Original “Blue’s Clues” host Steve Burns had followers feeling nostalgic when he delivered a graduation speech at SUNY Delhi in New York on May 18.
Videos of Burns, 50, talking to the group of recent faculty graduates have surfaced on TikTok.
One clip, shared by @umbrella.memes2, exhibits the previous Nickelodeon star reminiscing about “Blue’s Clues,” which adopted Burns’ upbeat character Steve who “hung out with an animated puzzle-solving puppy who was blue and also named Blue.”
“I had meaningful conversations with my condiments, I sang songs with a bar of soap, and when the mail showed up, dude, I freaked out. I went crazy, I sang songs and jumped into the air,” Burns recalled as the brand new grads chuckled.
The present, which debuted in September 1996 on Nickelodeon, was all about Burns’ character in search of clues to mysteries that “were painfully obvious to everyone” but him.
“And that’s where you came in, my friend,” Burns mentioned to the group. “In each and every episode, I would need your help and so I would stand in front of the camera and look into the lens as if I was looking right at you, my ride or die, and I would ask, ‘Will you help me?’”
Burns, who hosted “Blue’s Clues” until the early 2000s, said he’s regularly approached by former viewers who tell him how much the show meant to them as kids.
He also told the crowd that he has long had a “concern” about a motivational phrase he would say to his preschool viewers, who he called a “very literal group of people.”
“Very often, someone will repeat to me a phrase that I said all the time on every episode,” mentioned Burns. “And that’s, ‘If you use your mind and take a step at a time, you can do anything that you wanna do.’”
Burns then shared contents of a “favorite” fan letter from a younger viewer named Brian who wrote, “Dear Steve, I love your show. I want to be a pizza.”
Burns then joked, “As the years passed, I’ve often thought of Brian, worried that he’s lived his life according to my advice in pursuit of the dream of actually becoming a piece of pizza. And I wonder if Brian is out there somewhere deeply disappointed, covered in marinara sauce. And I hope that he’s not.”
Burns instructed the brand new graduates that he all the time meant for the upbeat catchphrase to be “an empowering reminder of the power of hard work” and an “empowering reminder of the significance of getting a dream,” which are messages he wanted to remind them of as adults.
Burns’ inspiring speech touched fans’ heartstrings.
“We do not deserve Steve Burns,” one wrote in the comments.
“This is the way you do a graduation speech. Inspiring folks going ahead and inspiring them in such a pure spirit,” noted another.
The former Nickelodeon star‘s look at SUNY Delhi’s commencement ceremony comes almost two months after he spoke to TODAY.com concerning the legacy of “Blue’s Clues.”
Burns said he struggled with “extreme scientific despair” that was undiagnosed when he originally hosted the show and initially felt “enormously miscast” and “enormously unqualified” to appear on kids television.
He looks back now and understands what “an outrageous reward” the show has been to both him and viewers. “I couldn’t have requested for something cooler,” he said.
Though he’s kept busy working as a writer and director on other projects, Burns has made time to appear as a guest on the reboot “Blue’s Clues & You!,” and in addition often checks in with fans on TikTok.
“I really like doing that. I really like being Steve greater than I ever have,” Burns shared. “But what I actually love is this thought of simply merely persevering with the genuine dialog that we began one million years in the past.”