Blue's Clues

Blue's Clues is an extremely popular children's show that aired on Nickelodeon. The aim of the show was to help kids develop their critical thinking and analytical skills by solving puzzles, entertaining them with jokes and humor along the way. The only characters who appear in every show are the host, named Steve for the first several years of the show and replaced by Joe afterwards, and Blue, small blue dog. The host is the only live action part of the show; everything else is animated.

Each episode of the show has a very distinct and regular format. It begins with the host, Steve or Joe, introducing some problem or puzzle that needs to be solved. Throughout the episode, the host will converse directly with the audience by asking questions or making comments to which kids watching the show at home are supposed to respond, thereby offering their own help to solve the puzzle. Blue marks three objects around the house as clues to the puzzle with her paw print, which the host then goes looking for to solve the puzzle. As the host finds these clues at intervals, he also goes through a series of smaller miniature puzzles with the audience.

At the conclusion of each episode, the host sits in what he designates the Thinking Chair to ponder over the clues he has found. He makes the audience aware of his thought processes and again asks them for help in discovering what exactly Blue wants them to know.

Nickelodeon began airing the first season of "Blue's Clues" in September of 1996. Steven Burns acted as the show's host through the fourth season, which ended in April of 2002. Burns's reasons for leaving the show were almost instantly turned into the subject of all sorts of rumors, but he has stated that he left to experiment with music and because he didn't envision himself growing old working for a children's show. Before his time on the show was over however, Nickelodeon aired three episodes with both Steve and Joe as hosts to ease the transition for the kids. Joe was played by Donovan Patton through the show's sixth season, which ended in 2006.

The show has sparked an array of different book titles, interactive computer games, a direct-to-video movie called Blue's Big Musical Movie, and another spin-off show called Blue's Room. Currently, there are plans to bring the show back for a seventh season in 2013.