The Joy of Painting

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Bob Ross at his easel

The Joy of Painting was an American television show hosted by Bob Ross that taught viewers how to complete a painting of a landscape in thirty minutes.

The show was broadcast by non-commercial public television stations; the show was first produced by WNVC in Falls Church, Virginia through the early-1980s, then WIPB in Muncie, Indiana from 1983 to 1995, and later by Blue Ridge Public Television in Roanoke, Virginia. Most of the series was distributed by what is now American Public Television. It also developed a cult following.

Each show began with Ross standing with a blank canvas in front of a black background. Over thirty minutes, Ross would turn the blank canvas into an imaginary landscape, using colors like Titanium White, Phthalo Green (a color often used), Phthalo Blue, Prussian Blue, Midnight Black, Dark Sienna, Van Dyke Brown, Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green, Cadmium Yellow (or "Cad Yellow" for short), Yellow Ochre, Indian Yellow, and Bright Red. His efforts were accompanied by a soothing monologue about the "happy clouds" and "happy trees" that he was creating with his brush.

Despite the death of Ross, the show continues to be broadcast in syndication on public television stations, and continues a multi-million dollar spin-off business bearing Ross' name that sells art accessories related to the show. Reruns are sometimes packaged under the title The Best of Joy of Painting.

As of 2006, The Joy of Painting was being shown in many countries worldwide, such as Turkish state broadcaster TRT (with the title Resim Sevinci), German television (BR-Alpha), Discovery Real Time (Sky Digital channel 250) in the UK, AT5 in Amsterdam (as well as several other public stations across The Netherlands), NHK in Japan, and Once TV in Mexico ,ATV and ICable TV in Hong Kong.

There will be a video game for Nintendo DS and Nintendo's Wii console based on the series entitled: Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting, [1]. AFRAG was the original developer [2], but they dropped the project. It is currently being shopped around to various developers. [3]