The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross was one of those rare PBS broadcasts that I would actually watch from start to finish. It wasn't because I am a painter or even interested in painting. No, it had to do with Bob Ross himself. He had such a soothing tone of voice, easy going style that just put me at ease for 30 minutes, mentally and physically. For 30 minutes, all my problems, all my troubles were trivial as I watched him build that blasted cabin without a chimney and me thinking, "Bob, you going to freeze those people to death". But, as Bob said, "We don't make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents." I watched him because you could tell he really enjoyed what he was doing. Bob was enthusiastic about painting and wanted his viewers to join in with him. I'm not sure how many of his TV audience ever joined in his passion for painting. But, it didn't matter. I think most people watched his show because of him.

Bob always hinted about what a rough life he had. He never got into specifics. But, you got the feeling that life had not been kind to him. You could always tell he had a deep and firm belief in God. He never backed away from that in any of his shows. Oh, Bob Ross didn't proselytize to his audience. That wasn't his way. He shared his beliefs in the same way he shared his love for painting. I liked Bob Ross. I regret I never had the opportunity to meet him in person. I guess I'm making a blog entry about him because I watched a "Best of the Joy of Painting" episode last night. It brought back memories of watching him on Saturday afternoons at 2:30PM CST. I never missed watching it if I possibly could.

Bob Ross died in 1995 of cancer. I remember being completely stunned. I always referred to him as "The Painter" to my family who couldn't understand why I was so enthralled with his show. I remember being greatly saddened by this announcement. You just know he was a great guy, someone you would have liked immensely if you would have had the opportunity to meet him. As TV Guide memorialized him (paraphrasing here), "Bob Ross always talked about happy mountains, happy clouds and particularly those happy little trees that he made in virtually every painting on his show. We suspect today those happy little trees are little weeping willows".

God Bless you, Bob. Your fans still miss you.