The Joy of PBS

Last week I was working upstairs and needed a little break. I was not half way down the stairs when I heard an excited clamoring coming from a choir of a dozen 13 year-old boys and girls in the kitchen.

Curious, and hungry (bored? procrastinating?), I ventured in to discover said teenagers surrounding an 12" TV, airing what apeared to be the most amazing thing any of them had ever seen.

You know I am not exaggerating if you have ever seen- or remember- a teenager's flair for drama.

I assumed it was an extreme sport. Clearly someone was risking life and limb. Wrestling wild animals? Racing and rolling cars? Cirque de Soleil?

To my surprise- when I finally pushed my way near the front of the group, this is who I saw:

Bob Ross, Founder of the Joy of Painting, the PBS series that aired for 31 seasons starting in 1982 and is thought to be the most successful DIY art show to date. Sadly, he died in 1995 in his early 50s from Lymphoma, though his legacy (and empire) live on.

Is it possible that I have never seen him before?

His painting and voice were hypmotizing, and like the teenagers before me, I too was entranced.

Before our eyes, the blank canvas turned into a landscape and just when you thought he couldn't go any further, he would dab a little more paint on the canvas to show the sun sparkling on the lakeshore or a new tree next to an existing one so it would "have a friend".

His soft spoken way and friendly demeanor reminded me of another PBS icon, the beloved Mister Rogers. This was the very first show I remember watching, with old Fred putting on his cardigan and sneakers and taking us to the slightly terrifying Neighborhood of Make-Believe (Or, as I thought of it, Neighborhood of Scary-Old-Puppets). No fooling this little girl.

While I eventually grew out of Mr. Rogers show and on to much more sophisticated TV like the Smurfs (they deserve their own post though, no?) and Ducktails, I never grew out of this PBS classic courtsey of Sesame Street.

Two words: orange crayon.

Watch the video here

So thank you, Bob Ross, for this trip down memory lane. When I came back downstairs a while later one of the boys told me that they had called the station trying to buy one of his paintings but were told they were not for sale. I read later that Bob donated all of the paintings he did on the show to PBS to "help them out."

Only at PBS, kids, only at PBS.

Xoxo,

Jenny