For seven years, actor Steve Burns hosted Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues.
The hit kids show made them feel like they were playing along at home.
Steve somehow walked the fine line between weird and endearing, often staring directly
into the camera for extreme close-ups to engage his tiny audience—and he was incredibly
fond of mail for some reason.
But at the height of his fame, the character of Steve headed off to college, leaving the
big red thinking chair open for his "little brother Joe," played by Donovan Patton.
Meanwhile, actor-Steve hung up his green striped shirt and khakis, and walked away from children's
television forever.
Blue's Clues lasted a few more years after that, but whatever happened to Burns?
We pieced together the clues and solved the case of just who Steve is behind the stripes...
Why did he leave the show?
The short answer is that Burns left to pursue a music career.
The long answer lies somewhere in between his concerns about visibly aging on television
and his hopes to make a career aside from being "that guy who was friends with talking
salt and pepper shakers."
On the Blue's Clues tenth anniversary show, Steve explained:
"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 happening, fast."
But he also told MTV:
"Well, is this really what I came to New York to do?
Why not quit right when I'm at my peak."
Death rumors
Celebrity death rumors are about as common on the internet as cat photos, especially
when it comes to stars who play wholesome characters.
Death stories are made even more shocking if they include scandalous behavior, like
a heroin overdose or reckless driving.
Burns was on the receiving end of a lot of nasty rumors that got a lot of traction.
It got so bad, he actually went on the Today Show and the Rosie O'Donnel show to remind
everyone he was still alive.
"We're here to announce that he's not dead!"
But why would anyone think Burns was a heroin addict in the first place?
One source, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Legends, speculates that the story has
its roots in a guest appearance Burns made on an episode of Law & Order in which he played
"an autistic kid who was mistaken for a drug user."
A car crash rumor surfaced later, long after Burns left Blue's Clues.
But thanks to the magic of Twitter, he was able to easily dispel that rumor on his own.
About that music career
Burns released two studio albums, one solo, and one with a band called Steve Burns and
the Struggle.
Neither one brought him anywhere near the stardom of Blue's Clues, but he revealed on
The Today Show that he did get to work with one of his musical idols, Steven Drozd of
the Flaming Lips.
He got the ball rolling by calling the band's producer, Dave Fridmann:
"I called my favorite record producer.
I knew someone who had his phone number and I just called him and said, 'Hey man, you
are wonderful,' and he said, 'Hey I just had a Blue's Clues party yesterday for my kid.'
So I guilted him into listening to my CD and he called me back and said 'let's work on
this.'"
He's not worried about money
In the years since he left Blue's Clues, Burns hasn't exactly been keeping his nose to the
grindstone.
He self-released his two indie-rock albums, has a few credits on IMDb, and has done only
small theater productions around New York.
And yet he owns a custom-built loft in the hipster mecca of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
That's not the kind of home you'd expect from a musician who hasn't held a steady job for
a decade.
So either Steve has a secret cleaning business on the side...or he's been able to make that
Blue's cash last for an impressively long time.
He was one of People magazine's most eligible bachelors in 2000
It's been awhile since the year 2000, but if memory serves correctly, women weren't
falling all over themselves back then for easily excitable guys with the deduction skills
of a grade-schooler.
But somehow, Burns landed on People's most eligible bachelor list that year, alongside
George Clooney and Derek Jeter.
So who was Steve looking for at the dawn of the new millennium?
He told the magazine:
"A cross between Christy Turlington, Gwen Stefani, and Janeane Garofalo."
He got conned by a stripper and her mother
Steve Burns is nothing if not painfully aware of his strange celebrity status, which is
why he went on The Moth, a storytelling show, to detail what might be the most awkward date
of all time.
After his appearance on People's bachelor list, Steve received fan mail from interested
ladies, and he even went on a date with a tall, beautiful swimsuit model.
Too bad Burns is only 5'6":
"And, it's immediately awkward.
I'm like 'Well, shall we?'
And she's like 'Ya.'"
The date was getting off to a bad start...but then Burns saw that a parent in his date's
neighborhood was hosting a Blue's Clues birthday party for her kid:
"In my car, at that moment, I had a box of toys, Blue's Clues toys, some autographs,
and the outfit from Blue's Clues.
And I thought, 'Believe it or not, this is the only game you have man.'"
Crashing the kid's party broke the ice and seemed to save the date...for a while:
"Now we've got something to talk about right?
So we're in the car and everything's great.
We drop the car off, we go to the restaurant."
After their swanky dinner, they went back to Burns' place, at which point the model
revealed other line of work:
"She's like, 'Well I know what you do, uh, what I actually do, other than model, is I'm
a stripper.'
I'm like, 'Ok.'"
Anyway, the next morning, he dropped her off at home, where she still lived with her mom.
And then the date truly ended:
"And her mom's got a manilla folder, and she opens it, and she starts handing me crayon
drawings.
And it turns out that much of this was an elaborate plot to pitch me a children's television
show about giant inflatable balloon animals, called The Balloonies."
That's got to be the grimiest way anyone has ever tried to get into Nickelodeon.
Needless to say, we have yet to see the genius of "The Balloonies" realized on TV.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch more videos like the one you just saw.
And leave us a comment to let us know if you're Team Steve...or Team Joe...