Awww shucks what a happy-go-lucky heapin' helpin' of bullshit.

Back before the Internet discovered Bob Ross, back in '01 or '02, back before they had a social media consultant and a Youtube channel and all the rest of it, I decided I wanted to have a Bob Ross. I decided that would be ironic. So, from the ground up, where do you start? Well, I emailed my local PBS station, who gave me the media coordinator for Bob Ross, Inc, which did not yet have a website but did have a thriving business in art supplies.

The semi-brusque lady I spoke to on the phone informed me that they received multiple queries per week on acquiring a Bob Ross and that they all received the same information: Bob Ross would not sell his paintings, he provided them to PBS stations that had done particularly well during pledge drives of his show, and that occasionally when a PBS station was closed down or went through bankruptcy they became available on the market but it was a rare thing and as the executor of his estate they had appointed an agent at Sotheby's to handle such sales, would I like her number?

Bob Ross Inc. makes several million dollars a year and has since the '80s. I remain a big fan of Bob Ross, am delighted that he's got a second existence, begrudge them no success but this aw shucks act is a little disingenuous.