Since his show, 

The Joy of Painting, first aired on PBS in

1983, Bob Ross has wooed viewers with speedy brushwork, a
soothing cadence, and a very distinctive cloud of hair. His ever-
sunny optimism has been a perennial selling point, too: “We
don’t make mistakes. We just have happy accidents,” he
routinely cooed at his viewers.
While these qualities may seem distinctive to Ross, they in fact
have a very clear precedent: Ross’s own mentor, a painter by
the name of William “Bill” Alexander. It was Alexander who
taught Ross how to complete a full landscape in under 30
minutes. It was Alexander who was the first to host a live
painting show, The Magic of Oil Painting, on PBS. It was even
Alexander who coined the catchphrase “happy little trees,”
now largely attributed to Ross.
One of the students whom Alexander attracted was Ross.
Recently out of the army, a young Ross was on the hunt for a
place to hone the nascent painting skills he’d picked up during
his service. He took one of Alexander’s courses in California and
was hooked: “I took one class and I went crazy,”
Ross told the New York Times in 1991. “I knew this was what I
wanted to do.” Alexander noticed Ross’s inherent skill, and
took him on as something of an protege.
In late 1973, he got his wish. A new public broadcast station
based in Huntington Beach, KOCE, invited Alexander to record a
pilot. Despite his nervousness, he was a natural. He went on to
have a nearly 10-year run as the host of his very own painting
show. Each episode opened the same way: “Hello,” he said,
with an ear-to-ear smile. “My name is Bill Alexander, and I can
teach you how to paint.”
The show, dubbed The Magic of Oil Painting, was an almost-
immediate success. By 1979, Alexander had even bagged an
Emmy, becoming the first career painter to receive the famed
television award. At the time, it seemed that Alexander’s days
as a struggling artist were over. He had a wildly successful
show, along with a line of painting supplies and how-to books.
He was a household name in America. He’d made it.
But he was soon faced with a new challenge. Ross had started
teaching his own wet-on-wet lessons, and a cohort of students
and PBS executives took notice. His approach to painting was
the same as Alexander’s, but his temperament was distinct.
Instead of excitable, Ross was mesmerizingly calm, with a soft,
lilting voice. His look was familiar and accessible, too; he wore
beat-up jeans, flannel shirts, and a ’fro that harkened back to
1970s hippie culture. People not only loved him for his deft
painting skills, but for his ability to put them at ease. By 1983,
PBS had replaced Alexander’s show with The Joy of Painting,
hosted by Ross.

In 1982, to plug the new show, PBS ran a commercial that

showed Alexander passing a brush—the TV painter’s proverbial
torch—to Ross: “I hand off my mighty brush to a mighty man,
and that is Bob Ross,” Alexander exclaimed. “Thank you very
much Bill,” Ross responded, with typical tranquility.
In the first episode of The Joy of Painting’s second season, Ross
paid homage to Alexander: “Years ago, Bill taught me this
fantastic technique, and I feel as though he gave me a precious
gift. I’d like to share that gift with you.” Alexander also went
onto co-host another show for PBS, The Art of Bill Alexander &
Robert Warren, which ran from 1984 until 1992. Even so, in a
1991 profile on Ross, Alexander made clear to the New York
Times that he felt jilted by his one-time apprentice: “I trained
him and he is copying me—what bothers me is not just that he
betrayed me, but that he thinks he can do it better.”
While Alexander Art—the company that sells the painting
supplies popularized by Alexander, along with lessons inspired
by his process—operated until his death and continues to offer
products and online courses today, Alexander’s own legacy has
faded in comparison to that of his protégé. This may be
because, as Kleon has pointed out, a 1980s and ’90s audience
was more comfortable with Ross’s laid-back, American-bred
attitude than Alexander’s approach, which was more fiery and
regimented.
While Ross’s soothing demeanor and his distinctive hair were
certainly his own, other aspects of his appeal were no doubt
gleaned from Alexander. Perhaps most influentially, Ross
adopted Alexander’s affirmative, approachable teaching
technique: one emphasizing that art was available to all and, if
practiced, could inspire creativity, optimism, and appreciation
of the surrounding world.
“When you learn to paint, you learn to see, and you learn to
appreciate beauty around you. That’s what drove Bill,”
explained Anderson. “As long as he could get in front of more
people, and let people know his philosophy, which was that he
always dreamed of a better tomorrow, he was happy.”