Blue's Clues

***Blue's Clues*** is an American children's television series that premiered on Nickelodeon in 1996. Producers Angela Santomero, Todd Kessler, and Traci Paige Johnson combined concepts from child development and early-childhood education with innovative animation and production techniques that helped their viewers learn. It was hosted originally by Steve Burns, who left in 2002 and was replaced by Donovan Patton. The show follows an animated blue-spotted dog named Blue as she leaves a treasure hunt for the host and the viewers. Blue's Clues became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on American commercial television and was critical to Nickelodeon's growth. It has been called "one of the most successful, critically acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time." A spin-off called Blue's Room premiered in 2004.

In March 2018, Nickelodeon announced a reboot of the series, which became titled *Blue's Clues & You!* which premiered on November 11, 2019.

## Why It Can Figure It Out

1. Simplistic, but well done animation. In addition, the mix of live action and animation turned out to be pretty well done.
2. Nice show intro and song.
3. It actually taught kids healthy lessons.
4. It was one of (if not) the first shows to incorporate American (or British) Sign Language.
5. Steve Burns (or simply just Steve) was an awesome host, and Kevin Duala (the host for the UK version of the show) was also good.
6. The animated characters are cute and lovable, especially Blue.
7. Catchy songs, like the *Mailtime* song and the *So Long* song.
8. The episode, Steve Goes To College was pretty emotional, especially since Steve himself has been the host for about six years.
9. The episode, Blue's Big Holiday, was nice because it went through each holiday one by one and gave all of them the same amount of respect, even calling Christmas a "birthday" instead of "Santa's day".
10. The show got a great reboot, called Blue's Clues & You!, which is an improvement over the last two seasons of the original show.
11. The occasional celebrity appearances by the likes of They Might Be Giants, Toni Braxton, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, are quite clever and fun.
12. The 25th anniversary of the franchise was great and it has a video where Steve talks to the older fans who grew up watching him, talking about how far he and the fans came.
13. Blue's barks are cute. The fact that everyone can understand what she is saying is also very deep and touching.
14. Despite the episode order confusion, there are so many great and memorable episodes, such as:
	* "Blue Prints" (the pilot episode)
	* “Snack Time” (which started the series on a high note)
	* ”What Time Is It for Blue?”
	* ”Mailbox’s Birthday”
	* "Blue's Story Time"
	* "What Does Blue Need?"
	* "Blue's Favorite Song"
	* "Adventures In Art"
	* "Blue Goes to the Beach"
	* "A Snowy Day"
	* "The Trying Game"
	* "Pretend Time"
	* "Blue Wants to Play a Game!"
	* "The Grow Show"
	* "Blue Wants to Play a Song Game!"
	* "Tickety's Favorite Nursery Rhyme"
	* ”Magenta Comes Over”
	* "What Does Blue Want to Make?"
	* "What is Blue Afraid Of?"
	* "Blue's News" (which ended Season 1 on a high note)
	* "What Story Does Blue Want to Play?"
	* ”Steve Gets the Sniffles” (which started Season 2 on a high note)
	* "What Does Blue Want to Build?"
	* "What Experiment Does Blue Want to Try?"
	* "Blue's Senses"
	* "What Does Blue Want to Make Out of Recycled Things?"
	* "What Was Blue's Dream About?"
	* "Blue's ABCs"
	* ”Math!”
	* "Blue's Birthday"
	* "What Does Blue Want to Do with Her Picture?"
	* "What Does Blue Want to Do on a Rainy Day?"
	* "Blue's Surprise at 2 O'Clock!"
	* "The Lost Episode!"
	* "What Game Does Blue Want to Learn?"
	* "What Did Blue See?"
	* "Nurture!"
	* "What Is Blue Trying to Do?"
	* "Mechanics!" (which ended Season 2 on a high note)
	* "Hide and Seek" (which started Season 3 on a high note)
	* ”Blue’s Big Treasure Hunt”
	* ”Art Appreciation”
	* ”Weight and Balance”
	* “What’s that Sound?”
	* ”Animal Behavior!”
	* "Blue's Big Pajama Party"
	* "Draw Along with Blue"
	* "Thankful"
	* "Pool Party"
	* "Anatomy"
	* "Signs"
	* "Nature"
	* "Geography"
	* "Occupations"
	* "Blue's Big Mystery"
	* "Periwinkle Misses His Friend"
	* "Blue's Big Musical Movie"
	* "What's So Funny?"
	* "Blue's Big Costume Party"
	* "Inventions"
	* "Blue's Play"
	* "Prehistoric Blue"
	* "The Wrong Shirt"
	* "Words"
	* "Blue's Collection"
	* "Café Blue"
	* "Shy"
	* "Environments"
	* "Stormy Weather" (which ended Season 3 on a high note)
	* "Imagine Nation"
	* "Adventure"
	* "The Anything Box"
	* "Superfriends"
	* ”What’s New, Blue?”
	* "Blue's New Place"
	* "Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper Day"
	* ”The Baby’s Here!”
	* "Making Changes"
	* "Bugs!"
	* "¡Un Día Con Plum!"
	* "What's Inside?"
	* "Blocks"
	* "Let's Boogie"
	* "Blue's Backyard Ballgame Bonanza"
	* "Let's Plant"
	* "Rhyme Time"
	* "Puppets"
	* "Blue's Book Nook"
	* "Blue's School"
	* "Something To Do Blue"
	* ”Joe’s First Day” (which started Joe's career on a high note)
	* ”Joe Gets a Clue”
	* "Steve Goes to College" (which ended Season 4 and Steve's career on high notes)
	* “100th Episode Celebration!”
	* “Blue’s First Holiday” (which ended Season 5 on a high note)
	* “Behind the Clues: 10 Years of Blue"

## Mixed Qualities

1. While some people think Joe isn't as good as Steve, others can find him tolerable and decent.
2. The Episode Order can be confusing, depending on the viewers who either go by Production Order or Airing Order.
3. While some episodes of season are average or mediocre, there are tolerable episodes of season 5.

## Bad Qualities

1. Some of the animated characters may look a bit like adults, but it’s weird that they tend to have child voices.
2. The spin-off segment *Blue's Room*, which later became a full series after their show ended. This spin-off is pretty lackluster and doesn't have the charm of the original show as it’s considered to be the one that nearly killed the *Blue's Clues* franchise, as it went dormant after its cancellation in 2007 until the announcement of *Blue's Clues & You!* 11 years later.
3. **Quantity Over Quality:** It ran for 10 years like Ed, Edd n Eddy and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. While not a bad run for a show like this, it jumped the shark a few times because of this.
4. The show’s UK version wasn't arguably as good as the original US version. Steve Burns and Donovan Patton were replaced with Kevin Duala (he was still good, even though they didn’t need to edit Steve or Joe out), made Side table Drawer sound like a woman rather than a kid and even cut out some episodes for no given reason.
	* They also never dubbed Blue's Big Musical Movie or Blue's Room, and obviously never dubbed "Joe's First Day", "Joe Gets a Clue" and "Steve Goes to College", due to Kevin never being replaced.
		+ In addition, Kevin Duala didn't return on Blue's Clues & You! nor was it dubbed.