Growing up without cable television, the people I gravitated to were Bob Ross, Mr. Rogers, Levar Burton, Mr. Wizard and Alex Trebek. I don't regret not growing up with the wild variety of cable networks, for I can consider myself an OG when it comes to the media that so many people only wish they had been able to follow. The Mr. Rogers memes are especially hilarious to me considering I avidly watched his show.
Either way, Bob Ross was the unusual noise in the background who somehow made cool paintings in less than half an hour. I have never been much of an artist so I always loved how he was capable of such things so quickly. I have fond remembrance of the man, and for the longest time I just wanted it to stay that way.
Of course, the modern era with its thousands of channels and shows eventually had to come around and talk about the world of Bob Ross. I mean, we already broke down all of the other stalwarts of my youth, so now it was his turn. I was expecting the worst, but thankfully his only real vice was he seemed to like the ladies too much, which in all honesty is forgivable as long as he isn't outright assaulting them. However, the real tragedy is the story is the twisted and painful aftermath of his death.
Turns out the likeness of Bob Ross was a fierce and ugly battle. One thing the modern era has taught us is with the commodification of everything is that if we are not careful, we may not even own the intellectual rights to our own name!! Now this sounds utterly ridiculous, but this is what happened to Ross' family when a scrupulous family member signed a very unfriendly contract that pretty much gave the likeness of Ross away to a third party. This basically means all of the board games, t-shirts and even coffee mugs are not even being licensed by the family. Heck, the paints that bear his name on them are not even being made by the company Bob originally picked to distribute.
The result is a sad tale of making sure you have all your ducks in a row after death. While it was completely one sided affair, judging by the amount of products and fear that many people displayed in the making of this documentary, its pretty clear this was a highway robbery. Without the other side participating, we can't get a full picture of the story. But its pretty clear who is the wrong side. Either way, watch the film and enjoy the funny old photos of Bob, and then prepare to be sad. That seems to come in spades these days.
