"Blue's Clues" Backstory
Uploader's note: I managed to track down this old, long forgotten story that I remember reading back in 2013. It's longer than it needs to be, a bit convoluted, and pretty silly considering the subject matter (Blue's Clues, lol), so I decided to upload it here. Not necessarily that bad of a story, but since no other copy exists online, might as well store it here.
Nostalgia. Easily one of the best feelings in the world, right? Well, yes and no.
Nostalgia is such a bittersweet feeling. It consumes you with the innocent happiness that once was, yet fills you with sadness at the fact that those times are over forever. It can even give you a jolt of hate for the way things turned out in life.
For me, "Blue's Clues" is about as nostalgic as it gets. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the television, screaming "A clue! A clue!". It almost became a borderline ritual, if you were to ask me now. I'm sure I'm not the only one that practiced "Blue's-Clues-Worshiping" as a child.
I always loved Steve. His signature green stripes were always a comfort to see after a day of having your toys stolen and your sandcastles crushed (if only the problems today were as simple). The way he would always greet me "personally"... well, he said "you", but when you're five that's how most people address you; you know, before we all go through the identity crisis of being a teenager.
Being such an avid fan as a kid, I would feel terrible if I just let the phase pass me by. I proudly watch "Blue's Clues" today, despite my age being over 3-6 (which is printed on most of my old "Blue's Clues" toys and puzzles). How time does fly!
You can imagine my excitement when I had an opportunity to meet with some of the workers of the show. My mom's always had strong connections to industries, being a writer herself. When she heard she had a possible job opportunity to work in children's television, she instantly thought of me.
Let's just say, I'm not very mature when it comes to my taste in television. I like to indulge in the feeling of nostalgia a bit more than the average person.
Anyway, my mom eventually learned that she wouldn't be used as part of a children's writing staff, which canceled any type of plans for me to meet with the writers. As a result, I was pretty bummed. I had been marking down the days in my head for what felt like an eternity, only to have my dreams dashed... then again, that sort of thing usually happened to me; so, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
However, I did receive a complimentary email in replace of the visit. Undoubtedly, my mother had a hand in this. That's one thing about my mom, she's not willing to let her "baby" have his dreams crushed without doing something about it. Normally, I hint around about her minding her own business, but I was actually glad she stuck her nose where it didn't belong this time.
The email was basically just one saying how sorry everyone was that I would not be able to visit after all. And how they were sorry that my mother wouldn't be contributing to any of their projects.
I shrugged off most of that, not really believing that anybody was sorry. I mean, I'm sure they may have felt bad, but I was almost positive this was one of those things that receptionists send out to ease the blow of the situation.
As I continued to read, I found one particularly interesting part of the email. I can't really remember too much of the actual conversation, but I was offered a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with one of the producers of "Blue's Clues" - Angela Santomero via email.
The conversation was pretty slow, as there was a long waiting period between email responses. The time total we spent talking roughly added up to about a month (at least, that's what I figure), whereas the actual time span was probably over a year due to the waiting periods and gray areas of conversation.
As I became further involved in the conversation, I asked a question that a lot of people would wonder about their favorite shows, especially their favorite nostalgic show. What was your inspiration?
There was another stretch of waiting. Each day was almost agonizingly long as my mind was bombarded with possibilities. Could Blue have been based on a personal pet pal? Why was Steve chosen even though he was just a skateboarding rebel before being hired? Those were just a few of the thoughts running through my mind.
One morning, as I braced myself for another disappointment, I checked my email again. My eyes lit up and I, pardon my language, freaked the fuck out for a solid five minutes when I noticed I actually had an email from the producers. I opened it with the grin of a goon on my face, resembling a creature from the Black Lagoon.
Here is what I discovered when I opened the letter. There was a little reluctance at the beginning of the email, but that was probably just from jitters of not wanting to divulge too much information. Trust me, when you're in a business like this, you learn that telling too much is a big no-no.
However, after getting the okay from higher authorities, they were cleared to tell me the inspiration for the original run of "Blue's Clues". You know, the "Blue's Clues" that predated Joe, "Blue's Room", and many other not-so-smashing new features.
I can't post the exact contents of the email as they are classified just between myself and the producers. I can, however, leak the story in my own words... at least, I have been to my friends. I mean, come on! I got as close to a nostalgic dream as possible! I can't just bite my tongue about that!
So, here's the story written in my own words. Brace yourself! You are about to enter what is a very touching story about a one of the most well-known children's shows of all time (if you don't count the seemingly never-ending "Sesame Street").
During the planning stages of "Blue's Clues", which was originally to be titled "Blue's Prints", the producers were determined to create a show that was new and exciting. Something that would really pull children in and get them involved with the characters. They did this by researching about child development and the viewing habits of young children, a test that had also been performed over the then 30-year span of "Sesame Street". They took these habits and completely flipped it on its head, which led to a seemingly overnight phenomena.
As they began getting ready, discussing characters, working out details, reworking things that didn't sit well, and roping in cast and crew, the team of producers had one very special child in mind as inspiration for the character of Steve. Yes, yes, I know. A child was the inspiration for an adult character? To simply answer your question – yes.
While each character was impacted in some way by the habits of children and even the habits of parents, Steve was based on a child imparticular. They didn't just base the character upon the traits of a child, but an actual child.
You see, as they were doing their research, they would sit a group of children around a television. They had a variety of children view previews of what was then "Blue's Prints" to get a rough estimate of what every type of children would respond to, no matter what their learning abilities were. Some of the children were physically handicapped, others mentally so. Some of the children were just your ordinary children that went to preschool. Others were sick with a wide range of illness. You get the picture.
One of the children in the group had been sick with Rhabdomyosarcoma – a tumor that appears in the cells of muscles and can be found in any part of the body – since he was an infant. He stood out to the team as he seemed to be one of the more responsive children to the video, despite his illness. He also seemed to have an advanced rate of intelligence; not a genius or something you read about in sci-fi comics, but he was definitely ahead of the rest of the group.
The team liked to test the show with many other groups, but the boy always stood out in their minds. One day, as the shows production began to slow (they were still lost on the proper name, hadn't developed their host's signature striped shirt, hadn't given the host a definite name, and didn't really do much with the lively inanimate objects we all know from the 90s), they received a letter from the boy.
Again, I can't say the exact words of the letter. Not only because it's "confidential", but because I was only provided with the gist of the letter myself.
Basically, the boy had scribbled out a short letter in crayon. It had many misspelled words, but they said they were able to figure out what he meant – mostly because the boy's mother had attached a version of the letter in her writing without her son knowing. It said something along the lines of:
'Thank you for letting me visit. The show was good. I liked it very much. I wish I could come and play with you again.'
In the mother's version of the letter, she had requested that the team come and visit her son, whose illness had landed him in a children's hospital shortly after he had wrote his version of the letter. The team read the letter with heavy hearts and decided to pay the boy a visit. Of course, most of the team stayed behind to continue working on the show, unable to get the time off from production to visit in person.
However, Angela managed to let Traci and Todd (the other two head producers) keep charge of the studio while she readied herself for the visit. She had kept in contact with the boy's mother via phone calls, having received the woman's number at the end of her letter that requested the visit.
About a night or so before Angela was to make the visit, she got an urgent phone call from the woman, saying that the boy had been placed into a medical-induced coma when his illness began to spread and cause organ failure. However, despite the panic, the woman refused to cancel the visit, knowing that it may have been her son's dying wish to "see" the team once again.
So, Angela decided to continue on her way to the hospital in the days ahead. When she arrived there, the patient she was looking for was said to still be in the coma. He had a few bad spells, but was stable enough to have a very brief visit.
The boy's mother and Angela talked for a short time before entering the boy's room. Angela has said that the visit was so long ago, but she still remembered one thing about the boy... well, the boy's hospital bag, rather. It was striped with two shades of green – one light, one dark. When she asked where he had gotten such a unique bag from, his mother said that it was a gift from a relative who enjoyed sewing. Her son had picked out the colors. He went through a phase where he wanted everything to be green or have stripes. His mother even made a joke about how it was the only time she could ever get him to eat his greens.
Angela made a mental note of this as an idea hatched into her mind. She has said that it was one of those times that everybody dreams of when searching for inspiration. As she looked closer, she noticed a toy aardvark sitting next to the comatose boy (obviously hand-sewn with dark patches of green fabric). Curious, she asked about it.
The toy's name was Steve. The mother said something about how the name stemmed from a book he used to read to her son at bedtime. The Steve character in the book had always been her son's favorite, so it was expected that his favorite toy would gain the same name.
After spending some time talking to (or at, rather) the boy, Angela and the boy's mother exited the room. Since she was getting ready to leave, the mother decided to take the time to thank Angela for the visit and apologize for any inconvenience it had caused. It's said that her son never really made any friends as his illness always had him in the hospital, and he never really got to know other children at the hospital due to intensive treatments and exams. Angela told me that if the woman knew at the time how much her son impacted the show, she probably would have been thrilled and felt no need to apologize.
The email had stopped there, since these producers are busy people with lots of projects weighing on their heads. However, I was promised another email as soon as the hustle and bustle had drawn closed. After another long wait of about three or four months, another email popped into my inbox. I was in so much anticipation that I even dropped working on a school project to read it (still managed to get an 85 on that project, though. Not too shabby, if you ask me).
While the beginning of the email left me feeling sad, as it informed me that the young boy had passed away soon after "Blue's Clues" premiered in September of 1996, I still felt a sense of happiness from it. After having explanations, I couldn't help it. I was happy to see that, despite his tragic passing, the boy's soul still lingers on in history, being portrayed in one of the greatest kids' shows out there.
Now, even all these years later, when I watch "Blue's Clues", I smile when Steve comes on the screen. Not only because of the nostalgia, but because of the innocence behind it. Because of the warmth it brings to me, knowing that a child's wish was granted and knowing the comfort something as simple as a children's show can bring to a family that had a tragic experience.
I'm not really sure about anything else or any other shows. My mom's moved on to working on her own projects and hasn't really dabbled too much into children's shows. Obviously, I no longer keep contact with the producers and crew of "Blue's Clues" since the time I was promised had run out. Plus, they're busy people... So am I nowadays, what with having grown up and all.
In conclusion, it was a great experience and an amazing honor to be able to come that close to knowing the background of just one of the many shows I loved as a kid.
I ended up following in my mother's footsteps, aspiring to write for television. I'm actually wanting to work in children's television specifically. So, who knows? Maybe I'll end up getting the inside scoop on some other great shows. And, I promise, if I do, I'll keep in touch... if I'm allowed, that is. This business is more hush-hush than you think. I just hope a chatterbox like myself can keep my mouth shut.
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