From 1983 to 1994, the smiling, gently encouraging figure of Bob Ross was the speedy landscape painting instructor of the public access show The Joy of Painting.
Through his television show, workshops and the sale of branded art materials, he helped tens of thousands of ordinary Americans churn out folksy evocations of the country's natural beauty.
Ross had begun life as a US Air Force pilot before discovering, in the liberated, heady days of the late 1960s and '70s, that he was wasting his life in the military and should pursue his creative dreams.
Through a series of happy accidents he befriended a seemingly benign and supportive couple — fellow painter Annette Kowalski and her retired CIA-employed husband Walt, who bankrolled Ross's move into television and became the quietly and ultimately nefariously greedy puppet masters of his business and brand.
When Ross died of lymphoma in 1995, his family found that the rights to his name rested with the Kowalskis, leaving his heirs with no claim to the vast sums of money that the couple have continued to make on the back of Ross' legacy for the past 25 years.
Told through interviews with Ross's son Steve, who is also a painter, and several of Ross's close friends and colleagues, the film does not tarnish the image of its subject. If anything Ross comes off as even more loveable than he already has in the internet age, where he's something of a soothing, endlessly memeable source of positive encouragement and hope.
Though it may not succeed in being as controversial as its publicity campaign promises, and is never able to get close to the villains of its tale, it manages to raise some serious questions about Ross's treatment.
It's a sad indictment of the greedy motivations underlying the myth of the American Dream that even a man as beloved as Ross had the wool pulled over his eyes when it came to the almighty dollar.
Though they declined to be interviewed for the film, the Kowalskis have since come out to decry the image that it portrays of them and have, of course, threatened legal action against everyone involved.
Whether or not this time round Steve and the rest of the Ross family have enough popular support behind them to right the wrongs remains to be seen.
• 'Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed' is available on Netflix.
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