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Original Blue’s Clues star Steve Burns has addressed the persistent death rumors that circulated about him online for years after his abrupt 2002 exit from the animated children’s series.
Burns, who hosted the first four seasons of Nickelodeon’s popular show about an animated puppy, Blue, that helps his human owner find three clues to solve mysteries, left the show partly because of significant “hair loss.”
“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,” he explained in a 2006 Nickelodeon special, Behind the Clues: 10 Years of Blue. “And it was happening fast.”
He was replaced by Donovan Patton as “Joe” before the show wrapped in 2006.
Speaking on a recent episode of Rainn Wilson’s Soul Bloom podcast, Burns described himself as being “in kind of the throes of depression” after leaving the show.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is that during the show, the internet was beginning to internet, and the world decided, or a large portion of the world decided, that I had died,” he remembered.
Recalling some of the bizarre claims — that he was “a dead heroin addict,” that he had “died of an overdose,” “died of suicide,” or even that he “had wrapped a Dodge Charger around a tree” — he said that is “not what you want to hear when you’re severely clinically depressed.”
“When a rumor like that persists for three or four years, it stops being funny,” he said. “When it persists for 10 years it feels like a cultural preference... when it persists for 15 or 20 years, you start to feel like you’re supposed to be.”
Burns opened up about how, after his departure, “alcohol became a thing in my life. I built a house in Brooklyn and never left it.”
He added that he became “completely unrecognizable — I didn’t recognize me. Everyone thought I was dead, and eventually I started playing along.”
The actor previously addressed his Blue’s Clues exit in a poignant 2021 social media clip.
Acknowledging that his leave was “abrupt,” he explained that he “kinda got up and went to college.” Burns was 22 when the show debuted in 1996 and 28 when he left.
Turning his attention to his former viewers, he recognized all they had accomplished in the intervening years.
“Look at all you have done and all you have accomplished in all that time,” he continued. “And it’s just, it’s just so amazing, right? I mean, we started out with clues and now it’s what? Student loans, and jobs, and families, and some of it has been kind of hard, you know? I know you know.”
Concluding the sentimental message, Burns thanked his loyal fans, saying: “I guess I just wanted to say that after all these years, I never forgot you … ever. And I’m super glad we’re still friends.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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