50 Fun Facts About Blue's Clues

On which cable network did Blue's Clues premiere in September 1996?

It was the highest-rated premiere of any Nickelodeon show up to then.

Blue was originally conceived as what kind of animal?

Kids who watched the pilot 'almost universally' called the show Blue's Clues, so that name stuck.

What was the show's working title before the pilot testing renamed it?

Blue is female and, as The New York Times noted, 'never wore a bow'.

How many clues does Blue leave in each episode?

Each clue is an object marked with one of her paw prints.

Where does the host sit to work out the answer at the end of each episode?

Malcolm Gladwell called Blue's Clues the 'stickiest' TV show ever made in The Tipping Point.

What is the name of the transition in which the host jumps into a picture or book?

Co-creator Angela Santomero said it was inspired by the trolley in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Steve's famous green striped shirt was inspired by what?

The producers had originally wanted a female host.

How many auditions did the producers hold before hiring Steve Burns?

Burns thought he was auditioning for a voice-over role on a game show.

Which reason did Steve Burns give for leaving the show?

His departure sparked outlandish rumours, including that he had died, and even a Time magazine story.

In the show, where does Steve go when he leaves, handing over to Joe?

Burns worked with Patton to prepare him for the role.

Who played Joe, the show's second host?

He was called Joe because, in a producer's words, 'Donovan was a little too hard on a preschooler's tongue'.

How many auditions were held to find Steve's replacement?

Patton had never seen the show before he auditioned.

Who provides the voice of Blue?

Johnson is one of the show's three co-creators and handled its design.

Which accent did composer Nick Balaban settle on for Mr. Salt after first trying a Brooklyn one?

His fellow composer Michael Rubin voiced Mailbox.

What are the names of Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's two children?

Cinnamon was voiced in the original series by Nick Balaban's daughter Annalivia.

Which character is the keeper of the Handy Dandy Notebook?

The notebook was meant to teach preschoolers to use lists as memory aids.

What is Tickety Tock?

She loves numbers and schedules and is best friends with Slippery Soap.

Which colour pairing do the two backyard sandbox friends have?

Along with Slippery, they were the only main non-human characters with permanent eyebrows.

Blue's best friend, Magenta, is identical to Blue except for her colour and what?

Magenta is shyer than Blue but shares her playful attitude.

Periwinkle, the kitten from the city, is what colour?

He likes performing magic tricks, a running thread in Blue's Big Musical Movie.

What does Mailbox want to be when he grows up?

The host sings the Western-style 'Mailtime' song before he delivers each letter.

How did the network originally schedule new episodes?

The idea was that repetition let young viewers master each episode's problems.

Blue's Clues was the first US preschool series in which visual style, using scanned paper and fabric shapes?

Fabric, paper and pipe-cleaner shapes were scanned into a Macintosh and animated with cheap software.

How much were the creators given to make the pilot, about a quarter of the network's normal budget?

The pilot was thought lost until it surfaced online in September 2023.

Which of the three creators had previously worked on Sesame Street but disliked its format?

He left the show quietly in 2000 after 75 episodes.

Which children's TV figure did co-creator Angela Santomero name as a major influence?

She later co-created Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, the animated Mister Rogers spin-off.

How many consecutive Emmys did Blue's Clues win between 1998 and 2005?

By 2002 it was watched by about 13.7 million viewers a week and aired in about 60 countries.

Which musical legend appeared in Blue's Big Musical Movie in 2000?

The direct-to-video film has sold more than three million copies since 2006.

The 2004 spin-off Blue's Room replaced animation with what?

It introduced Blue's shy little brother Sprinkles and gave Blue the catchphrase 'Hoop-dee-doo!'

Who hosts the 2019 revival Blue's Clues & You!?

Steve Burns helped cast him and wrote and directed episodes of the new show.

In which Disney musical had the reboot's host performed on Broadway before Blue's Clues & You!?

He was born in the United Arab Emirates to Filipino parents and raised in New Jersey.

In the 2022 film Blue's Big City Adventure, Josh and Blue travel to New York to audition for what?

All three hosts, Steve, Joe and Josh, appear in the film, which premiered on Paramount+.

Which Steve Burns song became the opening theme of Young Sheldon?

He made the album with help from Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips.

Which band's Steven Drozd helped Steve Burns with drums and arrangements on his first solo album?

The album, Songs for Dustmites, came out in 2003.

In which Pennsylvania town was Steve Burns born?

An agent discovered him while he was studying theatre at DeSales University.

On which platform did Burns post a 2021 25th-anniversary video reassuring grown-up viewers he had not forgotten them?

He delivered it in character as the host, from a chair, in a striped shirt.

Which robot does the actor who played Joe voice on Team Umizoomi?

He has also lent his voice to games including Grand Theft Auto V and God of War.

How many episodes did the original series produce over its six seasons?

Production actually stopped in 2004, which Santomero called 'devastating'.

Which PBS show did Angela Santomero create in 2007 after Blue's Clues?

She earned a master's in child development from Columbia before Nickelodeon hired her as a researcher.

Which author called Blue's Clues 'the stickiest television show ever' in The Tipping Point?

He was describing how the show's puzzles and repetition held preschoolers' attention.

Who hosted the United Kingdom version of Blue's Clues?

Regional versions with native hosts were produced abroad, and the show became part of pop culture in South Korea.

In how many countries was the original Blue's Clues syndicated in total?

It was also translated into 15 languages, and by 2002 was drawing roughly 13.7 million viewers a week.

In which Manhattan neighborhood was the original Blue's Clues filmed?

Most production was done in-house, unusual for children's TV at the time, with the host performing in front of a blue screen.

What was the title of Steve Burns' first solo album, released in 2003?

PIAS Recordings released it in August 2003, a year after his final Blue's Clues episodes aired.

In which city is the revival Blue's Clues & You! filmed?

9 Story Media Group co-produces the revival with animators from Brown Bag Films, updating the notebook to double as a smartphone.

Josh's grandmother Lola in Blue's Clues & You! is originally from which country?

Her name is simply the Filipino word for grandmother; she is played by Carolyn Fe.

Which broadcast network began airing Blue's Clues on weekend mornings in 2000?

The network shared an owner, Viacom, with Nickelodeon, and made the show the centerpiece of its Saturday and Sunday children's block.

Besides its Emmys, which prestigious broadcasting honor did Blue's Clues win in 2001?

By then the show had generated over $1 billion in product licensing and sold almost 40 million VHS and DVD units.

Before casting Steve Burns, what kind of host did the producers originally want?

Burns won the part on the strength of his audition and drew the most enthusiastic response in tests with young viewers.

In the 2019 revival, the Handy Dandy Notebook doubles as what?

The animators refreshed the house with objects modern preschoolers know, so emails now arrive during mail time too.