Steve From ‘Blue’s Clues’ Says That He Would Have Made More Money As A Waiter
For all the touching impact that Steve Burns had on the many children who grew up on Blue’s Clues, Nickelodeon apparently felt that the show’s star didn’t deserve to live in a house as nice as the one that they gave to his dog.
Despite leaving Blue's Clues at the end of its fourth season in 2002, Burns is still one of the most recognizable stars in the history of Nickelodeon, a network that isn't exactly known for taking great care of its talent. In fact, Burns’ performance as the caretaker of an unusually investigative puppy was so popular and beloved that the actor and musician from a small town in Pennsylvania quickly became overwhelmed by the pressure of being America’s favorite kids’ TV host, causing Burns to leave Blue’s Clues for the sake of his hairline and his struggling mental health.
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As Blue's Clues continued sans Steve, the show’s young fans struggled to reconcile with Burns’ departure, and the rampant, unfounded and borderline conspiratorial speculation about Burns’ exit emphasized the fact that America couldn’t understand why such a big star would leave his most recognizable role at the height of his popularity. But as Burns revealed on a recent episode of Rainn Wilson’s podcast Soul Boom, the mystery of his retirement would have made more sense if America had discovered the clue that was his paycheck:
During the podcast episode, Burns said that his ascension to the tip-top of the kids’ TV business happened “entirely by accident,” as his original plan for moving to New York City following graduation from a small Pennsylvania theatre school was to become “an unknown actor who did Off-Broadway stuff, or to be Al Pacino. One or the other.”
Like many New York transplants, Burns made the mistake of thinking that Times Square was anything less than the epicenter of suffering, and he found an apartment just a few blocks from the Midtown Manhattan tourist attraction. “I lived in a hallway. I built like a little shelf in a hallway between two tiny bedrooms across the street from a parking lot above the Army-Navy on 42nd Street,” he explained.
Then, “one day, I had an audition for what I thought was to be the voice of a cartoon on a children’s television show,” Burns said of the job opportunity that changed his life, though he clarified of the Blue's Clues role he was about to win, "If I had known that it was to be the guy on the show, on camera, I wouldn’t have gone. Not only because I was a pretentious young man at the time, that was part of it, but also because children’s television had never occurred to me.”
Somehow, Burns nailed the audition, and, nearly overnight, he became one of the biggest and most unintentional stars in kids’ entertainment — but it wasn’t all striped shirts and cushy chairs for the real-life Steve. “Every waiter I ever knew made more money than I did for the first many seasons of that show,” Burns said of his compensation on Blue's Clues.
“But I was really fortunate, because Blue's Clues was my side hustle forever,” Burns said of his career. “My real gig was, I was a voiceover guy. I fell into that early.”
So, in a way, Burns got his wish from before he walked into that fateful Nickelodeon audition room — he didn’t make his livelihood by being the face of children’s entertainment, and pure voice work ended up supporting his acting career. And, clearly, Burns isn’t resentful of Nickelodeon for nickel-and-diming him back in the 1990s, as he’s reprised the role of Steve in numerous specials and cameos throughout the last few years.
Presumably, Nickelodeon paid Burns a little bit better to return to his biggest role than they did when he was scraping by in a Times Square hallway, and the Blue's Clues great is happy to let sleeping dogs lie.
