It’s time we all finally got a clue.
After about seven years of hosting Nickelodeon’s “Blue’s Clues,” Steve Burns skidooed on out of there, and the preschool world was turned upside down.
Why, Steve? WHY?
Not much explanation was given for Steve’s departure in 2002, and life went on for everyone. Well, it went on for everyone except Steve.
According to the internet, Burns died. One of the first causes was supposedly a drug overdose, but people also said he was killed in a car crash or met some other unsavory fate. That would at least explain why he wasn’t on the show, anyway.
But, Burns himself is now denying those claims.
“I Googled the conditions of life, and I meet every single one of them, I can assure you,” Burns told The Huffington Post in an interview. “I am certainly alive. I know that for sure.” (Burns’ Twitter handle is @SteveBurnsAlive just in case anyone still doesn’t have a clue.)
In our own research on why Steve left “Blue’s Clues,” a predominant theme was that he exited to pursue a music career. The actor’s changing looks supposedly had something to do with it, too. (In a 10-year anniversary “Blue’s Clues” special, Burns said he didn’t want to go bald on a kids show.) But time and time again, music kept coming up as a main reason for his departure.
In fact, Burns is releasing a new kids album, “Foreverywhere,” along with his friend Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips (his fellow collaborator on a previous album, “Songs for Dustmites.”) They’ve even released a video for the first song, “The Unicorn And Princess Rainbow.”
So was a music career the real reason Steve left “Blue’s Clues”?
“That’s actually not true,” Burns told us. “No, no, no, no. People think I left the show to pursue a music career. That didn’t happen at all.”
Burns confirmed that getting older ― and, yes, losing his hair ― had a lot to do with his decision.
“I left the show because it was just simply time to go. I was pretty much playing a boyish, older-brotherish kind of character on the show. I was getting older; I was losing my hair; a lot of the original gangsters on the show, like the people who created it, were all moving on to other careers. It just felt like time. I just had a gut feeling like it was time to go,” said Burns.
He explained that the music came after his departure.
“I certainly wasn’t leaving ‘Blue’s Clues’ to pursue a large music career because that never even happened. That was just a wonderful dream come true, [a] hobby thing that happened after ‘Blue’s Clues.’”
I was getting older; I was losing my hair; a lot of the original gangsters on the show, like the people who created it, were all moving on to other careers.Steve Burns
It’s now been 20 years since “Blue’s Clues” debuted, and looking back on the show, Burns described the experience as “surreal.” He expressed his gratitude for being part of it, but admits, “From my perspective, it all feels very small.”
Burns said that acting in front of a green screen was like jumping to the “bottom of a swimming pool” every day. For him, it was very solitary.
“It felt like a dream to wake up and be like, ‘Wait, people watched that all over the world?’ For me, it’s a very different experience than it is for everyone else, but to know that people who watched ‘Blue’s Clues’ now have children that watch ‘Blue’s Clues’ is a real brain-burner, that’s for sure. But it’s all just really cool. Maybe I’m Grover to somebody. That’s awesome. That’s just completely awesome,” he said.
Burns continued chatting on the phone with HuffPost about everything from his new kids album to why “Blue’s Clues” fans don’t believe he’s actually Steve. (He even gets in arguments about it.) Oh, and he did it all from the actual “Blue’s Clues” Thinking Chair, which we would soon find out.
