One Step at a Time _ Blue's Clues

Show of hands who's watched it .

I think one of my favorite forms of the modern day form of pop culture is just the sheer power nostalgia holds over all of us , especially us , early two thousands babies being of the age where we're in college or are currently in the process of doing so it's easy to look back at simpler times with , with thoughts of what am I doing here ?

I'm not old enough for any of this help .

I think the complex world of children's television is one that merits a video all on its own .

But for now I want to focus specifically on one of my earliest friends .

Hi out there .

It's me , Steve .

Have you seen Blue , my puppy ?

Come on in , in 1979 Warner Cable rebranded the multi cable television network Cube into a new block called Nickelodeon .

We took everything that was wrong with children's television and got rid of it .

We kept everything that was good about it and made it better .

The result is Nickelodeon , the young people's satellite network .

After the success of Mr rogers' neighborhood , Nickelodeon wanted to enter the preschool education television market airing shows such as Pinwheel , David , the gnome and the adventures of Little Koala .

They then split off creating a separate block in 1988 called Nick Junior , eventually creating their first exclusive show , Eureka's Castle at the time .

However , Nick Junior was losing to the competition of TLC and P TV .

That was until July 16th of 1995 when a new test pilot aired called Blues Prince .

Unlike most pilots of the time , we actually have several clips depicting the episode , Steve wore an orange shirt unsettling , isn't it ?

Also salt and pepper originally had these heavy New York accents .

Original Mr Salt sound is something like that .

Hey , Mrs Pepa looks like uh blue uh is in the kitchen and might need a little help over there .

After all the revisions , it was aired to the public on September 8th , 1996 this show was huge and quickly became the highest rated television show only after one year of being on air .

And by the year 2000 , it was seen by 14 million Children every week .

Each episode was extremely formulaic .

Steve greets us and asks if we've seen Blue .

Once we are inside , we are immediately told about some mystery or puzzle that we need to help Steve .

So through our favorite game , Blues Clues , the rules are very simple .

Blues paw prints will be on the clues .

Always wanted to do that .

We follow Steve to grab our handy dandy notebook .

Some of my fondest memories as a child is just puzzle solving with Steve , he taught me to recognize patterns , simple mathematics and general logic .

If we're lucky , the episode will have a b plot side quest where we learn a little something extra related to the theme of the episode .

And if you're super lucky , it will be outside with shovel and pale .

These are easily the best characters in the entire show .

Shovel is just a straight up bad ass and pale is just there always to support his boy midway through the episode .

Usually two clues in , we receive a letter , the male brings us back into our world and shows us how to apply what we learned into our everyday lives .

Back inside the story .

We're on the hunt for the third and final clue .

I guess it's about that time in the video where I at least try to explain what Skoo is blue can open up pocket dimensions and transcend her storybook .

It's never explained .

It might be because of the moon , the fairies fucking polka dots .

You tell me maybe she's an alien .

These pocket dimensions allow us to get an even deeper understanding of the episode's theme and eventually send us back on the path of the final clue .

Once all three are we head into the thinking chair to figure out how all three clues fit together .

The episode ends with one more song reminding us that we really can do anything that we want to do .

Many of you probably noticed how intentionally I worded that recap .

The audience didn't help Steve find the clues .

We helped Steve find the clues .

I think that's really what the show's biggest strength is .

Steve would always greet us as if we're an old friend .

Steve wasn't our first teacher .

He was our first friend .

Ok .

Um , from about 1995 96 until about 2002 .

I had the great fortune of being the host of Nickelodeon's Blues Clues .

But it was great and it was all , it was all to wonderful effect because the show was incredibly well thought out and it was , it , it , it was incredibly educational .

And my favorite part of the show , my job in the show was to talk directly through the camera and , and to actually cultivate if I could a relationship with , with an individual child through a TV .

Uh the conceit being that , that , that I can hear them and that they can hear me and that's tricky .

And what we found out is that it totally worked and kids thought I was their friend for real , like millions of them .

And I thought , oh , wow .

I don't think it's a big secret .

How heavily this show took inspiration from Mr rogers' neighborhood .

The routine familiarity of each episode down to the wardrobe in the way they both pierce the camera and talk directly to you .

There is one key difference .

This is Fred Rogers , creator and star of the show , Mr Rogers Neighborhood .

This is Steve Burns an American actor who was hired to play a character named Steve on a show called Blues Clues because the show actually became very popular .

And despite how wonderful it was , the more popular it became , the more that started to weigh on me for real .

I started to think , well , I'm saying these wonderful things to kids .

I'm saying , you know , you are so smart and you can do anything that you wanna do .

But I couldn't help thinking , you know , is that true for , for real ?

You know , is , is that , am I saying the right things to all of these Children ?

It felt like a really tremendous responsibility .

And on top of that , my name on the show was Steve and my name in real life is Steve .

And it was becoming this sort of thing where people assumed I created the show that I was Fred Rogers in , in some way .

And it was this indelible thing , like I wore the same shirt every time it was like a very iconic , iconic thing on purpose .

I thought , well , I , I didn't expect any of this .

I , I didn't even know any Children when I moved to New York .

You know , I , I , I'm , I'm , I'm really worried , I'm like , am I the right guy for this job ?

I took it really , really seriously and I , and my contract was up for renewal .

And I was starting to really seriously think as great as this is .

I , they might have the wrong guy here , you know , and maybe this should be a , a teacher or a child development specialist or something .

And I was , I was very , very conflicted about it and I was seriously thinking I'm having an identity crisis and maybe I shouldn't do this .

And , um , then I became one of People Magazine's Most eligible bachelors on April 29 of 2002 , a three part event took place where Steve handed off the reins to his brother , Joe played by Donovan Patton .

Steve lost himself in the show and need to step away before getting swallowed by impostor syndrome .

And honestly , I don't think they could have picked a better replacement .

Steve's final game of Blues Clues involved Joe getting his very own handy dandy notebook with that Steve's bags are packed .

He hops on the bus leaving us in Joe's hands .

The next chapter of Steve's life just began .

This is the greatest lesson the show ever taught .

The world keeps going .

You can't stop it .

Everything comes to an end and things change .

Nothing is able to last forever , but that's ok .

We just need to get aboard the bus and accept that change you .

Thanks again for all your help you .

I grew up during the seasons that Joe hosted .

Don't get me wrong .

I love Steve more than some people in my own family .

But , but Joe Joe's just my guy .

The formula doesn't really change with Joe .

Mrs Salt and Mrs Pepper are still teaching lessons about nutrition and family shovel and pale are still teaching lessons about the outdoors and the power of creativity and slippery soap still makes me laugh every time he's on screen .

One of my favorite differences starts with the season six premiere , The Legend of The Blue Puppy .

This episode gives some back story on Blue and we learn about this little box .

Do you remember a bit earlier when I talked about Blue and her pocket dimensions , we can open up pocket dimensions and transcend her storybook , their back and their puppets .

If you didn't know , I practically grew up on every puppet show available to me and this one is no exception .

Blue's Room was a spin off puppetry show where the gimmick was that Blue could talk .

It lasted two seasons and had some incredible talent behind it .

Blue was puppeteer by Ley Carra Rudolph and Noel mcneill and voiced by Victoria Punta Carbo .

Other notable puppeteers are Joey Mazzarino , Tyler Bunch , Shell Baylock , Peter Linz Matt Vogel , Tim Legacy , Heather Arch and Pam Arceo .

That cast is absolutely insane .

The show was short only spending two seasons and came to an end in 2007 .

By this time , the mainline show had been over for seven months and after the end of Blues Room , the IP became dormant on June 28th 2019 .

Nick Junior dropped this on their youtube channel .

Will you play Blues Clues with us ?

You will .

No .

And we'll have so much fun .

Blues Clues in you .

The brand new series coming this fall to a , just like Joe Josh's casting , played by Josh Craig de la Cruz is casted absolutely .

Incredibly .

The formula of the show is the exact same just with updated visuals .

Josh gets his own notebook and this one has a phone attached pretty cool .

A few nights ago , I watched Blues Big City Adventure .

The big appeal of this movie was the crossover between all three hosts .

This was my first experience with the new graphics and my personal introduction to Josh .

I enjoyed the switch to 3D for the most part , the introduction scene that shows off the cast in the house was kind of surreal .

I grew up in this house and getting to experience it in 3D was just incredible .

The only aspect that made me uneasy was blue .

I think the problem is with her ears , blue shows the most emotion in her ears and they're really expressive .

I think the CG hair added to her just didn't work as much , especially when compared to the plastic looking models of the rest of the cast .

Steve was written strangely in the sense that he was kind of an idiot the whole time and Joe was just forgotten .

I'm fully aware that I'm not the target audience for this movie but feel like it knew exactly what it was and didn't try to be anything more across the internet .

I see people comparing this film to spider-man .

No way home .

And I think that's an unfair comparison to Spiderman blues .

Big City Adventure is genuinely a better film .

Am I joking ?

You'll never know .

Blue's clues shaped an entire generation , Steve Joe and now Josh teach kids across the world about problem solving shapes , colors , how the world works and the importance and power of just hopping on that bus taking life one step at a time .

You can really do anything that you want to do .

Hi , you got a second ?

Ok .

You remember how when we were younger we used to um run around and hang out with Blue and find clues and talk to Mr Salt and freak out about the mail and do all the fun stuff .

And then one day I was like , oh , hey , guess what big news I'm leaving .

Uh This is my brother Joe .

He's your new best friend .

And then I got on a bus and I left and we didn't see each other for like a really long time .

Can we just talk about that ?

Great because I , I realized that , that that was kind of abrupt .

Um I just kind of got up and went to college and uh that was really challenging by the way .

But great because I got to use my mind and take a step at a time and now I literally am doing many of the things that I wanted to do and then look at you and look at all you have done and all you have accomplished in all that time .

And it just , it's just so amazing .

Right .

I mean , we started out with clues and now it's what student loans and , um , jobs and families and some of it has been kind of hard , you know , I know .

You know , and I wanted to tell you that I , I really couldn't have done all of that without your help .

And in fact , all the help that you helped me with when we were younger is still helping me today right now .

And that's super cool .

I guess I just wanted to say that after all these years , I never forgot you ever ?

And I'm super glad we're still friends .

Thanks for listening .

You look great , by the way , whatever it is you're doing that's working .