Blue's ABCs

"Blue's ABCs"

Episode number
Season 2, Episode 7 (#207)

Airdate
December 8, 1998 (US)August 8, 2000 (UK)

Question in the episode
What book does Blue want to read?

Clues
A MoonA CowThe word "Jump"

Answer to Blue's Clues
Hey Diddle Diddle

Chronology

Previous episode
"What Was Blue's Dream About?" (Produced)"What Does Blue Want to Build?" (Released)

Next episode
"Math!"

Remade in or theme concept made into
ABC's with Blue

"**Blue's ABCs**" (also known as "**Prereading!**" in ABC's and 123's) is the seventh episode of *Blue's Clues* from Season 2. It was the twenty-second episode to air and the twenty-seventh produced.

Elements* Question: What book does Blue want to read?
* Clues:
	+ 1. A Moon
	+ 2. A Cow
	+ 3. The Word Jump
* Answer: Hey Diddle Diddle
* Living room picture: The word "picture"
* Bedroom picture: Steve and Blue making an "A" (Later used in Steve Goes to College)
* Skidoo location: Storybook

Summary
Steve and Blue are having reading time.

Recap
As we head inside to visit Steve, he is reading a chapter book named "A Really Great Book". When Steve heads in the bedroom, his name is seen on the back of his green striped shirt. Blue wants Steve to read her a book based on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. After reading, Blue refuses to read Steve's book, so he asks what other books should Blue read. So Steve has to play a game of Blue's Clues to figure it out. Steve draws a "P" on the paw-print and it popped off the screen. Steve goes to Sidetable Drawer to get his notebook. After getting his notebook, the word "NOTEBOOK" is seen on the back.
During the song of how to play the game, he reads the book he was reading earlier. So after singing, Steve starts to look for clues. He finds the first clue on a picture of a moon in a different book, so Steve draws it in his handy-dandy notebook. Later, he heads into the kitchen. Mrs. Pepper asks Steve to assist her and Mr. Salt with their grocery shopping. Paprika is thirsty. They find milk, bread, and juice for Paprika. Paprika has some juice from a baby bottle. Steve waves goodbye to Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, and Paprika. Steve tells the viewers that "Book" starts with "B". Door starts with a "D". Curtain starts with "C". Steve finds another "C" word, "Cow". As Steve starts to say C words like cake, caterpillar, carburetor, cantaloupe, and Capobianco, he finds the second clue on a picture of a cow. So he draws it in his notebook. During the Mailtime segment, Steve gets the viewers to read the words in the mail-time song. Mailbox comes in and spells Steve's name. Mailbox has lots of letters for him as in "letters of the alphabet".
Mailbox had another kind of letter. Inside the video letter, two girls visit the library and read a book called If You Give Your Mouse a Cookie. After that, Steve gets back to the bedroom. Blue and Steve skidoo into a storybook, where they have to rearrange the mistakes so that the sentences in the book will make sense. Afterward, the final clue is on the word "Jump". Steve writes the word in his notebook. So Blue and him skidoo back home. After sitting in the thinking chair, he puts the three clues he found together. Steve wants to know if the moon could jump, but that answer is weird because the moon cannot jump. But the cow could jump.
The kids study the three clues and the answer is revealed to be the story "Hey Diddle Diddle" because Blue wants to read it. Then, they head back into the bedroom, with Steve carrying Blue's book, which is "Hey Diddle Diddle". He says that the illustrated picture from the story is good clues, which are a moon, a cow, and the word Jump. As Steve reads the story to his friends, the cat plays a fiddle. Then a cow jumps high enough to the moon. Also, the little dog laughs so he could see such a sport, and at the end of the story, the dish and spoon ran away. As Steve sings So Long, subtitles of the lyrics are seen as Blue's Ball bounces as Steve sings the lyrics. After singing, he catches the small ball in his pants pocket as the episode ends.

Characters* Blue
* Steve (North America)
* Kevin (United Kingdom)
* Duarte (Portugal)
* HyunShup Shin (South Korea)
* Sidetable Drawer
* Mailbox
* Mr. Salt
* Mrs. Pepper
* Paprika
* Snail
* The Girl
* The Puppy
* The Word "Jump"

Gallery
Blue'sCluesOpening2.pngBlue's ABCs 001.jpgTumblr lx0eeyHLIL1r7vxcmo8 r1 250.gifSteve calling Blue.pngBlue'sABC.jpgTumblr lxeud2tcgQ1r7vxcmo1 250.gifTumblr lxeud2tcgQ1r7vxcmo2 250.gifBlue's ABCs 002.jpgBlue's ABCs 003.jpgBlue's ABCs 004.jpgBlue's ABCs 005.jpgBlue's ABCs 006.jpgBlue s Clues Sidetable Drawer Words.jpgBlue's ABCs 007.jpgSteve s handy dandy notebook backside label by nbtitanic ddeknj0-pre.pngSteve's Handy Dandy Notebook Backside LabelNICKELODEON BLUESCLUES 217 356609 1920x1080.jpg29eb2b5a1e673afec27e5a058a577573.webpNICKELODEON BLUESCLUES 213 356548 1920x1080.jpgBlue's Clues Season 2 Theme Blue's ABCs.gifBlue's ABCs 008.jpgBlue's ABCs 009.jpgBlue's ABCs 010.jpgBlue's ABCs 011.jpgBlue's ABCs 012.jpgMoonMoon.pngMoonBlue's ABCs 013.jpgBlue's ABCs 014.jpgBlue's ABCs 015.jpgBlue's ABCs 016.jpgBlue's ABCs 017.jpgBlue's ABCs 018.jpgBlue's ABCs 019.jpgBlue's ABCs 020.jpgBlue's ABCs 021.jpgBlue's ABCs 022.jpgBlue's ABCs 023.jpgBlue's ABCs 024.jpgBlue's ABCs 025.jpgBlue's ABCs 026.jpgBlue's ABCs 027.jpgBlue's ABCs 028.jpgBlue's ABCs 029.jpgCow.pngCowBlue's ABCs 030.jpgCowBlue's ABCs 031.jpgBlue's ABCs 032.jpgBlue's ABCs 033.jpgBlue's ABCs 034.jpgBlue's ABCs 035.jpgMAIL!! 10.jpgMailtime Season 2 Blue's ABCs.pngMailtime Season 2 Theme 7.gifBlue-s-Clues-Season-2-Episode-7-Blue-s-ABCs.jpgBlue's ABCs 036.jpgTumblr lx7krbz78v1qmjils540.gifIMG 20190423 094940.jpgBlue's ABCs 037.jpgBlue's ABCs 038.jpgBlue's ABCs 039.jpgBlue's ABCs 040.jpgBlue's ABCs 041.jpgBlue's ABCs 042.jpgBlue's ABCs 043.jpgBlue's ABCs 044.jpgTumblr lx0jcl2GYX1r7vxcmo1 500.gifBlue's ABCs 045.jpgTumblr lx0jcl2GYX1r7vxcmo2 r1 500.gifBlue's ABCs 046.jpgSteve and Blue Sitting on Their Names with a Messed Up Sentence Above Their Heads.pngBlue's ABCs 047.jpgBlue's ABCs 048.jpgBlue's ABCs 049.jpgBlue's ABCs 050.jpgBlue's ABCs 051.jpgBlue's ABCs 052.jpgBlue's ABCs 053.jpgWord Jump.pngJumpBlue's ABCs 054.jpg"Jump"Blue's ABCs 055.jpgBlue's ABCs 056.jpgBlue's ABCs 057.jpgBlue's ABCs 058.jpgBlue's ABCs 059.jpgBlue's ABCs 060.jpgBlue's ABCs 061.jpgBlue's ABCs 062.jpgBlue's ABCs 063.jpgTumblr efc3ff1b8abdd8d34e3afbcadf8cbb7c 047d2257 500.jpgBlue's ABCs 064.jpgBlue's ABCs 065.jpgBlue's ABCs 066.jpgBlue's ABCs 067.jpgBlue's ABCs 068.jpgBlue's ABCs 069.jpgBlue's ABCs 070.jpgBandicam 2017-06-13 14-46-28-705.jpgBlue's Clues Season 1-4 Closing Logo.jpgDogs.pngAbcs123s.pngClues from abcs and 123s vhs by alexanderbex dd7i0dl-pre.jpgClues From ABCs And 123s VHSBlueTakesYoutoSchoolVHS.jpgBluetakesnobodytoschool.jpg3 clues from blues abcs by casey265314 dd6ud2k-fullview.jpg3 Clues from Blues ABCs3 clues from blues abcs by alexanderbex dd4ypt8-fullview.jpg3 Clues From Blues ABCsDd9tur7-84cca9d1-4d71-419b-8043-556f7e3e28a1.pngBlue's Clues ABC's Background
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File:Blue's ABCs
Trivia* In this episode, Steve had his first name embossed on the back of his shirt. Usually, people have shirts with their last name embossed on the back, mainly sports players. The reason he had his first name embossed on the back of his shirt is those young children best recognize people by their first name.
* This is the first episode to use the "No, a clue!" phrase that sounds like the viewer is giggling while saying it.
* The authors, other staff, and companies associated with the books "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", "Corduroy" and "The Rainbow Fish" all receive special thanks credits. "Corduroy" is one of the books shown in the intro and outro.
	+ Coincidentally, clips from *The Adventures of Corduroy* appear during the Paramount Means Family Entertainment trailer, which was one of the opening previews for the 1999 VHS ABC's and 123's.
* Tanya Hamilton directed the video letter for this episode.
	+ The other video letters Tanya directed were the ones in "Magenta Comes Over," "What Does Blue Want to Build?," "What Was Blue's Dream About?," "Blue's Senses" and "The Lost Episode!".
* The Greenburg sisters, Julie and Jessica, were Steve's friends in the video letter.
* Snail is hidden in 3 places in every episode. In this episode, he's very easy to find the first time he appears because he has a label.
	+ This happened again in "Let's Write!".
	+ The other two times he appears, he is not labeled.
* Magenta appeared on the call reminder on the bulletin board just like she did in "Blue's Story Time," "Adventures in Art," and "Blue Goes to the Beach."
	+ Unlike the other episodes, the reminder had the words "Call Magenta" on it.
* This is the 1st episode with letters.
	+ The 2nd was "The Alphabet Train" and the 3rd was "Let's Write!".
* This is the first Steve episode with words. The first was Words.
* This episode is the first of two available on the "ABC's and 123's" VHS tape. This episode is also available as a bonus episode on the "Blue Takes You To School" DVD.
	+ The episode appears as "Prereading!" on the back cover of the ABCs and 123s VHS.
	+ This episode also appeared on the compilation DVD titled Nickelodeon Let's Learn ABCs.
* During the Mailtime song, Blue holds up some cue cards that have words so that we can sing along with Steve.
	+ In this version of the Mailtime song, the viewers yell out "Mail!" at the end instead of Steve.
* Some of the ideas used in this episode come up again in "Words" and "Let's Write!".
* The author of the book "The Girl and the Puppy" is Robert Capobianco, an actor on the show who would later be listed among Steve's Friends in the video letter in "Weight and Balance."
	+ His last name was also among the C words that Steve came up with earlier before finding the 2nd clue.
* The ball in the story looked exactly like Blue's.
	+ When Steve sang the So Long song, a small version of the ball pointed to the lyrics. This is a reference and a tribute to sing-along videos like the Screen Songs cartoons.
* The puppy in the "The Girl And The Puppy" also appeared as the dog in "Hey Diddle Diddle."
* When Steve says "No, No, I don't think it's 'clue'" (because he wondered what the word in *A Really Great Book* he was stuck on was, and he thought the viewers said it was the word "clue") before finding it. This phrasing is similar to what he says before finding the third clue in "Blue's Favorite Song" ("No, I think it's a piano.").
* This is another episode where the "No!" sample from "Snack Time" is heard.
* This is the third episode where the "It's a clue!" sample from "Blue Goes to the Beach" is heard.
* The music for the clues in this episode can be heard later on the **Blue's Room** episode "Little Blue Riding Hood."
* This is Steve's original version of ABC's with Blue.
* This was the first aired episode to use the Thinking Chair theme music with drums and trumpets. For this and a few more episodes, it starts after finding the 3rd clue in a skidoo segment and before the usual drum roll and notebook ding.
* This episode was remade in Blue's Clues & You, as titled ABC's with Blue.

Goofs* The "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" song featured in the beginning of the episode incorrectly has the second and last verses as "How I wonder ~~where~~ you are" instead of "...**what** you are".
* During the Mailtime song, when Steve turns around and sees Mailbox, his letters on his shirt are missing.
* When Steve Skidoos to the storybook, the right edge of the purple bookshelf is cut off.
* iTunes lists this episode as "Blue's ABC's". There is an apostrophe added between ABC and the letter s.

Video Releases
This episode had many video releases, including the following:
* Blue's ABCs Special Teacher's Edition (VHS, 1999)
* ABCs and 123s (VHS, 2000)
* Back to Basics (VHS, 2000)
* Ready to Read (VHS, 2004)
* Blue Takes You to School (VHS)(DVD, 2004)
* Nickelodeon: Let's Learn ABCs (DVD, 2014)