Blue's Clues (Franchise)

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Three Generations of Blue's Clues

'Cause when we use our minds
And take a step at a time
We can do anything...
That we want to do.

Blue's Clues is a long-running children's television show, produced by Nickelodeon as part of their Nick Jr. preschool block.

Introduced in 1996, the show is notable for pioneering the kid's show version of an Interactive Narrator—one who talks "to" the camera, seemingly at the children watching. Blue's Clues was so successful, this went on to become the norm for most kid's show hosts today— especially those directed at the "Under 6" age bracket. It also originally ran under the notion that children learn through repetition—so the same episode of the show would run for a full week. (The show later dropped this practice.) It was hugely successful, leading to several Direct to Video movies, a live show adaptation, an eventual Spin-Off called Blue's Room, and (of course) heaps and heaps of merchandise.

The show was originally hosted by Steven Burns as "Steve", but he left the show after six years. ^note His replacement was "Joe" (Donovan Patton), his in-universe younger brother, who ran the show, and its spinoff Blue's Room, until 2007, when production came to a halt. Reruns aired on the Nick Jr. channel until July 2019 (4 months before the reboot premiered), and DVDs still exist. Running from 1996 to 2006 (or 2007 if you count Blue's Room), Blue's Clues was Nick Jr.'s longest-running series, up until Dora the Explorer broke that record in 2010.

On March 6, 2018, it was announced that a reboot using CGI animation was in production. On September 13, 2018, the reboot was revealed to be titled Blue's Clues & You!, with actor Joshua Dela Cruz as the new host, "Josh". On August 26, 2019, a November 11 premiere was announced, and it was stated that the show would be a continuation of the original series.