Written in September 2021, the day after I watched Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed, a 2021 Netflix documentary directed by Joshua Rofé. Everything below is my reaction to that documentary, not independent reporting.
You know Bob Ross. The cheerful painter whose catchphrase in the Korean dub was “참 쉽죠?”, which is roughly “See? Easy, right?”
The day before I wrote this, I spotted his friendly face on Netflix and hit play right away. The title should have warned me: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed. What I got was not so friendly. No happy little trees in this one.
The man who became a brand
Bob Ross made more than 400 episodes of his TV show, The Joy of Painting, and won a huge amount of attention and love. He was a good guy, wildly charming, and over time he himself became the brand.
At some point he met a married couple, Annette and Walt Kowalski, who became his business partners. They worked together for a long time and grew the business. But according to the documentary, as Bob Ross the person got bigger, the couple focused on one thing only: how to make more money off him.
Then Bob’s health suddenly got worse, and he passed away. The couple took everything connected to the revenue.
His son, Steve Ross, ended up owning none of his father’s legacy. He couldn’t even use his own name, Steve Ross, for his own business.
In short: a man who spent years becoming a brand got swallowed whole by his business partners.
Watching it, three things hurt the most.
1. The son’s early choice: a button you can’t re-button
When Steve was young, his father wanted to hand everything down to him. Steve didn’t take it. He was stubborn about doing what he wanted to do.
In my view, he should have thought harder about it back then. He should have understood how much power his father had built up.
2. The uncle’s ugly choice
As the documentary told it, an uncle who had been given 51% of the voting rights by Bob Ross sold the enormous “Bob Ross” brand to the Kowalskis.
That let them legally own the rights. And since their company legally became “Bob Ross,” they could put the Bob Ross name on any painting and sell it with no problem. What gets sold isn’t a painting by Bob Ross. It’s a “Bob Ross painting.”
3. Bob’s own unclear response
While his mind was still clear, Bob should have foreseen what would happen after his death, in more detail and more clearly.
According to the documentary, the partners kept calling him in his hospital bed, demanding everything, even his name, as if the whole business had been theirs from the start. Bob got angry, yelled, and hung up.
I get it. I’d be furious too. But while he was alive, I think he needed to handle it coldly and strategically instead of emotionally. I keep wondering what would have happened if he’d hired a sharp lawyer and made every share and every document crystal clear.
Legal isn’t the same as right
I’ve read that the business is now run by the couple’s daughter, Joan Kowalski.
My opinion: even if they have the legal upper hand, I think this situation deserves moral criticism. The part that really got me emotional was seeing, in the documentary, how they used the brand’s power along the way to copy a competitor’s techniques as if they were their own, publish books, and openly make money. That goes against basic business ethics.
Treating a brand that one person, Bob Ross, built over his life as if it were 100% theirs is, to me, immoral. As his son, Steve has a right to inherit. And by the original owner’s intent, as I understood it from the documentary, the son clearly should have a share. I think Steve has every reason to ask for it.
When I wrote this, there were two petitions supporting Steve. If you feel the same way, take a look:
- Return Bob Ross’s name and likeness to his son, as he intended
- Boycott Bob Ross Inc. – Help Steve to get profits from sales
I hope what Bob Ross built ends up with his family, for generations.