 --> 01:14:38.807
That would be Lawrence, Steve, and myself.

01:14:38.891 --> 01:14:41.143
- And Lawrence is Lawrence Kapp?
- Yes.

01:14:47.566 --> 01:14:50.861
My father owned
Martin F. Weber Company,

01:14:51.361 --> 01:14:55.199
oldest manufacturer of fine artist
materials in the United States.

01:14:55.282 --> 01:14:59.244
This is a video-recorded
deposition of Mr. Lawrence Kapp.

01:15:00.245 --> 01:15:03.999
For how long
after you joined Martin F. Weber in 2001

01:15:04.082 --> 01:15:10.672
did Martin F. Weber continue to produce
Bob Ross licensed products for BRI?

01:15:11.256 --> 01:15:15.302
Till... 2016.

01:15:16.261 --> 01:15:19.556
Did you, uh, have any,
uh, emotions or feelings...

01:15:19.640 --> 01:15:21.225
- Well, uh...
- ...about the decision

01:15:21.308 --> 01:15:23.727
to let the contract expire
when you learned about it?

01:15:24.228 --> 01:15:26.772
I was very concerned.

01:15:27.814 --> 01:15:31.985
Uh, I came up with
the possibility of doing

01:15:32.069 --> 01:15:35.822
Robert Stephen Ross brushes and paint.

01:15:36.406 --> 01:15:39.576
Steve and I talked in July of 2016.

01:15:40.661 --> 01:15:45.457
Lawrence approached him and said
they could produce the paints, so...

01:15:45.541 --> 01:15:49.378
I was told that, uh... uh,

01:15:49.461 --> 01:15:52.047
you can't do something like that,

01:15:52.548 --> 01:15:55.008
you know, because of his last name,

01:15:55.092 --> 01:15:58.345
unless he owns
the rights to his dad's name

01:15:58.428 --> 01:16:00.556
and the rights to publicity.

01:16:01.056 --> 01:16:04.685
The Bob Ross Company,
the year after Bob passed,

01:16:05.310 --> 01:16:10.691
sued both Bob's third wife,
Lynda Ross, and Jimmie Cox,

01:16:11.733 --> 01:16:15.696
going after, primarily, the paintings
and physical objects.

01:16:17.239 --> 01:16:19.408
Brushes that Bob Ross used,

01:16:19.491 --> 01:16:22.035
palette that Bob used on TV.

01:16:22.953 --> 01:16:25.789
They wanted all the paintings
hanging in his house.

01:16:26.915 --> 01:16:29.676
How would you describe
your relationship with your uncle Jim?

01:16:31.336 --> 01:16:32.337
Shaky.

01:16:35.674 --> 01:16:37.259
Has it always been that way?

01:16:40.470 --> 01:16:44.182
Yes, I'd say it has, come to think of it.

01:16:45.309 --> 01:16:48.228
Never really thought about it
before now, but yeah.

01:16:54.985 --> 01:16:57.487
Steve was trying to figure out

01:16:57.571 --> 01:17:01.241
if he owned the rights to his dad's name.

01:17:01.742 --> 01:17:04.453
And in digging, he said,

01:17:04.536 --> 01:17:07.998
"Oh my gosh. You're not gonna
believe what I just found."

01:17:10.751 --> 01:17:15.505
It was the first amendment
to the Bob Ross non-revocable trust.

01:17:16.757 --> 01:17:23.305
It literally said that Uncle Jim and I
owned almost all the IP rights.

01:17:24.681 --> 01:17:28.101
Everything my father
didn't sign over to BRI.

01:17:28.935 --> 01:17:32.689
He set up the trust that way
because I was young,

01:17:32.773 --> 01:17:37.235
and he knew that Jim was probably
more responsible than I was

01:17:37.319 --> 01:17:41.406
and it would be smart
for him to control things.

01:17:43.200 --> 01:17:48.997
Did your uncle Jim ever tell you
about the settlement that he entered into

01:17:49.081 --> 01:17:53.877
with BRI to... to settle this dispute?

01:17:53.960 --> 01:17:56.588
Absolutely not. No.

01:17:57.923 --> 01:18:00.634
It's correct, is it not,
that in the settlement agreement

01:18:00.717 --> 01:18:03.220
from 1997 that we just reviewed,

01:18:03.303 --> 01:18:05.263
Jimmie Cox, on behalf of the trust,

01:18:05.347 --> 01:18:08.934
assigns all rights
of incidents and ownership,

01:18:09.017 --> 01:18:15.273
creative works, or other assets of BRI
of any kind of character to BRI, correct?

01:18:16.066 --> 01:18:19.945
That is what this document purports.

01:18:20.028 --> 01:18:21.863
What is... what is all this?

01:18:22.948 --> 01:18:26.660
My own uncle
had signed over those rights to them,

01:18:27.786 --> 01:18:31.748
totally against my father's wishes.

01:18:47.848 --> 01:18:51.727
When the Bob Ross company, in '96,

01:18:52.519 --> 01:18:56.231
sued both the estate as well as the trust,

01:18:56.732 --> 01:19:02.738
Jimmie, to make the lawsuit go away,
signs the papers BRI put in front of him.

01:19:02.821 --> 01:19:05.282
Lynda does the same, apparently,

01:19:06.074 --> 01:19:10.078
signing over all rights to BRI.

01:19:11.496 --> 01:19:15.292
In this settlement agreement
was also mentioned some tapes.

01:19:15.792 --> 01:19:19.296
My father didn't discuss
a lot of business things

01:19:19.379 --> 01:19:23.508
with us because, you know,
the Kowalskis didn't want that,

01:19:24.926 --> 01:19:28.054
but he was recording them on the phone.

01:19:28.889 --> 01:19:31.933
They literally taught him how to do this,

01:19:32.517 --> 01:19:34.144
and he knew that, in the future,

01:19:34.227 --> 01:19:37.689
there was going to be a war
with the Kowalskis.

01:19:40.567 --> 01:19:44.654
All of those tapes
were part of what they sued his wife

01:19:44.738 --> 01:19:48.116
that married him
two months before he died.

01:19:49.284 --> 01:19:51.495
They probably disposed of those

01:19:51.578 --> 01:19:53.705
so that nobody could discover

01:19:53.789 --> 01:19:56.291
exactly what was said.

01:20:24.653 --> 01:20:28.323
They literally wanted to steal Dad's name.

01:20:29.324 --> 01:20:30.324
And did.

01:20:37.791 --> 01:20:40.794
I was still hopeful
I could file appeal.

01:20:42.629 --> 01:20:45.715
What we ran into was a lack of funding.

01:20:47.175 --> 01:20:49.511
My attorney said 90 grand

01:20:49.594 --> 01:20:53.098
should get us through the appeal
and win the case.

01:20:53.181 --> 01:20:57.394
I was unable to come up with
the 90 grand in funding,

01:20:57.477 --> 01:21:00.397
and it did not go the way I expected.

01:21:01.565 --> 01:21:05.151
The appeal portion really added
a dollar figure onto it

01:21:05.235 --> 01:21:07.320
we weren't capable of handling.

01:21:20.208 --> 01:21:23.879
Steve went back to Florida
and went into seclusion

01:21:24.379 --> 01:21:27.591
and didn't respond to phone calls.

01:21:31.094 --> 01:21:34.306
But finally, I called him and woke him up.

01:21:34.806 --> 01:21:36.308
Just shook him a little bit.

01:21:38.602 --> 01:21:40.186
I said, "Don't waste your life."

01:21:40.687 --> 01:21:43.857
"I know that's not
what your dad would want you to do."

01:22:00.540 --> 01:22:02.584
Once I started to paint again...

01:22:07.964 --> 01:22:12.093
...I realized I can take
these emotions that I had

01:22:12.594 --> 01:22:14.596
and turn them into something.

01:22:19.017 --> 01:22:22.103
The Kowalskis made millions of dollars

01:22:22.187 --> 01:22:26.650
from, I would say,
exploiting his name and image.

01:22:31.529 --> 01:22:35.492
But he brought
so much happiness to people.

01:22:38.745 --> 01:22:41.081
And that's what's important.

01:22:44.709 --> 01:22:47.921
<i>It's unbelievable what you can do
with a big ol' two-inch brush</i>

01:22:48.004 --> 01:22:50.632
<i>if you'll devote
just a little bit of time to practice.</i>

01:22:52.550 --> 01:22:54.469
<i>And it doesn't take a great deal.</i>

01:22:54.970 --> 01:22:58.056
<i>We get letters from people every day
that have never painted,</i>

01:22:58.765 --> 01:23:01.226
<i>who are doing
some of the most beautiful things.</i>

01:23:04.020 --> 01:23:07.357
<i>They've learnt
to create their own masterpieces.</i>

01:23:09.317 --> 01:23:11.444
<i>It's what makes all this worthwhile.</i>

01:23:12.487 --> 01:23:14.239
<i>The fact that people are doing this</i>

01:23:14.322 --> 01:23:17.158
<i>and enjoying
a tremendous amount of success.</i>

01:23:21.329 --> 01:23:22.329
All right.

01:23:24.749 --> 01:23:27.419
To me, the first step
of accomplishing anything

01:23:27.502 --> 01:23:30.797
is to believe that you can do it,
and I know you can do it.

01:23:38.972 --> 01:23:42.225
I was in a deep depression
which brewed for about ten years.

01:23:43.935 --> 01:23:46.187
I tried to commit suicide,
like, three or four times.

01:23:46.271 --> 01:23:48.440
I tried to... I tried to commit suicide.

01:23:50.025 --> 01:23:54.487
I was sitting in my living room one day,
actually debating a way

01:23:54.571 --> 01:23:58.742
that I could get through this and do this,
and Bob Ross appeared on TV.

01:23:59.993 --> 01:24:04.164
All you have to do
is create a vision in your mind

01:24:04.664 --> 01:24:06.750
and believe that you can do it.

01:24:08.168 --> 01:24:11.838
Because we can do anything in this life
that we believe we can do.

01:24:11.921 --> 01:24:16.134
If you believe strong enough,
anything is possible.

01:24:16.217 --> 01:24:17.844
Anything is possible.

01:24:19.262 --> 01:24:22.098
For somebody like Bob Ross to come on

01:24:22.599 --> 01:24:25.060
and make that
personal connection with you.

01:24:25.560 --> 01:24:26.560
He cares.

01:24:28.646 --> 01:24:30.732
He saved my life. He really did.

01:24:34.986 --> 01:24:37.614
I had to go to the emergency room

01:24:37.697 --> 01:24:42.285
because I was havin' problems
with my pregnancy.

01:24:43.620 --> 01:24:46.081
My kidneys had stopped functioning.

01:24:46.164 --> 01:24:48.416
My liver had stopped functioning.

01:24:50.001 --> 01:24:53.755
And the only thing that they could do

01:24:54.255 --> 01:24:57.675
was to terminate my pregnancy.

01:24:58.635 --> 01:25:01.971
And... that was a hard...

01:25:02.597 --> 01:25:04.974
It was hard to accept.

01:25:07.143 --> 01:25:11.689
The first time I turned on the television,
there was Bob Ross.

01:25:12.190 --> 01:25:15.819
When doing the painting, you look at it
and you decide what makes you happy.

01:25:15.902 --> 01:25:17.320
This is your world right here.

01:25:17.403 --> 01:25:18.988
And there's no right or wrong

01:25:19.072 --> 01:25:21.407
as long as it makes you happy
and doesn't hurt anybody.

01:25:23.201 --> 01:25:27.080
Bob brought the life back into my mind

01:25:27.163 --> 01:25:28.665
and my heart,

01:25:29.582 --> 01:25:33.878
and the joy that I never knew
I could feel by painting.

01:25:37.924 --> 01:25:41.761
That was the whole idea
behind Bob Ross and his painting

01:25:41.845 --> 01:25:47.058
is that he was going to teach people
that they could be valuable.

01:25:47.559 --> 01:25:50.937
They could be important... in this world.

01:25:53.022 --> 01:25:55.608
Beautiful, Steve.
Absolutely beautiful.

01:25:56.609 --> 01:25:58.945
Why, this son of a gun is quite a painter.

01:25:59.445 --> 01:26:03.366
I better watch out, or he'll be on TV,
and I'll be home by myself.

01:26:05.285 --> 01:26:09.914
I don't think my father ever knew
the impact that he was having,

01:26:09.998 --> 01:26:14.294
uh, even towards the end,
even once it got huge.

01:26:14.794 --> 01:26:19.549
He never really absorbed
how much he was loved.

01:26:31.019 --> 01:26:36.107
It's hard to describe
exactly what Bob's appeal was.

01:26:36.691 --> 01:26:40.278
It had to do with his painting abilities,

01:26:40.778 --> 01:26:43.406
it had to do with his voice

01:26:43.907 --> 01:26:47.994
and his personal way of talking to people.

01:26:48.786 --> 01:26:55.335
He just had a tremendous effect
on everybody that got to know him.

01:27:08.014 --> 01:27:11.684
The memory of Bob
lives on through all of us,

01:27:11.768 --> 01:27:13.228
and his legacy lives on

01:27:13.311 --> 01:27:15.605
through all of his fans.

01:27:16.397 --> 01:27:17.982
He told me before he died

01:27:18.066 --> 01:27:23.154
that, uh, he actually wanted people
to remember him

01:27:23.238 --> 01:27:25.281
but not to be sad.

01:27:31.996 --> 01:27:33.790
We all miss you, Dad.

01:27:34.457 --> 01:27:36.000
We all miss you.

01:27:38.169 --> 01:27:40.171
I asked him one time,

01:27:40.255 --> 01:27:42.799
"What are you trying
to prove to the world?"

01:27:42.882 --> 01:27:44.300
And he said,

01:27:44.384 --> 01:27:49.806
"What we do here and now,
people will remember forever."

01:27:49.889 --> 01:27:53.226
<i>Libraries across the country
are filling each week</i>

01:27:53.309 --> 01:27:55.186
<i>with folks yearning to create.</i>

01:27:55.311 --> 01:27:56.854
We painted like Bob Ross

01:27:56.938 --> 01:28:00.275
while watching Bob Ross,
dressed as Bob Ross.

01:28:00.358 --> 01:28:02.777
- Do you guys know Bob Ross?
- Yeah!

01:28:02.860 --> 01:28:05.363
He's almost like a... like a friend.

01:28:05.780 --> 01:28:07.573
Okay, watch this.

01:28:07.657 --> 01:28:08.700
Just like him.

01:28:08.783 --> 01:28:11.202
Is Bob Ross an art therapist?

01:28:11.286 --> 01:28:14.414
Because watching him
is incredibly relaxing.

01:28:14.497 --> 01:28:17.125
Hello there. Welcome back.
I'm glad you could join me today.

01:28:17.709 --> 01:28:20.253
And we're gonna put
a happy little bush right down over here.

01:28:22.005 --> 01:28:23.256
I'm Bob Ross.

01:28:26.634 --> 01:28:29.971
Just stickin' with the same old colors
that we used before.

01:28:30.555 --> 01:28:34.892
Instead of lifting the knife off
the canvas, jiggle it as you go down.

01:28:34.976 --> 01:28:37.562
And then tilt it as you go.

01:28:38.563 --> 01:28:40.940
It's hard to tell people their faults

01:28:41.524 --> 01:28:43.568
and maybe even harder to accept

01:28:43.651 --> 01:28:46.404
that you have made a happy accident.

01:28:49.198 --> 01:28:54.329
A lot of times, I've wondered
if it's not your mistakes

01:28:54.412 --> 01:28:57.123
that teach you
a lot more than your successes.

01:28:57.206 --> 01:28:59.667
A success,
you just move on to the next thing.

01:28:59.751 --> 01:29:01.753
But when you make a mistake

01:29:01.836 --> 01:29:04.464
or have a "happy accident,"
as Bob called it,

01:29:04.547 --> 01:29:10.595
uh, suddenly you learn
all kinds of new ways to correct it,

01:29:10.678 --> 01:29:15.892
and through that learning process,
you really start developing in new ways.

01:29:18.102 --> 01:29:20.229
Well Steve,
what do you think of this painting?

01:29:20.313 --> 01:29:22.065
Well, I think it's pretty good.

01:29:22.148 --> 01:29:23.274
That's very nice.

01:29:23.358 --> 01:29:25.943
And I hope that everyone has enjoyed

01:29:26.027 --> 01:29:28.446
watching you do
a beautiful little painting here.

01:29:29.155 --> 01:29:31.449
So on behalf of all of us
here at the station,

01:29:31.949 --> 01:29:35.578
we'd like to wish
each and every one of you happy painting.

01:29:36.079 --> 01:29:37.121
God bless.

01:29:37.205 --> 01:29:40.750
On behalf of my son Steve,
thanks for watchin'.

01:29:41.250 --> 01:29:42.585
See you next time.

01:29:42.609 --> 01:30:02.609
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