1 9 8 3 – 1 9 9 4 (USA)
This 30-minute instructional television show from PBS featured painter Bob Ross teaching techniques for landscape oil painting.
Each show was shot in real time with two cameras relaying a medium shot of Ross and his canvas and a close-up shot of the canvas or palette, with him completing a painting in each session.
As he painted, Ross would explain the techniques he was using – describing the “happy little clouds” and “happy little trees” that he was creating – but would also chat about his own life and history, 
including his military career and the time he spent in Alaska.
Ross was diagnosed with lymphoma in the early 1990s.
This forced his retirement after the final episode of The Joy of Painting aired on 17 May 1994.
He died on 4 July 1995 at the age of 52.
