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GalaxyCon Richmond brought Blue’s Clues executive producer Angela Santomero and cast members Steve Burns, Donovan Patton, Josh Dela Cruz, and Traci Paige Johnson together for a panel. They reminisced about the hit children’s TV series and the film, Blue’s Big City Adventure.
Blue’s Clues started in 1996 on Nickelodeon with Burns as Steve and Johnson voicing the magical blue puppy. Santomero said she noticed right away when the show had taken off. “I saw kids on the beach playing with Shovel and Pail, or their pretend sets of Shovel and Pail.”
Johnson resists the urge to bark like Blue when she encounters really young Blue fans around New York City. “I used to do that and they’d have a look of horror like, ‘Mommy, she ate Blue!'”
On Changes to the Show
When Burns left Blue’s Clues, Patton joined as Steve’s brother Joe—a departure from using the actor’s first name for the character—until 2006, the end of its run. A revival of the series called Blues Clues & You! came to Nickelodeon in 2019 with Josh Dela Cruz as the new host, Josh. Creatives considered going with a name change again, but this time they asked Josh if he preferred to use his real first name for his character’s name.
Dela Cruz considered his options and kept his name for the series character. He said, “In real life, I don’t have a magical blue puppy as much as I wish I did. The character is so much a part of me [and what] I aspire to be: patient, inquisitive and really vulnerable.”
Creatives and cast also debated another aspect of the format. Now the show incorporates video calls, apps, and texts to reflect today’s technology. Johnson said, “We had so many meetings of what to do with the notebook because we loved drawing and keeping the fundamentals of writing on paper. But we also wanted to be current with what preschoolers knew.”
On Reuniting for the Film
In 2022, the Blue’s Clues team got to step away from some of the green screen work and shoot a film outdoors with Blue’s Big City Adventure. Burns and Patton returned as Steve and Joe, respectively. They were both happy about the reuniting and the chance to work with Dela Cruz. Patton said, “It was great to see him being in the real world and to go full Josh with his dancing and singing. I thought everyone that was involved in the movie was just amazing.”
Burns was amused by how things turned out for his character, who studied forensics in college. “Now he’s the world’s crappiest detective. That’s so fun and it’s so great to have no responsibilities. I just kind of show up and eat a cookie or say a funny line. Josh has to do all the hard work!”
On Ideas for Other Films
The panelists are willing to do another film in the future. Santomero said, “We could do a Blue’s Cruise so we can get to many places.”
Patton suggested how the cruise might work. “Blue gets everyone on a boat and then she leaves three clues as to where the heck it is we’re going. We don’t even know!”
Burns, on the other hand, wants to go beyond cruise adventures. Often, the host and Blue will “skidoo” or go visit another world together, such as a storybook or a painting in their house. Burns thinks that we could take it a step further. “I’ve always wondered, can we skidoo through time? We could go all through history.”
Visit the GalaxyCon Richmond website for more information.
