Introducing New Host, Minimizing Kids’ Blues

Goodbye, Steve. Hello, Joe.

“Blue’s Clues,” the “think-along” educational show for preschoolers and the pride of Nickelodeon’s “Nick Jr.” lineup, is about to get a new host. To prepare young viewers, who might understandably feel some concern if original host Steven Burns were simply to disappear, the network is tenderly cushioning the big change in three transitional episodes that air at 7 tonight as a 90-minute “Meet Joe” special.

Make no mistake: It’s a big change. With its premiere in 1996, “Blue’s Clues” won the hearts of critics and viewers alike, thanks to the vision of its creators--designer Traci Paige Johnson (who gave the show its innovative, 3-D cutout-art look), head writer Angela C. Santomoro and then-executive producer Todd Kessler--a vision that included the casting of a young actor named Steven Burns as host.

Burns’ remarkable sincerity in talking to viewers one on one, “listening” to them and comfortably providing those all-important “thinking time” silences, has been key to “Blue’s” success.

The challenge is greater than you might think. The host must work extensively with blue screen, not props, puppets or other actors. When I interviewed Burns in 1998, he said that “it looks like I’m at the bottom of a swimming pool, talking to individual microns of air.”

So it’s not surprising that after six years, despite his status as a preschool entertainment icon, Burns has decided to move on. Taking his place is Donovan Patton, a novice to TV but an experienced stage actor and puppeteer. He’s younger and a head taller than Burns, and wears a variation of the green, striped “Steve” shirt.

In tonight’s carefully crafted episodes, Steve invites viewers to share his eager anticipation of a visit from his brother Joe. When Joe arrives, viewers are asked to help teach him the “Blue’s Clues” ropes.

Throughout, Steve helps viewers get comfortable with Joe by drawing him in to the center of the action, until by the third episode, Joe is getting solo screen time while Steve prepares to go away to college, packing his suitcase and “skiddooing” into a cartoony college catalog to show viewers what he’ll be studying there. The goodbyes aren’t rushed, and he assures everyone that he’ll keep in touch.

Patton needs to cut back on those open-mouthed, wide-eyed expressions of wonder, but he’s close to getting Burns’ quiet rhythms down, and his lively, puppyish curiosity is appealing.

Finally, in a touching passing of the torch, Steve packs away the “handy dandy notebook” that he used to record the dog Blue’s paw-print clues, and Blue presents Joe with his own notebook--and gives Steve a phone for calling home.

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The “Meet Joe” episodes of “Blue’s Clues” can be seen at 7 tonight on Nickelodeon. They repeat on Nickelodeon at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and on CBS at 7 a.m. Saturday.