Blue's Clues
Encyclopedia
Blue's Clues is an American children's television show airing on the Nickelodeon
family of channels. The show premiered on September 8, 1996 and airs on Nick Jr.
and other channels, although production of new episodes ceased by 2006. Versions of the show have been produced in other countries, most notably in the United Kingdom. It was created by a "green team" of producers, Todd Kessler
, Angela C. Santomero, and Traci Paige Johnson, who used concepts learned from child development
and early-childhood education research to create a television show that would capture preschool children's attention and help them learn. They used the narrative
format in their presentation of material, as opposed to the more traditional magazine
format, and structured every episode the same way.
The result, Blue's Clues, has been called "one of the most successful, critically-acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time". Author Malcolm Gladwell
called the show "perhaps the 'stickiest'—meaning the most irresistible and involving—television show ever". Its innovative use of research, technology, and interactive content has influenced its genre since its debut, including the "gold standard of preschool TV programs" that inspired it, Sesame Street
. It became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on commercial television, and received nine Emmy awards. Its efficacy in teaching children using the medium of television has been documented in research studies.
Blue's Clues, shown in over sixty countries, was first hosted by Steven Burns, and later by Donovan Patton
(whose character is named Joe). A spin-off
called Blue's Room
premiered in 2004.
In 1993, Nickelodeon
assigned a team of its own producers to create a new television program in the US for young children, using research on early childhood education
and the viewing habits of preschoolers. Their goal was to invent a children's television program that would "empower" preschoolers to learn through active participation in activities that are grounded in their everyday lives, to redefine the approach to problem solving for preschoolers in an engaging manner. The producers, Todd Kessler, Angela Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson (whom Brown Johnson, executive creative director at Nickelodeon, called a "green creative team"), were influenced by Sesame Street but wanted to utilize research performed during the 30 years since it debuted. "We wanted to learn from Sesame Street and take it one step further," Angela Santomero said.
Based on research of theorists such as Daniel Anderson of the University of Massachusetts
(who served as a consultant for Blue's Clues), the producers set out to develop a show that took advantage of children being intellectually and behaviorally active when watching television. Research since Sesame Street changed how attention span in young children was perceived. Sesame Street was developed with the understanding that children have short attention spans, so the show was designed in a magazine
-like format, in which each episode was made up of a variety of segments. Until then, children's educational television programs presented their content in a one-way conversation, but Blue's Clues revolutionized the genre by inviting their viewers' involvement. Its creators believed that if children were more involved in the action of what they were viewing, they would attend to its content longer than previously expected, up to a half hour, and learn more. They also dropped the traditional magazine format for a narrative
format. "... The choice for Blue's Clues became to tell one story, beginning to end, camera moving left-to-right like reading a storybook, transitions from scene to scene as obvious as the turning of a page." Every episode of Blue's Clues was structured in this way. Its pace was deliberate and its material was presented clearly. One way this was done was in the use of pauses—"long enough to give the youngest time to think, short enough for the oldest not to get bored."
In mid-1994, Kessler, Santomero, and Johnson met at Nickelodeon Studios
studios to develop Blue's Clues. At first, the character Blue was a cat
and the name of the show was "Blue's Prints." Blue became a dog only because Nickelodeon was already producing a show about a cat. Kessler handled the production aspect of the show, Santomero research, and Johnson the animation and design.
The creators understood that the show's look and visual design would be integral to the attachment children would have to the show. Johnson utilized simple cut-out shapes of familiar objects with a wide variety of colors and textures to resemble a storybook. She hired artist Dave Palmer to develop what was at that time a new technology—creating the animation from simple materials like fabric, paper or pipe-cleaners and then scanning them into a computer so that they could be animated without repeatedly re-drawing them like in traditional animation. The result was something that looked different from anything else on television at the time, and they were able to animate their shows in less time compared to traditional methods, eight weeks for two episodes as opposed to sixteen weeks for one.
Another innovative aspect of the production process of Blue's Clues was the producers' use of research. By 2001, the research team consisted of Alice Wilder, Alison Sherman, Karen Leavitt, and Koshi Dhingra; Wilder was head of the show's research department and a member of the team that developed it after the first episode aired. The research team field tested every episode three times before putting it on air, as compared to Sesame Street, which tested a third of its episodes once, after they were completed. In their tests at preschools before the premiere, the show was "immediately successful."
. According to Traci Paige Johnson, she was cast as Blue's voice because out of the show's crew, she sounded the most like a dog. Nick Balaban, who, along with Michael Rubin, wrote the music for the show, was cast as the voice of Mr. Salt. (Balaban reported that Mr. Salt was not originally French; he spoke with a Brooklyn
accent.)
The most important casting was that of the host, the only human character in the show. After over 100 auditions and months of research, the producers hired actor/performer Steven Burns, who remained on Blue's Clues for seven years and was in over one hundred episodes, until he left to pursue a musical career in 2002. As Johnson said, "What made Burns a great children's host was that 'he didn't want to be a children's host ... He loved kids, but he didn't want to make a career out of it.'" Burns himself stated, tongue-in-cheek, "I knew I wasn't gonna be doing children's television all my life, mostly because I refused to lose my hair on a kid's TV show, and it was happenin' — fast."
Burns' departure caused a resurface of the rumors that had circulated about him since 1998. As Burns said, "The rumor mill surrounding me has always been really strange." These "specious claims" included dying from a heroin overdose, going off to college, being run over by an automobile, and being replaced, like Paul McCartney
of The Beatles
, by a look-alike. Some viewers claimed that "clues" regarding Burns' demise were placed within the show. Burns made an appearance on The Rosie O'Donnell Show
to dispute these rumors, and he and co-creator Angela Santomero appeared on Today to help parents assuage the fears of children who might have heard the rumors.
Burns was replaced by Donovan Patton
, who was subjected to the same kind of scrutiny to earn the job. "We saw Steve Burns' retirement from the show as a chance to put Blue's Clues on a new course", Johnson said.
Malcolm Gladwell commented that the format of each episode of Blue's Clues is the same:
Much of the credit for the success of Blue's Clues can be given to Steve Burns
, the show's original host. Burns became "a superstar" among his audience and their parents, but unknown to everyone else, and enjoyed what he called "micro-celebrity, about as small a celebrity as you can be." As the New York Times reported, he "developed an avid following among both preteen girls and mothers. The former send torrents of e-mail; the latter scrutinize the show with an intensity that might make even Elmo
, the red Muppet, blush." In 2000, People Magazine included Burns in their annual list of America's most eligible bachelors. Burns was "very involved" with the production of Blue's Clues from the beginning, first becoming a creative consultant and by 2000, a producer.
Blue's Clues allowed other countries other than the U.S. to produce their own versions of the show. It was a run-away hit in the U.K., and has become part of pop culture in Korea. The "dubbed" American version is shown in over sixty countries. It was also one of the first preschool shows to incorporate American Sign Language
into its content. Approximately seven signs were used consistently in each episode.
The show's extensive use of research in its development and production process inspired several research projects that have provided evidence for its efficacy as a learning tool. In 2000, four studies, funded by Nickelodeon
and the University of Alabama
, researched the impact of Blue's Clues on its young viewers. When repeated viewings of the same episode were tested, children showed increased material comprehension, especially in their use of problem-solving strategies. The show improved children's flexible thinking—solving riddles, creative thinking, and non-verbal and verbal skills. Regular viewers tended to interact with other TV programs more than other children did. A two-year longitudinal study
of the impact of viewing Blue's Clues was conducted; its result was that viewers of the show were more proficient in flexible thinking than their non-watching peers. There is no evidence that watching Blue's Clues improves children's expressive vocabulary. In one of the few real criticisms of Blue's Clues, researcher Shalom M. Fisch stated that although the show attempted to be "participatory", it could not truly be so (unlike interactive games) because the viewers' responses could not change or influence what was occurring onscreen.
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
family of channels. The show premiered on September 8, 1996 and airs on Nick Jr.
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. was a programming block on the Nickelodeon television channel, seen on Nickelodeon weekday mornings. It was aimed at a preschool-age audience ages 6 and under. On September 28, 2009, Nick Jr. became its own official channel, replacing Noggin...
and other channels, although production of new episodes ceased by 2006. Versions of the show have been produced in other countries, most notably in the United Kingdom. It was created by a "green team" of producers, Todd Kessler
Todd Kessler
Todd Kessler is an award winning American film and television writer, producer and director. Among his credits are show runner and co-creator of Nickelodeon's preschool series Blue's Clues and director and producer of the feature film "Keith."-Career:...
, Angela C. Santomero, and Traci Paige Johnson, who used concepts learned from child development
Child development
Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories....
and early-childhood education research to create a television show that would capture preschool children's attention and help them learn. They used the narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
format in their presentation of material, as opposed to the more traditional magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
format, and structured every episode the same way.
The result, Blue's Clues, has been called "one of the most successful, critically-acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time". Author Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, CM is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996...
called the show "perhaps the 'stickiest'—meaning the most irresistible and involving—television show ever". Its innovative use of research, technology, and interactive content has influenced its genre since its debut, including the "gold standard of preschool TV programs" that inspired it, Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
. It became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on commercial television, and received nine Emmy awards. Its efficacy in teaching children using the medium of television has been documented in research studies.
Blue's Clues, shown in over sixty countries, was first hosted by Steven Burns, and later by Donovan Patton
Donovan Patton
Donovan Patton, born March 1, 1978 in Guam, is best known for his role as Joe, the second host of Nick Jr.'s children's television program Blue's Clues. He currently provides the voice of Bot on the Nick series Team Umizoomi. He has also appeared in three episodes of the ABC daytime drama One Life...
(whose character is named Joe). A spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
called Blue's Room
Blue's Room
Blue's Room is a children's puppet show television series which is aimed at preschoolers, aged 2-6, and it is a spin-off series of the popular Blue's Clues series...
premiered in 2004.
Origins
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
assigned a team of its own producers to create a new television program in the US for young children, using research on early childhood education
Early childhood education
Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S...
and the viewing habits of preschoolers. Their goal was to invent a children's television program that would "empower" preschoolers to learn through active participation in activities that are grounded in their everyday lives, to redefine the approach to problem solving for preschoolers in an engaging manner. The producers, Todd Kessler, Angela Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson (whom Brown Johnson, executive creative director at Nickelodeon, called a "green creative team"), were influenced by Sesame Street but wanted to utilize research performed during the 30 years since it debuted. "We wanted to learn from Sesame Street and take it one step further," Angela Santomero said.
Based on research of theorists such as Daniel Anderson of the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
(who served as a consultant for Blue's Clues), the producers set out to develop a show that took advantage of children being intellectually and behaviorally active when watching television. Research since Sesame Street changed how attention span in young children was perceived. Sesame Street was developed with the understanding that children have short attention spans, so the show was designed in a magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
-like format, in which each episode was made up of a variety of segments. Until then, children's educational television programs presented their content in a one-way conversation, but Blue's Clues revolutionized the genre by inviting their viewers' involvement. Its creators believed that if children were more involved in the action of what they were viewing, they would attend to its content longer than previously expected, up to a half hour, and learn more. They also dropped the traditional magazine format for a narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
format. "... The choice for Blue's Clues became to tell one story, beginning to end, camera moving left-to-right like reading a storybook, transitions from scene to scene as obvious as the turning of a page." Every episode of Blue's Clues was structured in this way. Its pace was deliberate and its material was presented clearly. One way this was done was in the use of pauses—"long enough to give the youngest time to think, short enough for the oldest not to get bored."
Development
The production of Blue's Clues was based upon research that showed that television could be a "powerful educational agent" because for most American children, it was an accessible medium and a "powerful cultural artifact". Since television programs tell stories through pictures, the potential for episodic learning was high. Television, using film techniques, was able to present information from multiple perspectives, in a variety of "real world" contexts (i.e., situations within the daily experiences of young children), and that television could be an effective method of scientific education for young children. The creators wanted to provide their viewers with more "authentic learning opportunities" by placing problem-solving tasks in the context of storytelling techniques, by slowly increasing the difficulty of these tasks, and by inviting their direct involvement.In mid-1994, Kessler, Santomero, and Johnson met at Nickelodeon Studios
Nickelodeon Studios
Nickelodeon Studios was a television taping studio as well as an original attraction at Universal Studios Florida.-History:...
studios to develop Blue's Clues. At first, the character Blue was a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
and the name of the show was "Blue's Prints." Blue became a dog only because Nickelodeon was already producing a show about a cat. Kessler handled the production aspect of the show, Santomero research, and Johnson the animation and design.
The creators understood that the show's look and visual design would be integral to the attachment children would have to the show. Johnson utilized simple cut-out shapes of familiar objects with a wide variety of colors and textures to resemble a storybook. She hired artist Dave Palmer to develop what was at that time a new technology—creating the animation from simple materials like fabric, paper or pipe-cleaners and then scanning them into a computer so that they could be animated without repeatedly re-drawing them like in traditional animation. The result was something that looked different from anything else on television at the time, and they were able to animate their shows in less time compared to traditional methods, eight weeks for two episodes as opposed to sixteen weeks for one.
Another innovative aspect of the production process of Blue's Clues was the producers' use of research. By 2001, the research team consisted of Alice Wilder, Alison Sherman, Karen Leavitt, and Koshi Dhingra; Wilder was head of the show's research department and a member of the team that developed it after the first episode aired. The research team field tested every episode three times before putting it on air, as compared to Sesame Street, which tested a third of its episodes once, after they were completed. In their tests at preschools before the premiere, the show was "immediately successful."
Casting
Another key to the success of Blue's Clues was castingCasting (performing arts)
In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
. According to Traci Paige Johnson, she was cast as Blue's voice because out of the show's crew, she sounded the most like a dog. Nick Balaban, who, along with Michael Rubin, wrote the music for the show, was cast as the voice of Mr. Salt. (Balaban reported that Mr. Salt was not originally French; he spoke with a Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
accent.)
The most important casting was that of the host, the only human character in the show. After over 100 auditions and months of research, the producers hired actor/performer Steven Burns, who remained on Blue's Clues for seven years and was in over one hundred episodes, until he left to pursue a musical career in 2002. As Johnson said, "What made Burns a great children's host was that 'he didn't want to be a children's host ... He loved kids, but he didn't want to make a career out of it.'" Burns himself stated, tongue-in-cheek, "I knew I wasn't gonna be doing children's television all my life, mostly because I refused to lose my hair on a kid's TV show, and it was happenin' — fast."
Burns' departure caused a resurface of the rumors that had circulated about him since 1998. As Burns said, "The rumor mill surrounding me has always been really strange." These "specious claims" included dying from a heroin overdose, going off to college, being run over by an automobile, and being replaced, like Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, by a look-alike. Some viewers claimed that "clues" regarding Burns' demise were placed within the show. Burns made an appearance on The Rosie O'Donnell Show
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
The Rosie O'Donnell Show is an Emmy Award-winning American daytime television talk show hosted and produced by actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell. It aired for six seasons from 1996 to 2002...
to dispute these rumors, and he and co-creator Angela Santomero appeared on Today to help parents assuage the fears of children who might have heard the rumors.
Burns was replaced by Donovan Patton
Donovan Patton
Donovan Patton, born March 1, 1978 in Guam, is best known for his role as Joe, the second host of Nick Jr.'s children's television program Blue's Clues. He currently provides the voice of Bot on the Nick series Team Umizoomi. He has also appeared in three episodes of the ABC daytime drama One Life...
, who was subjected to the same kind of scrutiny to earn the job. "We saw Steve Burns' retirement from the show as a chance to put Blue's Clues on a new course", Johnson said.
Format
The show's creators encouraged participation with their use of repetition. At first, Nickelodeon aired the same episode daily for five days before showing the next one. In field tests, the attention and comprehension of young viewers increased with each repeated viewing. Repetition was built into the structure of each episode; for example, "in an episode called 'Blue's Predictions,' the show's human host, Joe, says some variation of the word 'predict' around 15 times."Malcolm Gladwell commented that the format of each episode of Blue's Clues is the same:
Steve, the host, presents the audience with a puzzle involving Blue, the animated dog ... To help the audience unlock the puzzle, Blue leaves behind a series of clues, which are objects marked with one of her paw prints. In between the discovery of the clues, Steve plays a series of games—mini-puzzles—with the audience that are thematically related to the overall puzzle ... As the show unfolds, Steve and Blue move from one animated set to another, jumping through magical doorways, leading viewers on a journey of discovery, until, at the end of the story, Steve returns to the living room. There, at the climax of the show, he sits down in a comfortable chair to think—a chair known, of course, in the literal world of Blue's Clues, as the Thinking Chair. He puzzles over Blue's three clues and attempts to come up with the answer.
Reception and influence
Blue's Clues premiered on September 8, 1996. It was a "smash hit," largely due to the intensive and extensive research its producers employed. Within eighteen months of its premiere, "virtually 100% of preschoolers' parents knew about Blue's Clues", an awareness comparable to "top-tier" shows like the 30-year-old Sesame Street. It became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on commercial television; by 2002; 13.7 million viewers tuned in each week. In 2000, the show had generated over $1 billion in licensing products. It has received numerous awards for excellence in children's programming, educational software, and licensing, and has received nine Emmy nominations. More than ten million Blue's Clues books were in print by 2001, and over three million copies of six CD-ROM titles based on the show were sold.Much of the credit for the success of Blue's Clues can be given to Steve Burns
Steve Burns
Steven Michael "Steve" Burns is an American entertainer. He is best known as the original host of the long-running children's television program Blue's Clues.-Early career:...
, the show's original host. Burns became "a superstar" among his audience and their parents, but unknown to everyone else, and enjoyed what he called "micro-celebrity, about as small a celebrity as you can be." As the New York Times reported, he "developed an avid following among both preteen girls and mothers. The former send torrents of e-mail; the latter scrutinize the show with an intensity that might make even Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
, the red Muppet, blush." In 2000, People Magazine included Burns in their annual list of America's most eligible bachelors. Burns was "very involved" with the production of Blue's Clues from the beginning, first becoming a creative consultant and by 2000, a producer.
Blue's Clues allowed other countries other than the U.S. to produce their own versions of the show. It was a run-away hit in the U.K., and has become part of pop culture in Korea. The "dubbed" American version is shown in over sixty countries. It was also one of the first preschool shows to incorporate American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
into its content. Approximately seven signs were used consistently in each episode.
The show's extensive use of research in its development and production process inspired several research projects that have provided evidence for its efficacy as a learning tool. In 2000, four studies, funded by Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
and the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
, researched the impact of Blue's Clues on its young viewers. When repeated viewings of the same episode were tested, children showed increased material comprehension, especially in their use of problem-solving strategies. The show improved children's flexible thinking—solving riddles, creative thinking, and non-verbal and verbal skills. Regular viewers tended to interact with other TV programs more than other children did. A two-year longitudinal study
Longitudinal study
A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time — often many decades. It is a type of observational study. Longitudinal studies are often used in psychology to study developmental trends across the...
of the impact of viewing Blue's Clues was conducted; its result was that viewers of the show were more proficient in flexible thinking than their non-watching peers. There is no evidence that watching Blue's Clues improves children's expressive vocabulary. In one of the few real criticisms of Blue's Clues, researcher Shalom M. Fisch stated that although the show attempted to be "participatory", it could not truly be so (unlike interactive games) because the viewers' responses could not change or influence what was occurring onscreen.
See also
- List of Blue's Clues episodes
- List of Blue's Clues characters
- Traditional animationTraditional animationTraditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
- The Tipping PointThe Tipping PointThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference is a book by Malcolm Gladwell, first published by Little Brown in 2000....
, by Malcolm GladwellMalcolm GladwellMalcolm Gladwell, CM is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996...
– contains an analysis of Blue's Clues