Pop Culture | 00s | 90s
We Finally Have A Clue As To What Happened To Steve From "Blue's Clues"
Blue's Clues is considered to be one of the most successful, critically acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time. And who did Nickelodeon have to thank? None other than the show's original host, Steve Burns.
The man has more than just impeccable fashion sense, he and his blue dog entertained millions of kids and parents. But right at the height of the show's popularity in 2002, Steve left the show.
Everyone thought he died, but we just missed all of the clues.
Burns had everything a young man his age could ever dream of. He was making bucketloads of money and becoming one of the most famous faces in America. He was even named one of People's most eligible bachelors, appearing in a list that had names like George Clooney and Ben Affleck.
So when Donovan Patton replaced Steve, it was natural for people to get the rumor mill going.
On the show, they said Steve went to college, but people had their own clue as to what happened to the rising star.
The craziest rumor by far was that he died of a drug overdose, and literally everyone started to believe in it. It got so bad that his mother even called him to make sure it wasn't true. Other rumors included that Steve was killed in a car crash, was replaced by a lookalike, or was fired for being bald.
The man who drilled the "Mail Song" in our heads has had enough of the rumors, and has gone on record to reassure people that's he's not dead, not a druggie, and that he left the show for a number of personal reasons...
The first clue was right on top of his head.
So the rumor that he was fired for going bald wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't false either. It was his decision to leave because he was going bald.
"I knew I wasn't going to 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 happening fast," he revealed in Nickelodeon's special Behind The Clues: 10 Years with Blue.
"I was pretty much playing a boyish, older brother-ish kind of character on the show. I was getting older; I was losing my hair," he told Huffington Post.
He didn't want to make a career out of it.
Steve said there was a lot of pressure being someone kids looked up to, and he felt like it was his time to leave the show.
"Everyone wants there to be a dramatic answer and there's not. I wish I had a cool answer for this, but I just - I did it for like seven years and it just seemed like time to go. It just seemed like the right time," he revealed. "I was just really burned out. I was in every take of every show every day for all those years on a blue screen, so I was like, I just didn't have any more performance left in the show business land."
He wanted to pursue a music career.
Forget about the mail song! After he left Blue's Clues, Steve worked with American rock band The Flaming Lips, and produced his debut album "Songs For Dustmites."
Check out a few songs from his album! It's actually really good.
After that, Steve started a band called Steve Burns and the Struggle, and completed his second album, Deep Sea Recovery Efforts.
What is he up to now?
The 44-year-old host-turned-musician recently released a children's album titled Foreverywhere. Also, he seems to be traveling a lot lately. Check out his Instagram!