It’s been a long time since Blues Clues first made its way onto screens, but some shows are destined to live forever through the viewers they captivated.
Blues Clues is absolutely among these immortal shows, and a lot of the credit for its persisting popularity goes to Steve Burns, the chipper, curious man who served as host and teacher across four of the show’s six seasons.
Steve is a staple of thousands of childhoods, and — despite the fact that we’re all well into adulthood by this point — the kids who grew up watching him still fondly remember Blue’s bright-eyed companion fondly. He was always cheerful, inquisitive, and kind, and his escapades with the playful and elusive Blue served as a vital educational resource for so many families in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Directly following his departure from Blues Clues, Burns made the decision to shave his head, after suffering from gradual hair loss for several years. He never went back, and has been sporting the bald look for a good two decades now, something viewers were reminded of via a happy birthday post shared to X by Pop Crave. The post celebrates the host’s 51st birthday and includes an image from the star’s Instagram that would be at home on a true crime cover.
Sorry Steve, I still adore you for your work on children’s television, but why do you look like you just committed a crime and are dosing up on disassociation before the cops get there? The image looks like an author photo from the serial killer next door, and it’s jarring when that face used to sing to me about opening letters and hunting down clues.
Thankfully, a perusal of Steve’s Instagram reveals the image is a one-off. Why Pop Crave — and Steve himself — chose to highlight the somewhat eerie picture is a mystery, but our man Steve is as sweet and charming as ever in other images shared on his social media.
The treasured kid television staple retired from Blues Clues in 2002, and pursued other artistic aims that include music — he put out three albums in total — and various other acting projects, all of which kept him in the same strange space of fame he’d always occupied: Massively popular among a niche, sometimes youthful, audience, and completely unknown by everyone else.
His current look toes the line between Steve’s early years as a children’s entertainer and his later years as…. well, a regular adult. He’s just a dude these days — one in his 50s, no less — so the cheeky bald look is really working for him.
Steve makes frequent references to his time on Blues Clues in his posts on social media, posing with the stars who filled his role as host, and celebrating the reboots that continue to bring Blues Clues to youngsters two decades after he left the show.
Steve takes his role as a childhood icon seriously, despite how many years have passed since he donned his green and white striped shirt. His fans, full-grown adults now, continue to lean on Steve for support, flooding his social medias with regrets over growing up and sharing hardships with a stranger who feels like a friend.
The 51-year-old takes it all in stride, and offers his continued support to those kids — now big kids — that were so affected by his role. Hair or no, he’s still the heartwarming, kind, and caring soul that carried us across six years of Blues Clues, and the world is a far brighter place with him in it. Thanks for being you, Steve.
