Sitting at a bar and staring up at the TV, you might expect to see something that’s at least a bit distressing and divisive — like sports, or the news.

You do not really expect to see a familiar looking man with big hair painting landscapes and speaking in a voice that’s apparently worthy of an eight-hour ASMR video. You do not expect to see Bob Ross.

Not so for regulars at Pizzeria Paradiso’s Spring Valley location, however,  who have come to expect Bob Ross with their beer and Neapolitan style pizza. For more than a year now he’s been playing nonstop on one of the location’s two bar TVs. And he’ll be there “forever,” if Tony Hamilton, the restaurant’s general manager, has anything to say about it.

Now, Bob Ross is coming to Pizzeria Paradiso’s Hyattsville location. When Hamilton took over that location about three months ago, getting “The Joy of Painting” on the TV was one of his first priorities.

“He’s just so apolitical and inspirational and creative,” Hamilton says. “You just can’t not be happy when it’s on.”

And he won’t just be on your bar TV. He’ll be part of your beer. Or rather his cousin will be: Meet Hop Ross, who bears a striking resemblance to the late TV artist — only he is green, a hop (one of beer’s key ingredients), and likes to paint beer on his landscapes.

This lesser known Ross is planning on launching his own series: “The Joy of Drinking with Hop Ross.” Episode one is the Happy Little Pale Ale, a collaboration beer made by Pizzeria Paradiso and D.C.’s Right Proper Brewing Company. The pale ale, which has notes of citrus and pine, is now on tap at the pizza joint’s Hyattsville and Spring Valley locations.

“When customers are interacting with their bartenders and just commenting on how much they love Bob Ross, and ‘look at that happy tree,’ they can say ‘look at this happy little pale ale. Would you like to try it?’” Hamilton says. “I’m kind of silly excited about it.”

He’s planning on collaborating with more local breweries, and is currently in talks with Streetcar 82 Brewing Co, a Maryland brewery down the street from the Hyattsville location.

“That’ll be episode two, ‘Happy Little Sour,’” Hamilton says.

Hamilton says all this began with, as Bob Ross would say, a “happy little accident.” One day, a little more than a year ago, one of Hamilton’s bartenders was switching through TV channels at the Spring Valley Paradiso and landed on one that played Bob Ross 24/7. He left it on “as a joke.”

“I specifically remember walking in, seeing all the staff’s faces, expecting me to be like ‘oh, that’s funny, change it back to sports,’” Hamilton says. “But I kind of went with the joke for a little bit and said ‘let’s leave it on.’”

Hamilton then began to notice a change in their customers, who — after overcoming any surprise or confusion at seeing Bob Ross on a bar’s TV — would smile, and watch the show attentively. He says it created a “family atmosphere.”

“All of a sudden we have people that don’t know each other, have never interacted before, suddenly turning to each other and initiating a conversation,” Hamilton says.

For some customers, Bob Ross isn’t just a quirky part of the background. It’s why they go. There’s a married couple, Hamilton says, that often comes and sits right in front of the “Joy of Painting” TV. They sit “enraptured” for an hour or more, watching Bob Ross and talking about Bob Ross — with each other and with the bartender — between mouthfuls of pizza and wine.

Families come too, and their kids make a beeline for the TVs. “‘Yes!'” the kids say, according to Hamilton. “‘The guy with the big hair is on.'”

“The past many years now have been very stressful and exhausting,” Hamilton adds. “Having something that just brings so much joy with zero baggage is just lovely.”

The program’s popularity is leading to other tie-ins at Pizzeria Paradiso; customers at the Hyattsville location can soon participate in a monthly art class. Starting Feb. 26, the Hyattsville location will co-host a “paint and sip” series with neighboring business Art Works Now on the last Sunday of each month. Classes are at 3 p.m. and customers can get happy hour discounts.