Blue's Clues host Steve Burns 'doubted' show's success after filming 'deeply weird' first episode
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
After filming the pilot episode of Blue's Clues, host Steve Burns sat down in his thinking chair and thought, thought, thought… this is never going to work.
The actor, who recently reprised his role in the Paramount+ film Blue's Big City Adventure, told PEOPLE that he initially thought that a children's show about a man solving mysteries with the help of his animated blue puppy was "simply too strange and too breakthrough" to actually be successful at the time.
"I didn't think it would work at all," Burns told the outlet, noting that his initial thoughts after shooting its pilot episode were: "That was deeply weird television."
Everett Collection Steve Burns as Steve on 'Blue's Clues.'
While there were plenty of things that Burns liked about the now-beloved Nick Jr. show, he wasn't certain that key elements of it would translate well on screen, like its frequent breaking of the fourth wall whenever Steve would ask the children watching at home for their opinions on case details.
"I doubted it. I was skeptical that they would work," he said. "I liked that it was kind of the Rocky Horror Children's Show."
Despite his initial worries, the series instantly became an overnight hit. "Then it aired, and it became immediately No. 1, and it had this global reach and everything," he recalled.
After leading the series from 1996 to 2002, Burns' character broke the hearts of children everywhere by announcing his decision to go off to college in season 4. He was replaced by Joe (Donovan Patton), who solved even more mysteries with the titular dog from 2002 until its final episode in 2006. A revival series starring Joshua Dela Cruz, titled Blue's Clues and You, premiered in 2019.
Still, Burns maintained that there was always a "special" quality to the series. "It always felt like a very small and personal experience to me," he said. "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."
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
