Bob Ross Fans Boycott ‘Exploiters,’ Claim Painter’s ‘Name Was Tarnished By Greed’ Amid Netflix Release

Following the release of the Netflix documentary "Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed" on Wednesday, fans of the painter are crying foul over the company that helped launch his career.

The documentary follows the life of Bob Ross, who rose to fame as an artist on the PBS show, “The Joy of Painting.”

Ross, who was discovered at a mall, where he was teaching different painting techniques, appeared on PBS from 1983 to 1994, producing some 30,000 paintings for TV viewers.

He died in 1995 at the age of 52 from lymphoma.

The Florida-born painter is known for his gentle approach to painting, with memorable sayings such as “happy little trees” and his notorious permed hair. But what soon came out in the Netflix documentary was an alleged two-decade-long battle with Annette and Walt Kowalski, who launched his career and eventually ended up with the majority share of Bob Ross Inc. – the company that profits off of Ross’ name and image.

Upon the release of the Netflix documentary, Bob Ross Inc. released a statement that said that it “ takes strong issue with the inaccurate and heavily slanted portrayal of our company in the Netflix film, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed.”

It continued by saying, “If not for the efforts of the remaining founders and their dedication to this mission, Bob’s artistic and cultural relevance – and his expressed desire to become the world’s most beloved painting teacher and friend – would have been lost decades ago with his passing.”

But fans of Ross disagreed, calling for a boycott of Bob Ross Inc. with the hashtag #BoycottBRI.

Many fans of the painter said they would never buy merchandise from Bob Ross Inc. ever again and called for other fans of Ross to do the same, saying the Kowalskis had “tarnished” Ross’ name “by greed.”

Others called the Kowalskis “exploiters” and accused the family of just making money off of this “beautiful man.”

Still, others just summed it up by saying after they watched the documentary, “I love him now more than I did when we watched him decades ago.”

Live-streamed marathon episodes of Ross’ “The Joy of Painting” can be viewed on Twitch on Fridays at 12 p.m. ET.