Blue's Clues (seasons 1-4)

Blue's Clues
"We just figured out Blue's Clues! We just figured out Blue's Clues! We just figured out Blue's Clues, cause we're really smart!"
Genre: Educational Running Time: 21–26 minutes Country: United States Release Date: September 8, 1996 - May 10, 2004 July 27, 2006 ("Behind the Clues: 10 Years of Blue") August 6, 2006 ("Meet Blue's Baby Brother") Network(s): Nickelodeon Created by: Traci Paige Johnson Todd Kessler Angela Santomero Distributed by: MTV Networks International Starring: Steve Burns (1996-2002) Traci Paige Johnson Nick Balaban Michael Rubin Donovan Patton (2002-2006) Kevin Duala (UK) Seasons: 6 Episodes: 141 Next show: Blue's Room (2004-2007) Blue's Clues & You! (2019-present)

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 titled Blue's Clues & You!, which premiered on November 11, 2019.

Why These Seasons Will Figure It Out

1. Simplistic, but well-done animation styles, including flash and CGI. 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 and problem solving.
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, or simply Kevin, 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. Joe was likable in season 4 as well as Blue's Clues & You!, being introduced in the last 3 episodes of said season: "Joe's First Day", "Joe Gets a Clue", and "Steve Goes to College."
11. The show got a great reboot called Blue's Clues & You!, which is an improvement over the last two seasons of the original show and Blue's Room.
12. The occasional celebrity appearances by the likes of people, like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, are quite clever and fun.
13. 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.
14. Blue's barks are cute. The fact that everyone can understand what she is saying, is also very deep and touching.
15. So many great and memorable episodes from these seasons, such as:
    • “Snack Time” (a great way to start the series)
    • "Blue's Birthday"
    • "Blue’s Big Treasure Hunt"
    • “Animal Behavior!”
    • "Blue's Big Pajama Party"
    • "Blue's Big Holiday"
    • "Blue's Big Musical Movie"
    • "Blue's Big Costume Party"
    • "Prehistoric Blue"
    • "The Wrong Shirt"
    • "Something to Do Blue"
    • "Blue's Book Nook"
    • "Blue's School"
    • "Rhyme Time"
    • "Puppets"
    • "Joe’s First Day” (Joe's introduction, and a great way to introduce him)
    • "Joe Gets a Clue”
    • "Steve Goes to College" (a nice farewell from Steve, and ended these seasons and season 4 on a high note)

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. While nowhere near as much as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park, the show went downhill in seasons 5 & 6 when Joe became the host, and the show made lots of unnecessary changes.
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 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 Sidetable Drawer sound like a young woman rather than a little girl, 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 did the same to "Joe's First Day", "Joe Gets a Clue" and "Steve Goes to College" due to Kevin never being replaced.
     • In addition, Kevin didn't return on Blue's Clues & You!, nor was it dubbed.
5. Some bad and/or mediocre episodes before seasons 5 and 6, like "Blue's Sad Day".
6. Some episodes of season 4 showed Cinnamon, Paprika's baby brother, getting his diaper changed. While it's a natural part of life, it should never be in a show aimed at young children.

Trivia

• Soo Kim, one of the members who worked on the show, later created Team Umizoomi.
  • Joe (Donovan Patton) voices Bot on the show.
  • The show is third show of the Blue's Clues Cinematic Universe, a universe consisting of shows made by the cast and crew of Blue's Clues.
• Joe (Donovan Patton)’s stint on Blue's Clues was initially criticized when he was introduced to the show in 2002, mostly due to bias from older audiences and changes to aspects of the show that weren't his fault. Kids who grew up watching Joe’s stint have no such bias, and as people started realizing that the changes made to the show were not his fault, they started to warm up to Joe. The reception of Joe is now largely positive.
• The song, "Up a Mountain and Over a Bridge", has been compared to a certain recurring music cue on Arthur, which premiered the same year as Blue's Clues did.
• Season 5 was produced between late 2001 and 2002; it premiered on April 30, 2002, but took over a year to finish airing, due to the gaps in-between episodes being very long.
• To promote the episode Blue's Big Birthday in 1998, characters, such as the Cat in the Hat and Morton from The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss showed up to wish Blue a happy birthday.
• Joe, the host of Blue's Clues in seasons 5 and 6, is a common victim of grounded videos.

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