Steve Burns says he loved what made Blue’s Clues unique, but was skeptical that these things would be appreciated by children on a worldwide scale.
Nickelodeon
Blue’s Clues may be one of the most successful children’s shows of all time, and that’s not something former host Steve Burns would have ever predicted. Created by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler, and Angela C. Santomero, Blue’s Clues first premiered on Nickelodeon in 1996. Burns served as the original host of the series until 2002, when Donovan Patton replaced him as Joe. The series continued with Patton until 2006, though it was revived as Blue’s Clues & You! in 2019 with new host Josh Dela Cruz.
Both Burns and Patton make special appearances in Blue’s Clues & You!, and all three hosts united for the Paramount+ movie Blue’s Big City Adventure. It’s part of the franchise’s ongoing success, which has been monumental since the show’s debut in 1996. It’s been quite the journey for Burns, who’s reflecting on the origins of Blue’s Clues in a new interview with People. He recalls how he personally liked the idea of the show, but at the same time, he had serious doubts that the show’s premise would work.
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From the interview:
“I didn’t think it would work at all. I thought it was simply too strange and too breakthrough, and I didn’t think the kids would talk back to the TV screen. These are all the things that I liked about it, but I didn’t think that they would work. I doubted it. I was skeptical that they would work. I liked that it was kind of the Rocky Horror Children’s Show.”
Blue’s Clues was different from other children’s programming at the time, as it featured a human interacting with animated characters. Filming the series this way meant having Burns spend hours in front of a camera with a green screen behind him. Burns noted how the series became No. 1 despite its unusual premise and observed how filming the big show always felt “very small” to him.
“That was deeply weird television. Then it aired, and it became immediately No. 1, and it had this global reach and everything…It always felt like a very small and personal experience to me… It was me and a camera. And in my mind, it was me and a conversation with one other human being. So it always felt very small to me.”
Steve Is Back in the Blue’s Clues Universe
Paramount+
Burns departed Blue’s Clues in 2002 for personal reasons, but in a video that went viral online, he returned as the Steve character to address his exit. He has also been appearing regularly in the Blue’s Clues & You! world, which includes a key role in Blue’s Big City Adventure. In a separate interview with Variety, Burns also described how he enjoys playing Steve now more than ever before, loving his special appearances with the character’s updated wardrobe. As Burns puts it:
“I’ve never enjoyed being Steve more than I do now. I get to wear a trenchcoat. It’s like Grover-meets-Columbo — a clown character. That’s really freeing somehow.”
You can stream Blue’s Big City Adventure, along with classic episodes of Blue’s Clues, on Paramount+.
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