On April 29, 2002, the world of children's television experienced its darkest moment. Steve left for college.
For many of us who are only now getting to know the first host of Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues," we were ourselves
in college then, and had no idea what a heart-wrenching day that was for toddlers and their moms all across America.
But now we find ourselves at home with our own children, raising a new generation of preschoolers who think
Steve Burns (or more precisely, "Steve," the character he played for more than five years on "Blue's Clues") is the
greatest thing since sliced bread.
The Steve we know and love, in his green striped shirt and khaki pants, is the cool babysitter
who never panders to our kids, but engages their attention in profitable endeavors such as
learning grammar, math, science and even good manners, without boring them. He gives us a much needed half-hour break during our ever hectic days, and for many of us,
may be our only connection with the adult world until the dinner hour rolls around.
The only problem is that we can only watch Steve in syndicated reruns. As many of us moms are now realizing,
the "Blue's Clues" episodes we're watching with our toddlers are not current... rather, they were filmed almost a decade ago!
(And the even more surprising discovery is that the real Steve is just a little older than we are!)
It has been over four years since he left. So, by our calculations, he should have graduated from college by now. Granted, Steve wasn't exactly the cerebral
type when he started freshman year. I mean, he did have trouble with shapes, colors, and numbers. But he was meticulous
at taking notes in his handy dandy notebook, and always exhibited a dogged perseverance for finding pawprints. So we have
no doubt Steve made it through his undergraduate studies. And unless he decided to go for his master's degree in Clueology,
we think it's about time he returns home!
As for the real life Steve Burns, he isn't dead (as the Internet rumor perpetuated in the late 1990s claimed) but alive and rocking.
Yes, Steve Burns left "Blue's Clues" and became a musician. For those of us who boogied to his "Silly Hat Song" or
teared up during "We Appreciate You" (his serenade to Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper), we knew he was the real thing. But it's still a bit surprising to find him as
a bona fide rock star, whose second album is about to be released. Although the green-striped
Steve is always welcome in our homes, the truth is that the real Steve Burns, we realize, is probably way too cool
to associate with the vast majority of us. And we realize he is probably not at a point in his career that he would want to return to the blue screen
to host "Blue's Clues" in its current form, to become our generation's Mr. Rogers.
But we still hope that he will
return someday, maybe for a guest appearance or a feature film. After all, long after
"Star Trek" left the airwaves, the actors still appeared
in the "Star Trek" movies, so it's never too late for Steve and Blue to reunite for a sequel to "Blue's Big Musical Movie."
Audiences still lined up for "Superman Returns" twenty years after the first "Superman" premiered, so surely
Stripeman can cometh again in a sequel too. Ergo, here is our united cry to Steve Burns and the powers that be
at Nickelodeon: Come home to Blue and the rest of us, if only for one more playdate!
Okay, let's get serious. We hope you enjoy this site as our tribute to our favorite children's show, and
its very cool original host.
Even after ten years, "Blue's Clues" is still, by leaps and bounds, the best preschool show on television,
and we hope it stays on the air forever. And, even if Steve Burns is now a hip indie rocker, we can't stop
hoping that he'll return someday to the little computer-generated house where he and his puppy grew up. We'll be waiting.
