Okay. I'll admit it.
I love...LOVE...watching The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.
Working from home during the mid-2010's, and during the COVID pandemic, I would have the television on for background noise. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, after Maury Povich finished his daily episodes of lie detector or paternity tests, I'd change the channel to the PBS Create channel and watch/listen/work to two episodes of Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting.
Every 30-minute episode featured Ross teaching viewers how to make oil paintings of beautiful nature scenes (mountains, oceans, forests) in less than 30 minutes. With no more than 13 regular colors of oil paints, a set of brushes and knives that wouldn't normally be used for painting on canvas, the man encouraged viewers to use their imaginations and create a world with happy little trees, imposing mountains, flowing rivers, old cabins, and everything in between. His cadence, very calm and soothing demeanor was part of the appeal. While similar shows had the host talking loud, fast, with technical terms that would leave most viewers who immersed in that Hobby scratching their heads, Bob Ross explained everything in an easy-to-follow way that even a non-artistic person like me can understand and appreciate. He made ME even think I can paint masterpieces (Reality: I can't). But hey, I wasn't making mistakes, just happy accidents.
My smart TV (the first television my wife and I bought in 27 years of marriage after a lifetime of hand-me-down TV's) can lead me to a 24-hour Bob Ross channel, but Saturday nights at 8:00 pm are appointment television with back-to-back episodes of Bob and masterpieces that would take normal human beings hours to paint, and he did these in under 30 minutes.
Okay, let's try and reign this in. This is a baseball card blog after all.
In 2023, Topps introduced an online-exclusive set called Topps x Bob Ross: The Joy of Baseball.
2023 Topps x Bob Ross: The Joy of Baseball Pack
A pallete of parallels. Each named after a color regularly used by Bob Ross.
But there one card stood out among the rest.
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| 2023 Topps x Bob Ross: The Joy of Baseball Bob Ross #BR |
This super short-printed card. I wanted it. But the rarity plus the inevitable demand from those outside the Hobby community made me think this would be impossible to find at a reasonable price. Actually, while looking on the Bay, there is a PSA 9 card right now starting at $249.00 (just started as of 45 minutes ago). I'm going to follow this to see how high this goes.
After a year off, Topps brought back the Joy of Baseball, again an online-exclusive product, with a new design...
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| Cards from the 2025 Topps x Bob Ross: The Joy of Baseball set. |
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| Come on...this is beautiful. |
and of course, a new Bob Ross card.
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| 2025 Topps x Bob Ross: The Joy of Baseball Bob Ross #BR |
If you dig deeper into the history of Bob Ross, there are controversies. The documentary on Netflix was certainly eye-opening, the topic being what happened to his estate, properties, artwork after he passed away. And certainly at the time the 2023 product was announced, there were those who boycotted because they were on the side of Bob and his family, not those who are in control of his name, likeness, and images. I enjoyed the PBS special that featured his studio and it's conversion to a museum.
But I would like to own either (or both...I have high goals), but I don't think I ever will. I think Topps blew an opportunity to include him as a subject in this year's (or 2023's...to coincide with the product of that year of course) Allen & Ginter's set.
Maybe next year.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
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