Did you know that the famous afro that TV painter Bob Ross sported all those years was really just a perm? A bad one, yes, but those tight curls came at the hands of a hair stylist. That’s just one of the “wow, I didn’t know that” moments in a documentary that presents itself as dark and maybe twisty, but ends up being both more and less than that.

Bob Ross, as people surely know, was the soft-spoken, vibey dude who was like Mr. Rogers, if Mr. Rogers wore earth shoes and occasionally had a toke or two. Ross was universally loved – both by aspiring painters who latched onto his “you can do it” message, “there are no mistakes, just happy accidents,” and by pop culture at large – he was as ripe for Saturday Night Live parody as his sweater-wearing PBS colleague.

The new documentary “Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed” promises a showbiz tale as old as time: humble beginnings, followed by increasing success, a promising business partner or manager (in this case, Walt and Annette Kowalski), and, inevitably, someone screwing over someone else when the big money comes rolling in.

Director Joshua Rofé keeps that timeline pretty chronological and straightforward. Starting with Ross’s adult son, Steve (we will see him a lot, as most people were afraid to participate in the doc, lest they come under fire by the litigious Kowalski’s) who takes us back to the early days. Bob Ross was an Air Force Sargent who spent most of his career in Alaska and who, from the get-go, had both a talent and a passion for painting.

I was afraid that the film was going to end up being some kind of exposé that would reveal that Ross wasn’t the mensch he seemed to be, but, no- he really was a good dude. Obviously, he was more complicated than we would know from a 30 minute program wherein Ross starts with a blank canvas and ends up with a realistic landscape, often textured with his signature “happy clouds.” But that’s what we want to see- something beyond that TV persona, and those reveals are the best parts of the film.

But as his star was rising, the Kowalski couple got dollar signs in their eyes and, essentially, turned Bob Ross the man into a logo on art supplies and classes and other forms of merchandising. If he had sold them his name it would have been one thing, but in the final third of the film, the narrative of how the Kowalski couple gained control on the company kicks in, and how they left Ross’s heirs with just about nothing, complicated by Ross’s own brother screwing things up after the artist’s untimely death from cancer at the age of 52.

So, it’s a hybrid flick – part bio, part backstabbing behind-the-scenes intrigue.  The former was a joy and the latter a bummer, but I was happy to see the man behind the ‘fro and learn a few things about him that I didn’t know before. I’m recommending the film: 3 out of 4 Stars. Now streaming on Netflix.

And screw the Kowalskis.