Blue's Clues is an American children's television series airing on the Nickelodeon family of channels. The series takes place inside a world in which everything is made of paper cutouts, clay, and other craft materials. It is presented by a live-action human host who lives in a yellow house inhabited by anthropomorphic everyday objects.
Steve Burns hosted the series from its debut in 1996 until 2002, when the part was taken over by Donovan Patton. The program features an ensemble cast of animated characters who interact with the host. Co-creator Traci Paige Johnson voices the title character, an animated, blue-spotted dog named Blue who communicates through distinctive barks. The series composers Michael Rubin and Nick Balaban voiced Mailbox and Mr. Salt, respectively.
In addition to the main characters, the show included various newly introduced recurring characters and guest stars throughout its run. Some guests appeared as live-action companions of the host, while others voiced an animated cameo role. When a spin-off series titled Blue's Room premiered in 2004, a group of puppet characters was introduced as new friends of Blue. A reboot titled Blue's Clues & You! premiered in 2019, with Josh Dela Cruz as the new host.
Characters
Main
Blue (vocal effects by Traci Paige Johnson in Blue's Clues and Blue’s Clues & You!, voiced by Victoria Pontecorvo and puppeteered by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph in Season 1 and Noel MacNeal in Season 2 of Blue's Room) is a playful and friendly femalemeet the characters on Blue's Clues. Nick Jr. Channel Last accessed 23 Feb 2012. dog with light blue fur and dark blue spots. She cannot talk but communicates with her owners, Steve, Joe and Josh, through barks that they interpret. In each episode, she plays a game called Blue's Clues, in which she leaves three blue paw print clues for the host and viewers to find in order to answer a question. She has the ability to enter storybooks and picture frames by "skidooing" into them with a special dance routine. In the sixth season, she is granted a magic playroom called Blue's Room in which she can interact with the viewer and a cast of live-action puppet characters. In most animated appearances, she is one of the series' creators. Johnson was cast as the character's voice because out of the crew, she was able to sound the most like a dog.
Steve (played by Steve Burns) is the host of the show's first four seasons, Joe's older brother, Josh, Linda, and Paulo's cousin. Steve's Grandma's older grandson, and Lola's grandnephew, known for wearing his green horizontal striped shirt, and khaki pants. He is Blue's first owner and caregiver. He is intelligent, cheerful, friendly, helpful and sympathetic, but sometimes clumsy, impulsive and forgetful. He is always excited and prepared to play Blue's Clues, but can almost never find clues himself and relies on the viewer to help locate them. Whenever he finds a clue, he draws it on a pocket-sized pad of paper called the Handy Dandy Notebook. When he finishes a game of Blue's Clues, he sits in a giant red armchair called the Thinking Chair and comes up with possible solutions to Blue's puzzles. Within the first two seasons, he would give out wrong and silly answers during thinking time, much to Blue's dismay. His favorite time of the day is mail time when he receives a letter from Mailbox. At the end of the fourth season, Steve becomes the mentor to his younger brother, Joe, because he teaches him to play "Blue's Clues" in the episode "Joe Gets a Clue". After that, Steve leaves for college on a hopscotch scholarship and leaves Joe to take care of his house and Blue. There, he becomes the varsity captain for the hopscotch team at his college as revealed in the 100th episode special. Years after the original series, a background civilian for the 2009 animated film Up was allegedly created after himself, this time in CGI animation, seen watching Carl's house being lifted by balloons, taking flight from town towards the beginning of the film. In the reboot series Blue's Clues & You!, Steve has since graduated from college and now runs the Blueprints Detective Agency (BDA) and appears as a recurring character. He is the one that most countries dubbed or replaced (there are three countries known for Steve's replacement, first in the UK, where British TV personality Kevin Duala got the role, second in Portugal, third in Korea).
Joe (played by Donovan Patton) is the host of the show's final two seasons. He is Steve's younger brother who stays at the Blue's Clues house after Steve leaves for college, and is known for wearing different color shirts with a horizontal stripe full of squares, including Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. His favorite toy is a stuffed duck named Boris. He owns a Handy Dandy Notebook similar to Steve's, but it is larger and shaped like the Thinking Chair. In later episodes of the final two seasons, Joe normally does not draw clues in his notebook and instead watches magically animated versions of the clues appear. Although sometimes silly and younger than Steve, he seems to be more mature and straight-talking as he never gave out wrong answers during thinking time thanks to Steve advising him not to give out wrong answers. In the reboot series Blue's Clues & You!, Joe now runs the Present Store and appears as a recurring character.
Josh (played by Josh Dela Cruz) is the host of the revival series Blue's Clues & You! and the third and final host of the franchise. He is Steve and Joe's younger Filipino-American cousin and a talented singer. Josh's double-sided Handy Dandy Notebook has a phone on the other side, which he uses to communicate with the other characters. Josh's favorite color is blue, and he plays an acoustic guitar in nearly every episode, his guitar has red swirls on it similar to those on the thinking chair. Josh is easily excited and, like Steve, occasionally gives out wrong answers to Blue's Clues before coming up with the correct answer much to Blue's amusement.
Mailbox (voiced by Michael Rubin, who is normally credited under the stage name Seth O'Hickory in the original series and Doug Murray in the reboot series) is a cheerful and purple mailbox who lives at the foot of the pathway in front of the Blue's Clues house. In each episode, Mailbox delivers a letter or informs an incoming e-mail after the host sings a special, Western-style song called "Mailtime" ("Post Time" in the UK) and sits on the Thinking Chair. His letters contain video messages from children around the world that relate to the episode's topic. Originally, Mailbox has a thick Brooklyn accent but now he doesn't have it; he likes to crack jokes, he wants to be a comedian when he grows up and he also has a collection of postage stamps. Although he is normally stationed on a stake in the ground, he can use an "extendo" arm to move anywhere around the house or the backyard. In the UK, he was called "Postbox" and had a British accent.
Sidetable Drawer, usually called Sidetable for short, (voiced by Aleisha Allen in the original series and Liyou Abere in the reboot series from 2019 to 2020, Shazdeh Kapadia from 2020 to 2024 and Skywalker Hughes in 2024) is red with an orange drawer, and the keeper of the Handy Dandy Notebook. She lives in the living room to the left of the Thinking Chair. Whenever Steve or Joe starts a game of Blue's Clues, they must go to Sidetable and ask her for their notebook. She usually has Steve's telephone on top of her and holds an assortment of useful items in her drawer, depending on the situation. She is a talented singer and enjoys performing on stage. However, she is shy and sometimes lets her lack of confidence prevent her from singing in front of others. She has been known to be sad whenever someone doesn't say "please", as proven in the episode "Blue's Sad Day". Sidetable likes all kinds of music. Unlike the other characters, Sidetable has an inanimate form without a face that is seen whenever she is not speaking. In the reboot series, her tabletop is square and gains a wooden texture.
The Spice Family, also known as the Shakers, are a group of condiment dispensers who live in the kitchen, each named after the type of spice they contain. Mr. Salt (voiced by Nick Balaban in the original series & Blue's Big City Adventure and Brad Adamson in the reboot series from seasons one to four, and Nick Balaban in season five) is white of French heritage, Grandma Cayenne's son-in-law, Grandpa Thyme's son, Aunt Nutmeg's brother-in-law, and Paprika, Cinnamon, Sage, and Ginger's father and acts as the homemaker of the Blue's Clues house. He takes care of the other residents and prepares food for them. He and his wife Mrs. Pepper come from Paris, where they worked as cooks. Despite his experience as a chef, Mr. Salt is prone to accidents in the kitchen and often needs the host's help when he is baking. Mrs. Pepper (voiced by Penelope Jewkes during the first season and by Spencer Kayden for the remainder of the original series and by Gisele Rousseau in the reboot series) is gray, and the mother figure of the Blue's Clues house, Grandma Cayenne's daughter, Grandpa Thyme's daughter-in-law, Aunt Nutmeg's sister, and Paprika, Cinnamon, Sage, and Ginger's mother. She spends much of her time caring for Paprika and Cinnamon. In her free time, she likes to sing with Mr. Salt and swim in the kitchen sink. She is commonly shown holding Cinnamon in her arms while Mr. Salt holds Paprika. Paprika (voiced by Jenna Marie Castle as a baby and by Corrine Hoffman as a toddler in the original series and by Shechinah Mpumlwana in the reboot series from 2019 to 2020 and by Abigail Nicholson from 2020 to 2023 and Abigail Oliver in 2024) is reddish-brown, and Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's daughter. In the first three seasons, she is a baby and only speaks in incomplete sentences. She has an orange gummy teddy bear and sleeps in a crib made from a peanut. In the fourth season, Paprika becomes a toddler and prepares to be a responsible sibling after the announcement of Mrs. Pepper's second child. In the reboot series, she gets older and is now a preteen. Cinnamon (voiced by Nick Balaban's daughter, Annalivia Balaban in the original series, Jaiden Cannatelli in the reboot series from 2019 to 2020, Niko Ceci from 2020 to 2024 and Jayd Reroché in 2024) is Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's son, who is introduced over a five-episode story arc during the fourth season. He has several hand-me-down playthings from Paprika and a purple rattle, which is his favorite toy. When Paprika helps teach him how to do things, she learns more about herself and her role as his older sister. In the reboot series, he gets older and has a clearer and deeper voice. Sage and Ginger are Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's 1 year old fraternal twins, who only appear in Blue's Clues & You!. They are both short bottles with faces, arms, and cork caps. Sage is a boy whose bottle is colored green, and Ginger is a girl whose bottle is colored light brown.