It All began With NOOOO IT'S A CLUE!!! - Blue's Clues Turns 25 TODAY

 It's Blue's 25th birthday!

On this day 25 YEARS AGO, Nickelodeon greated a presachool game show about a blue pawprint leading dog named after that color, and a legacy was born.

Since then the Blue's Clues library has grown with six hosts, 12 seasons, three films and over 200+ episodes worldwide. The series has also won and nominated Peabody, Emmys, Parents Choice, TCA and Prix awards among others.

The show was first created in 1996 by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler and "queen of preschool TV" Angela C. Santomero, the latter of whom would go on to make other preschool classics including Super WHY!, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Creative Galaxies, Wishenpoof! and her latest venture Charlie's Colorforms City. The show was originally hosted by then 23-year old Nashville, Tennessee native Steven Burns now aged 47 who was the OG man who would help us look for clues, skidoo into new worlds and get excited about recieving th boring mail which would have video inside the letters.

The show also caused international acclaim with localized hosts Kevin Duala in the UK, Duarte Gomes in Portugal nd HyunShun Shin in Korea.

In April 2002, Burns left the show and was replaced with then 24-year old Donovan Patton aka Joe, who would later go on to play the voice of Bot, the friendly robot in the hit Nickelodeon math series Team Umizoomi. Burns' departure would later cause one of the mouse craziest rumors of preschool television known to date, the REAL reason of why Burns left was because he didn't want to lose his hair and it kept falling off as he continued to make more episodes.

In May 2004, the original BC series came to an end after 141 episodes. Blue would be getting a more proper voice to talk to the kids in February three months prior in the Season 6 premiere episode "The Legends of the Hdiden Blue Puppy" which would later spark the idea for its spinoff Blue's Room which ran from August 2nd, 2004 to March 29th, 2007 with the first season taking a more Sesame Street or Eureeka's Castle approach of reading classic children's books and co-starring fellow Sesame Street veteran contributor a young Antonio Oriz.

The series also had a mountain of guest star voices including collabs with late greats Ray Charles as G-Clef, Neil Carter as Mother Nature and Jerry Lawrson of The Persuasions as one of the Notes, salsa music performer Gloria Estefan, gospel singer Patti LaBelle, talk show host Rosie O'Donnell (The Ellen DeGeneres Show), Tia and Tamara Mowry (BET's Sister Sister, Disney Channel's Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra 1997), Amanda Bynes (All That, The Amanda Bynes Show), country music artist Randy Travis as Shoehorn and the recently joined gospel icon Yolanda Adams as the sun and 2010s pop star Meghan Trainor as the Rainbow

The show would also expand into every form of merchandise you can think of - books, toys, videogames, wardrobe, party supplies, live Broadway musical adaptations, appearances at theme parks and even toy and inflatable replicas of the show's signature Handy Dandy Notebook and red Thinking Chair.

Since 2019 after 12 years of hiatus, Blue has once again risen up in the doghouse with the recently successful two-tim Daytime Emmy® Award-nominee reboot Blue's Clues & You! Currently renewed to four seasons and 86 half-hour episodes and releasing all-new episode storylines since last August, this reboot hosted by Disney's Aladdin on Broadway understudy Fillipino-American Joshua Dela Cruz is still doing great and keeping the franchise strong and alive for a whole new generation. Several highlights include the notebook becoming an iPhone, 20 select classic BC episodes remade in pure 16:9 HD widescreen quality and Burns and Patton making constant comebacks and guest star appearances to their beloved show they once left behind.

In celebration of the adorable blue dog's silver year, Nickelodeon has put together the ULTIMATE Blue's Clues fan tribute. The month-long "WOOHOO FOR BLUE!" 25th Anniversary marathon celebration continues through early October.

Among the highlights include a new emotional message from Burns the man who began it all released yesterday talking to the fans and reflecting on how far the show has come since his original 2002 exit from the show. The new music video with all three hosts "You Can't Spell BLUE without YOU" also drops today on Nick Jr.'s social media pages and the official Blue's Clues (& You!) YouTube channel. The final two seasons of the original and the first 12 episodes of the new also bow today on Paramount+, Nickelodeon's recently successful streaming SVOD app/channel which brings all your favorite Nickelodeon, Paramount and ViacomCBS properties together in one place. Pluto TV is also hosting a one night only 24 hour marathon of the best episodes. NOGGIN SVOD is also slated to upload over 20 new games, ebooks and play-along versions of episodes both from and inspired by the series franchise dropping later in September.

Your youngsters can also tune in to the next BC episode "It's YOUR Birthday!" (production code Season 2, episode 18) dropping next Friday at 11am timeslot Friday September 17th, 2021. A storyline dedicated to celebrating the birthdate of YOU, the fans who have been with Steve, Donovan, Josh and Blue since day one.

A huge round of sound and hats off gratitude for the entire team past, present and future who have continued to make the Blues Clues phemonena the everlasting Nick Jr classic game show franchise that it is.

A really big thank you to YOU our fans, our viewers for hanging out with the Blue's Clues team and for all your help today. If it wasn't for your viewership or support, Steve would have NEVER figured out Blue's questions, freak out to the mailtime song or blue skidoo to parrallel universes in the first place. Without your love and compassion for the show, Blue, Dora and PAW Ptrol and everything else on Nickelodeon wouldn't even existed to this very day. and for this, your continuation of figuring out the clues because you're really smart, we are eternally grateful.

Continue watching and loving the Blue's Clues franchise as much fun as we had bringing it to life for you. And remember, as always, "we can do anything that we wanna do".

Best wishes and thank you again.

With much love,
Kyle Bulger
creator of the Daily NOGGIN Blog
the Blue's Clues staff
and everyone at Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS.