Happy Trees in a Black Box: Elevated Escapism as Comfort Television in The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

Abstract

Using The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross (PBS, 1983–1994) as a case study, this article analyzes three vectors of elevated escapism—categorization as comfort TV, nostalgia for public media, and an art pedagogy drawing on medieval and picturesque traditions. These three vectors, which are applicable to the program and the discourse surrounding it in the late 2010s and were heightened in 2020, exemplify the discursive category of comfort TV in the 2020s, amplified by American television critics and journalists in such a way that further normalizes class-based tastes in the era of streaming television.